Arrival in Bali and on our way to Ubud
Everything went very slowly at Denpasar airport. An hour of immigration and then another 30 minutes before our suitcases fell on the belt. After that, changing money and picking up the wifi router went smoothly. Then we had to find our driver among the other 200 waiting at the exit. We succeeded ! We had to wait for quite some time since he had to pick up his van at the other side of the airport.
Finally we were on our way to the hotel. According to our driver it would be more or less an hour but in my opinion it would take at least an hour and a half or 2 hours (and I was right…). But no stress, the holiday has started and we planned to enjoy it to the fullest!
After a welcome drink at our hotel ‘Maya Ubud Resort & Spa’, we took a quick shower and at 9pm we had dinner in the hotel restaurant. Due to the long day we were too tired to go to town. The food was simple but delicious. We ate typical Indonesian food: mie goreng, nasi goreng and noodles with beef. To celebrate my birthday, we had ordered Indonesian style sangria with vodka and cinnamon, a weird combination but surprisingly tasty. We were very happy with the hotel, it was definitely a good choice, very spacious rooms that had everything we needed.
Then off to bed because all four of us were very tired from the long journey.
Discovery of Ubud, the art center
The next morning we started exploring Ubud, the art center of Bali. It was already quite warm in the sun. We first walked past some shops and the local market.
Then a little bit of culture when we visited the Ubud Royal Palace, Puri Saren Agung. The palace was built in the beginning of the 19th century and its architecture and gardens were really beautiful. There was just a shoot for a wedding when we visited, which was great to see.
Our last stop that morning was the monkey forest. It was absolutely true what we had read! It was necessary to be on the lookout for the monkeys because they would snatch sunglasses, jewels or even things out of backpacks in a minute. Luckily we didn’t experience it ourselves, but we witnessed other tourists losing some of their belongings to these cheeky animals. Besides the animals, the forest also contained temples and statues. All in all, it was a very nice visit and we were glad that it had been on our to-do list.
After lunch and some shopping, we returned to the hotel to enjoy a swim in the beautiful infinity pool. Ubud center was only a distance of 2 km from the hotel but with the shuttle it took about 20 minutes due to traffic. Walking back was a bit too dangerous because there was no space for pedestrians alongside the road. The water of the pool was ice cold, but after a while you did not feel it anymore.
In the evening we took a taxi to Ubud center to eat in a place that we had spotted on tripadvisor. However, the restaurant (warung) was already completely full which was not a surprise since there were only 4 tables. We started looking for something similar and luckily Koen was able to score a table. Home cooking was on the menu so we did not have a lot of choice: noodles or rice, curries with chicken, fish, tempeh or tofu. We were asked if we wanted a small or a large beer? Euhhh large … When the bottles were served, we first thought it were liters.
My family members always love to eat spicy (the spicier the better !), so I had to laugh when Koen and the kids tried the spicy vegetables, the waiter had to bring a glass of ice water to cool them down.
All in all a very satisfying full day in Bali… we were already looking forward to the next day when we had booked a cooking class.
