Ubud

Day 1: Morning bus from Kuta to Ubud and we met a young German guy called Sebastian on the way. He was also travelling alone so tagged along with us as we found a guesthouse.

After checking in, myself and Sebastian went for a walk around Ubud to get our bearings. Unlike Kuta, my first impressions of Ubud were good - lots of nice architecture and some small temples. The streets are also lined with animal sculptures, religious offerings and a very strong smell of incense, which is both pleasant and quite overwhelming at the same time.

After checking out the main streets, I met up with Jay for some food before heading down to check out the Monkey Forest Sanctuary. I've obviously seen a lot of Monkeys on my trip so far but still haven't tired of them and was keen to see what the Jungle Mafia would get up to this time.

When I arrived at the sanctuary, the amount of Macaques hanging about was huge - well over a hundred of them. There's locals selling Bananas at the entrance but I decided against feeding them after seeing how aggressive they had been on previous encounters. After walking around the sanctuary for an hour, I was proved right as several of them starting attacking this Japanese guy by scratching at his face and neck. I thought it was unprovoked initially but then watched again to find he had an entire bag full of Bananas and was refusing to release them from his hand, even when 2 Monkeys were trying to prize it open. Needless to say, he had it coming.

The sanctuary itself is pretty cool and has a really nice Temple inside. I had to walk around constantly on my guard though as they are liable to go for anything loose or hanging from your clothing. One guy had one sitting on his lap for 10 minutes, who became very agitated if he tried to move. His mate had to get one of the employees to help him. There were also a number of Macaques who loved swimming in the dirty streams and then didn't mind launching themselves at you once they were muddy and soaking wet. Pretty funny but also quite disconcerting at the same time.

Afterwards, the 3 of us booked a Volcano climb of Mount Batur for the following morning. In order to see the sunrise, it would mean getting up at 2am. Once again, it better be worth it!

That evening, I went to check out some traditional Balinese Dancing. Udud is famous for being the main place in Bali to see it so I was quite keen to see what all the fuss was about. I wasn't sure it would be my thing but was pleasantly surprised and really enjoyed the Legong performance. It lasts for about an hour and a half and the dance tells some sort of story (although I'm convinced that nobody in the crowd had a clue what was going on). The performance was very dramatic and also pretty creepy as the dancers make their eyes bulge and exaggerate their movements in time with the music. It's pretty weird but definately entertaining and everyone enjoyed the show. Thankfully, the rain just about held off as well.

Then it was bed for me - extremely early start.

Day 2: We all managed to get up at 2am for the transfer to the foot of the Mt Batur. Once there, we met a nice French guy called Olivier and all enjoyed our 3am pancake breakfast.

We then set off on the climb with our guide Eddie. It was fairly tricky but much easier than Mount Kinabalu and we were able to go up pretty gradually. Still managed to build up quite a sweat though! We reached the summit at about 5.30am to get some great views of the Volcano and also Mount Agung, the largest mountain in Bali. We were also able to see a huge patch of dried Lava from the last eruption 40 years ago. We asked Eddie if they had any idea when the next one would be but he wasn't sure - hopefully not today!

At the summit, we each had a Coffee and some boiled eggs that were cooked using the hot steam of the volcano - pretty cool (pardon the pun). We then watched another rather disappointing sunrise, which seems to keep happening to me. Again, this one was covered by clouds and therefore sort of defeats the object of setting off so early. Never mind - was quite fun climbing up in the dark.

If the climb up was easy, the climb down most definately wasn't. It's basically loads of volcanic ash, which is less than stable underfoot and required a skiing type technique to get down at any sort of speed. It took us a few hours to get back down and we saw even more Macaques on our way, hanging around for food no doubt. A few stumbles later, we reached the bottom before getting our transfer back to Ubud. An enjoyable climb and some fantastic views but an 8am start would have probably been just as good - I need to see a pretty amazing sunrise to re-establish my faith in them I think.

