We took accommodation a little further out of town so that we could make short trips by scooter over the following 3 days.
Ubud, located a little higher up in the centre of the island, was a nice change from our beach stays so far. The beauty of nature really is boundless, and we're so happy and grateful to be able to explore all these beautiful places. Here you're surrounded by rice terraces and green jungle. Ubud is known for its arts and crafts, its temples and its yoga retreats. Accordingly, you'll find a daily scooter and car jam on the main street in the centre, complete with tourists and locals.
On the very first day we visited the Ubud market in the town centre, the arts and crafts market and a temple. All three are nice walks. All our other spontaneous trips took us much further out, partly to escape the flow of tourists. We visited two beautiful, easily accessible waterfalls. Chris knows how much I love waterfalls and usually looks up the best spots for us in advance. The waterfalls we visited (Kanto Lampo and Tibumana) were very impressive, the water pleasantly refreshing, and since we went very early, we met very few people there. So we could take our photos in peace.
It was also here in Ubud that the most dangerous moment of our trip so far happened: as we strolled along the idyllic Campuhan Ridge Walk, a huge coconut crashed to the ground 2 metres next to us. As soon as we heard the rustling an estimated 8–10 metres above us, we instinctively held our arms over our heads to protect them. With a lot of luck, we weren't hit. Since that day we check much more carefully whether there are potentially dangerous coconut palms along the paths.
Here in Ubud, too, the locals greeted us warmly, the schoolchildren waved to us and everyone always seemed very helpful. Once we ran out of petrol at night and asked a group of men, who were still sitting outside a closed bar at that hour, where the nearest petrol station was. Helpful as people here are, one of them took Chris on the back of his scooter to the nearest place to buy fuel – one of the plastic bottles of petrol to go that are typical here. In the meantime I waited with the other men at the closed bar and made small talk. As it turned out during the conversation, the closed bar was actually a secret, illegal brothel. In Latin America I wouldn't have felt as comfortable alone at night in a situation like that as I did here on Bali.
Potential dangers here are more likely to be venomous snakes and coconut palms.
Once, on the way to one of the waterfalls, a yellow-banded snake shot out of a bush next to me to cross the path a few metres ahead of us. It then stayed lying there, so we could watch it in peace – until a helpful local, who thought we were afraid of it, unfortunately chased it away. We've never had as much snake luck on our travels as here.
Another sightseeing must are the venues famous from social media, which lure you with stunning views over rice terraces and offer infinity pools in the middle of the jungle. The Cretya complex in the north was impressive, and it was fun to watch Instagram celebrities of every gender showing off their poses and outfits. As was to be expected, Chris crashed the pool party – illegally – with a backflip from one infinity pool into the pool below. So we had our video in the bag too. The complex offers a fusion of commercial and traditional Balinese culture in the form of a trail through rice terraces and countless photo spots tailored to social-media tourists. You can try a giant swing over the rice terraces (the matching ultra-long dress is included in the booking), ride a tandem bicycle along a wire rope (also floating above the rice terraces), or simply wander through the show terraces and admire Balinese sculptures.
Finally, we visited the Sangeh Monkey Forest. Like most things here, everything is geared towards giving tourists the best photo opportunities – which in this case wasn't great for us. The monkeys are tame and sacred at the same time, and therefore also a bit of a nuisance. They know nothing will happen to them if they get too close to people. We love wild animals, but we don't necessarily want them sitting on us. Personally, I have the greatest respect for primates. To my misfortune, the monkeys here apparently always pick on the ladies to jump on, because they've learned that it's usually the males of Homo sapiens who want to take photos of their females with a monkey on their shoulder. For that, they're rewarded by guides with fruit and nuts. Since we walked through the park without a guide, I had the greatest trouble getting the pesky macaques off me – especially as I couldn't and didn't want to offer them any food, so they reprimanded me with scratches and even a light bite on the shoulder. Even the guides' tip to bend down and hold your hands wide open to show the monkeys you have no food didn't help. They mostly left Chris alone. He couldn't help me in my situation either, as you can't and don't want to provoke the macaques. Besides, they were far outnumbering us. This gave Chris, to his great amusement, fantastic photo opportunities while I ran around with the monkeys in a Quasimodo posture with my arms wide open. Priceless – and better than the classic Instagram pictures with monkeys. Compared to this, our experiences on our tour of Borneo – watching orangutans, proboscis monkeys, squirrel monkeys and other monkey species from a distance and in the wild – were far more valuable.
The day before we moved on, we were lucky enough to attend a Balinese dance ceremony at the neighbouring hotel. We really liked the Balinese music group and their pieces, as well as the dancers.
After these 3 action-packed days we moved on to the hipster stronghold of Canggu in the south, simply to switch off and do nothing.
Waterfalls: Kanto Lampo / Tibumana