Bali: Day 1

After a comfortable nights sleep in Ubud, we were greeted with breakfast on the terrace! The breakfast consisted of toast, pineapple jam, fruit, fresh fruit juice, and tea / coffee.

Laundry was first on the agenda, we went on a search for a local laundrette that could assist in the refresh.

After handing in our laundry we headed onward and upwards to a former Botanical gardens, around 2km north of Ubud. We read that although the gardens were now closed, the walk to the gardens was worthwhile; an opportunity to get out of the hustle and bustle of Ubud.

On arrival at the former botanical gardens we noted the two large dinosaur statues that remained after the gardens became extinct. The site was rundown and overgrown, but I am fond of the derelict. Rumour has it that the lady that looked after the gardens has started a new plant based venture down to road, so not all is lost.

After a quick peer through the cast iron gates, we decided to march further up the hill to meet a road that would allow us to turn the straight walk into a loop.

We didn’t know what the #notforsale sign represented when we passed it. Unsure whether it was the name of a collective of artists, or a political statement. As it turns out, it is a mixture of both. Bali has been and continues to be a tourist magnet. Some locals embrace the sale of their land to foreign investors, but others believe it will begin to undermine traditions and cultural values. A small group of artist have banded together to fight the surge of land purchase bookmarked to facilitate the holidaymaker / generate profit. It would be a shame to lose all of this glorious landscape, apparently around 70% of the rice fields in this area have already been sold for future construction projects.

Having walked for a couple hours at this point, we decided to grab a light lunch… so we thought. We stopped in at a cafe on the route, and were politely asked by a man at the door ‘where we were going?’. We replied, ‘to the cafe?’. This seemed to be an acceptable response. We both opted for the vegetable hot pot, not realising that there was a degree of audience participation that accompanied this dish.

Not on the menu, but worth mentioning, was this massive snail – pictured below.

On arriving back at the hotel it was threatening to rain, so we did as anyone would and jumped straight into the pool. Very cooling after spending a few hours out in the warm!

As the evening drew near, we put on our restaurant research caps, and settle on a place a few kilometres from the hotel. Kafe was its name, quite a hip looking place with nice juices and a good selection of food.

With tofu and tempeh featuring quite heavily in dishes here, we sampled the soya bean side. Although nice on their own, they do work very well in curries as they soak up the flavour like a soya sponge.

See you all tomorrow!

James