Bali Part 1

Hi everyone! I’m back from Bali, and in class again. Since I spent a week in Bali and have a lot to share, I’m splitting up my trip into two posts. This post will be about my time in Ubud, with my second post being about my stay in Amed. With Chinese New Year occurring two days before the first weekend of break, I got an even longer break since CNY is a public holiday in Singapore. This worked out perfectly for Mckenna too, because she was able to get time off work so we could travel together. Mckenna also has a blog about her travels, and you should definitely check it out (mckennabird.wordpress.com)!

We flew from Singapore with a connecting flight in Jakarta, to Bali. We had a 2.5 hour layover in Jakarta which sounds like a long time, but we needed every minute of it. Getting off the flight from Singapore, we had to get a travel visa which was $35, then we went to ask where to go for our next flight. We asked the airport information desk, and we were directed to the wrong terminal. The airport is set up pretty poorly, mainly because you have to take a bus in between terminals, and no one really has any idea what’s going on. After getting to our terminal to depart for Bali, we stopped to eat, then went to board. When we went to board, the gate that we were at had a different destination than Bali on the sign above the service desk. (This sounds like the plot to Home Alone 2) It turned out to be the right plane however, so we were on our way to Bali!

Flying into Bali.

After getting into Bali at 5, we arrived in our hotel in Ubud at 6:30. Ubud is about 20 miles north of the airport, and this is one of the popular places that people go to get away from the crowds in southern Bali.

First night at the hotel.

View from the hotel.

The hotel that we stayed at was right next to a rice field, so it was a pretty quiet place to stay, just outside of downtown Ubud. Our first day in Bali, we decided to explore around Ubud, so we visited a rice terrace and a coffee plantation to the north of Ubud. We visited the coffee plantation first. At the coffee plantation, we were able to see various plants that are grown in Bali, and we got to see the coffee making process. Bali is known for it’s Kopi Luwak (click here if you don’t know what it is…), so we got to see the process of that too.

Feeding a civet an arabica bean.

Beans after the civet poops them out…

After the coffee is roasted it’s ground using this wood stick.

Final product.

After seeing this process, we were given a sample tray of the teas and coffees that the plantation makes, and we purchased a cup of Kopi Luwak for $5.

The various teas and coffees we sampled.

Kopi Luwak.

The Kopi Luwak was actually very good. When I drink coffee, I usually put a ton of cream, sugar, milk, all the above) in it to make it taste better, and take away from the acidity of it. The coffee was full of flavor, but the acidity of it had vanished. It makes a great cup of coffee, and should be tried if you ever have the opportunity to do so.

After the coffee plantation, we went to a rice field just a couple minutes away. The field was breathtaking, and the pictures below just don’t do it justice.

The bridge that we crossed to walk around the terraces.

(Mckenna’s picture not mine)

View of the town where the fields were located.

The weather was getting poor, so this is where we turned back. But it never ended.

After visiting the terraces and the coffee plantation, we visited downtown Ubud for a bit, but went back to the hotel fairly early since we had to be up at 1:30am for a sunrise hike!

We were picked up at 2am to make our way to the base of Mt. Batur. Mt. Batur is an active volcano in Bali, it is 5,633 feet above sea level, which is pretty impressive since we weren’t far from the coast. We stopped to have breakfast which was sticky black rice porridge with coconut milk and carrot cake. (Perfect meal for a hike)

Breakfast.

I don’t have any pictures on the way up since it was still dark when we reached the summit, but I took plenty at the top and on the way down.

View from the summit.

Coffee at the top!

We also got breakfast at the top, which consisted of hard boiled eggs cooked by the volcanic steam, and toast.

Lava fields from the eruption of 1968.

The way down was much easier than the way up.

A temple at the base of the mountain.

We made it to the top at around 5:30, and got down around 8:30. We also made it back in time to get breakfast at our hotel, so it was quite a long morning for us. After a nap, we visited the city, and then called it a day. The next day we were leaving for our next destination at 1pm, so we got up early and visited the Ubud Monkey Forest. We got to the forest just after it had opened, which was a great time because there were quite a bit of tourists in the forest by the time we left.

The one and only time my iPhone camera has failed me. But it was such a cute baby monkey I had to post it.

The monkeys will take just about anything from you. (Another one of Mckenna’s photos)

The local dentist.

Mckenna and I brought two bananas into the park to give to the monkeys, which did not turn out well as I had envisioned. I had one in my pocket, and had two monkeys on me digging in each pocket, with one reaching for my phone. They will take anything that they can get from you, but it was fun to walk around all the monkeys. The sanctuary has about 600 monkeys, and none of them are caged, which I also was a fan of.

That’s all I have for this post! I’ll hopefully post my second half of the trip soon, but I have a pretty busy couple of weeks ahead of me with midterms, papers, and Mckenna leaving. But I will try to post the other half in a week or so, so bear with me! Thanks for reading!