Once you were there you could immediately see what it was all about. The streets are invaded by women and the two main streets are built around tourism, spiritual stuff and art in many forms. Many shops sell expensive brands, which was annoying. You can't escape cashing in even in a place like this. The spiritual side is well represented too. There are spas, yoga, massage, cooking and handicraft classes and while trekking you learn about the local herbs and plants and their purpose.
We stayed three nights in Ubud, in a homestay that cost 12.- euros per night. We are travelling with a low budget, so this had to do. Like before on our travels we knew exactly what we get with such money, so we don't stress about terrible places anymore, but rather make up loads of jokes about their faults. Our place was on the main street, close to the Monkey Forest and a big food market. We had a bed, closet, fan, toilet and a shower in the room. The lock on our door was merely to ease our minds, anyone could've kicked the door right in with little effort.
Our bed had seen better days, it was only a question of days and weeks when it was gonna drop the sleeping beauties off of it. The sink was leaking, and we had a bucket under it so the floor didn't flood all the time. The bucket still filled during the night and we had to carefully adjust the scoop under the leak so that we weren't kept awake by the sound of the dripping water. This thing could've been fixed in five minutes, but nobody bothered. We were supposed to have warm water too, but no. Later we actually realized, that it isn't necessary. The hot Bali weathers wear you out fast, and after you get to the hotel from your daily activities all you really need is a cold shower to make you think straight again.
On Thursday we went to the Monkey Forest.
Before entering the grounds you are warned to hide your belongings, even your sunglasses, so we did. I still had a handbag, so I kept it close to me. Some people bought bananas for the monkeys, but I didn't want any wild monkeys jumping on me, so we entered without goods.
It didn't take long, when one monkey jumped on one of the tourists for the banana and one after someone's glasses. I thought I was quite safe, but soon one monkey ran towards me and jumped on my bag and started tearing it from me. I hissed at it and stomped my feet and I guess it got scared and annoyed a bit, because it showed its large teeth at me, but then decided it was best to back off. For a moment I thought it was gonna bite me. You should have your rabies etc shots before you come here. After this we didn't see any alarming behaviour anymore, only calm monkeys being fed. It was fun to watch the monkeys trying to open some tough seeds by rolling them between the concrete and their hands and other clever behaviour. While watching the monkeys under the trees you have to be careful, because the monkeys are everywhere, and one of them was nearly above us and suddenly started peeing! Luckily nobody was under the "shower":)
The best parts in the forest (a small forest really, takes about 20 minutes to walk it through, if you don't stop to watch the monkeys) were the babies. There were a few, so they got most of our attention.
We also saw grooming, fighting, the monkey cemetery and a small temple.
The hilarious bit was this monkey though:))
The rest of the day we walked around town, caught a glimpse of school kids at their class outside. It was a strange class, they were clapping their hands in rhythm in a circle and nothing else.
Strangely there aren't much stray dogs or cats in Ubud. The money exchange course was much better here than at the airport, but airports usually aren't the best places to exchange money. Also noticed our food market was cheaper than the street vendors. Later we went for a massage close to our homestay. I asked for a strong massage, and got one. As the lady started working on the more sensitive parts below the calf she kept that killer grip. I was too lazy to tell her to loosen the grip. I grinded my teeth together and thought how much bruises is this gonna make. Then she moved to my scalp and I don't like this part in the Balinese massage at all. They start it calmly, but suddenly snap their fingers together to scare the living daylights out of you, so the whole relaxing feeling is gone. Besides this your hair looks like it was smeared with a greasy cutlet because of their oily hands.
It always puzzles me why they do the dirty feet first before moving to the scalp, but the only explanation I've come up with is that doing the scalp last is a good, relaxing finish for it. I only wish they washed their hands before smearing the scalp and face with foot sweat. It was still a good massage and only cost 80 000.- IDR, which is around seven euros.
Because we didn't come to Ubud for anything specific we relaxed on Friday and slept till twelve a.m. We were still jet lagged. In the evening we had dinner at Down To Earth -restaurant on the same street where our homestay is. This restaurant was a heaven for vegetarians, it was hard to choose dinner from all the choices. An average restaurant usually serves one course for vegetarians, so choosing the dinner is usually easy for us, you eat that one course. Now we ordered a honey-vinegarcider, a whole coconut for another drink, gingerbeer, falafel, seitan cooked in two ways, etc. It was a gourmet for us, very good, and cost about 200 000.- IDR ( 16.- euros).
The next morning we headed to Lembongan. While waiting for the car to pick us up we watched the local waste collectors do their job. It isn't easy here, they have to sort everything by hand at the scene. Their clothes must be really hot too. This system pollutes a lot, so the guys were also wearing dust masks.
One interesting drink I found (being a panda fan)
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