Day 9: In Ubud

We began our first day in Ubud with a walk through the sacred Monkey Forest. The forest and the temple inside of it house a few hundred macaques. Unlike the monkeys at the Uluwatu Temple, these ones are more well-behaved and only want your food, not any of your other belongings. For a few dollars you can buy a bunch of bananas, and the monkeys will scamper all the way up your body to your arm to grab the snack. Here, one of the men who work there feed the macaques corn on the cob.


Me and some monkeys.






We visited the Lotus Temple in central Ubud after playing with the monkeys. Lovely water gardens to each side of the pathway.


Ubud Palace was next, and we saw these girls practicing a traditional Balinese dance, called Legong.


Group of Chinese tourists- most tourists I saw/heard in Bali were Chinese, Australian, French or German.


Another Balinese specialty: pork ribs.

Day 8: Toward Ubud

Today we moved out of Melia Bali and Nusa Dua to get a change of scenery in Ubud, a small town further inland. Agus was with us again in his van, and we turned the drive into a bit of a sightseeing tour. One of our stops was Mas, a village with a specialty in wood carving. It seemed like almost every shop sold wood carvings, including masks, sculptures, and furnishings. We stopped in this shop that had a shelf full of Barong carvings- Barong is a Balinese mythological creature who brings good fortune and health.


The front of the store was a little workshop, with boys and girls helping to polish and sand the carvings.


For lunch, we tried crispy duck for the first time. Agus told us that it's an Ubud specialty, and that we must try it. I enjoyed it, but I think my family is more used to the bigger, juicier ducks that we usually eat Chinese-style.


After, we stopped at a coffee plantation to try some famous luwak coffee. It's the most expensive coffee in the world, because it's made from beans that have first been digested by civets (like this guy above).


The beans have to be roasted by hand for a full hour before they turn the rich coffee-brown that we're familiar with.


We got to sample many of the plantations different drinks that they produce, from traditional Balinese coffee to flavoured coffees like coconut, vanilla and ginseng to different teas like lemongrass, ginger, rosella and red rice. Not pictured is the small cup of luwak coffee that purchased, which I honestly found to be a little too sour for my tastes. I'm no coffee connoisseur though, so I have no idea what really good coffee is supposed to taste like.


We went to the Tirtha Empul Temple after polishing off our coffee. There are temples everywhere in Bali- every household has a small one (or a big one, depending on how wealthy the family is), and there are many village temples and larger public temples all over the place. This one in particular is famous for its pool of holy water where Hindu worshipers go to bathe and pray. Like many other attractions in Bali, it was overrun by tourists when we got there.







Our last stop was a glance at some of Bali's beautiful rice terraces. Unfortunately by the time we got there, the sun was well on its way to setting and it was looking quite overcast. Hopefully I can get some better photos in a few days when it's sunnier outside.

Day 7: Relaxing

We spent all day lying out on the beach (needed to recover from yesterday's monkey attack after all,) so here's another short post.


A woman selling sarongs. Others were selling jewellery, watches, sunglasses, and other overpriced items to tourists.


The tide started going out at around noon, and these poor guys were raking up the seaweed that was left behind. By late afternoon, the water had receded so far that the buoys that originally marked where it was safe to swim were practically lying on the sand.


We've been trying to eat a lot of Indonesian food, avoiding places that only serve Western or non-Indonesian Asian food. Most restaurants that we've seen served a variety of cuisines anyway, so we've been ordering mainly the Indonesian items off the menus. This is the nasi campur ('mixed rice') that I had, which was white rice with a bunch of different yummy curries and side dishes.


Our hotel, Melia Bali, late into the evening. They light up the paths with candles every night.

Day 6: Seminyak, Uluwatu & Jimbaran

Today we had a guide, Agus, to take us around Bali. Our first stop was Seminyak, a touristy shopping and dining area. Tourism is Bali's biggest industry, so it's not surprising that most of the places we've visited so far have seemed 'touristy.' According to Agus, tourism is the reason why most Balinese people are very friendly.


Many Balinese get around on Honda motorbikes. Traffic is chaotic, and we found it very hard to cross the streets because crosswalks and traffic lights were rare. Even at crosswalks, drivers and cyclists didn't stop for pedestrians unless they were already in the middle of the street.


We saw many shops selling racks of petrol for motorbikes on the sidewalks. Agus told us that a litre of this petrol comes to 4500 Indonesian rupiah, or 50 cents Canadian.


A man glazing a cabinet in front of one of the many furniture stores in the area.


On the sidewalk in front of almost every store were these little offering trays, called canang sari. Balinese Hindus make one of these delicate baskets every day. It was definitely an effort to avoid trampling on them as we walked down the streets.


One of the stores only sold items woven out of a type of tall grass. I bought one of these over-the-body purses after the storekeeper demonstrated how strong the grass was by trying to rip the lid off of one of them and failing to.


After finishing browsing through Seminyak, we drove to the Uluwatu Temple for sunset. It's a Hindu temple with a stunning view over a cliff on the Indian Ocean. You can see it on the right in this photo.


Agus warned us in advance of the 'naughty monkeys' who hang around the temple and like to steal tourists' bags, cameras and sunglasses. My purse and camera were securely attached to my body, and my glasses were on my face, so I didn't think too much of it. Little did I know. I stooped down a bit to take a photo of this little guy and right after I snapped this photo, he (or she) turned to look at me, so I started to back away. As soon as I lowered my camera, he jumped straight at me and snatched my glasses right off of my face. It was a very skillful snatch too, he didn't touch my face at all and it happened so fast that I couldn't even register what had happened. I was so disoriented that I was just standing there half blind and laughing helplessly while the monkey ran off into the forest and my mother flapped around yelling for help. A local ended up chasing the monkey to get my glasses back in exchange for a tip- I think his sole job is to sit around all day waiting for monkeys to harass tourists.


Much less troublesome baby monkey.


View facing away from the temple.


We drove to the nearby fishing village Jimbaran for dinner after the sun had set. All of the restaurants on Jimbaran Beach are seafood restaurants located side by side in a strip, and they all have essentially identical menus with similar prices, all with similar views from similar locations. The restaurant we went to was literally on the beach- all of the tables were in the sand. The ocean was only a few metres away from where we were sitting, and we could hear the waves at the same time as traditional Balinese music.


All of the seafood we ordered was grilled, and our platter came with red snapper, lobster, crab, prawns, squid, and clams.


Traditional Balinese dancers took the stage for a live performance during our dinner.

Day 5: Arrival again

After what seemed like no time at all, we packed everything up again and left Hong Kong bright and early for Bali, Indonesia. We arrived mid-afternoon, just in time for some stunning sunlight and fantastic weather. Our hotel is in Nusa Dua, a pretty touristy area known for its resorts and beaches. Seeing as we arrived late, we only had time to explore the grounds and a little of the surrounding area on foot.





While Indonesia is predominantly Muslim, more than 90% of Balinese are Hindus. All around the hotel grounds and all around Bali are Hindu figures draped with checkered cloth, representing good versus evil.


The sun setting over the entrance to our hotel at around 6:30pm. Bali is both close to the equator and in the Southern Hemisphere (making it technically winter now despite the warm weather) so the days are relatively short.

Day 4: Wan Chai/Causeway Bay

For today's outing, we took a double decker tram to Wan Chai/Causeway Bay. Obviously, we sat on the second floor.


The trip came out to $2.30 HKD, which is equivalent to about 30 cents Canadian. Public transit is much more affordable than the $3 it would have cost me in Toronto.


Our destination was Butao Ramen, a hole-in-the-wall Japanese restaurant. Few seats and long lines necessitate ordering before even entering. There were only about 12 seats, and we had to share a table with strangers. Here, our server reviews our orders outside.


Seeing as my Chinese reading ability is nonexistent, I blindly ordered this heaping bowl of 'black' ramen. I was later told that the strange black lump in the middle was some kind of pork and sesame...thing. Zero for presentation, especially after said lump crumbled into bits that reminded me a bit of tar, but ten for taste, as this was easily the best bowl of ramen I've ever had.


Everything in Hong Kong is very cramped, narrow and busy.


More escalator madness, this time in Times Square.


Waiting for a taxi back from Admiralty.