That afternoon, all trying to delay the impending tiredness, myself, Sebastian and Olivier decided to embark on one of the recommended nature walks around Ubud (why we thought that was a good idea after a 2am Volcano climb, I do not know). Anyway, we set off and could instantly see why it had been so recommended as we walked between dozens of rice paddies and coconut trees. Fantastic scenery and it started as a pretty enjoyable walk.

However, we soon managed to get ourselves lost (Sebastian was in charge of the map) and having to ask the local villagers for directions to get back to Ubud. All feeling pretty tired at this point, we eventually made our way back and then headed for a restaurant tipped as serving the best food in Bali. We each tried the local dish - Nasi Campur, which was pretty nice but nothing to write home about and not really worth the tiring adventure to find it. To make matters worse, we then got lost again on our way back towards the town centre (Olivier on the map this time - that's all I'm saying) and we missed the dance performance we had aimed to catch in Ubud that evening. A case of tired people making tired decisions I think so it was probably just as well we didn't make it. The three of us had a laugh about it when we finally got back into town anyway - all part of the fun.   

Day 3: Myself, Olivier and Sebastian got picked up early for a White-Water Rafting trip we had booked the previous day. This took us about an hour outside Ubud and we arrived at the river mid-morning. After a short briefing, we were underway with our local guide. I did some Rafting in Chiang Mai, which was good but a little bit tame for my liking so I was hoping for something more extreme this time. A slow start, getting caught on numerous rocks and boulders but once we got going, it was great. We got up to some decent speeds and were constantly having to duck and lie down to avoid obstacles either side and over the river. We also headed through a couple of waterfalls, resulting in us getting completely soaked, which was a good laugh. Lots of boulders to avoid along the route as well.

The trip was made even more enjoyable by the fantastic scenery around us. Even more rice fields and waterfalls, one of which we stopped for a photo by on the way down. Prior to this, we had to leave the boat because of a 10 metre drop in the river, which they told us it was unsafe to ride. Looking at it, I thought we could have given it a go, until I saw the boat capsize when it went down that is. Maybe not!

The highlight of the trip was a 4 metre drop at the end, which they did let us stay on the boat for. This was cool and a good end to an enjoyable and pretty tiring couple of hours. Definately a more extreme ride than the one in Chiang Mai but I'm still looking for something more. We got treated to some good food afterwards and then headed back to Ubud.

That evening, Olivier, Jay and myself headed out to check out another traditional Balinese dance called Kecak Fire. This involved men from the local village forming a circle around the dancers and making numerous weird noises, which acted as the music. Legong was good but this dance was absolutely fantastic and involved a story that was easier to follow (still no real idea what was going on though). Various dancers coming out at different stages, some in pretty daft and funny outfits. This culminated in a huge 10-person Dragon, which was dangerously close to catching fire towards the end. Another really enjoyable dance, completely different in style to the one we had previously seen. Well worth a look if you ever come to Ubud and I'm glad I sampled a couple.

Olivier and Sebastian headed off that night to do a climb of Mount Agung, which started at midnight so they could catch the sunrise. Needless to say, I wasn't as keen on this one so we left them to it and parted ways. Will hopefully catch up with them over the next week or so. Jay and I planned to stay in Ubud for a few more days.

Day 4 - Day 5: Jay and I hired a couple of Scooters and spent the next couple of days cruising around the North and East of Bali, using Ubud as a base. We also visited a couple of the local temples - Goa Gajah and Gunung Kawi, both of which required us to wear some rather dashing sarongues so that we could enter. I'm not gonna lie, I liked the way it felt against my skin actually, although it does get pretty hot after a while.

After visting Goa Gajah, we decided to head right up to the north coast of Bali and got to fully appreciate what a beautiful island it is. Similar to Koh Phangan, Thailand, I think many people just visit Kuta and form their opinion on Bali from that (not a good opinion to have). Once you get out of there, you can really see how nice it is and some of the countryside is so picturesque that we were pulling over on the side of the road just to get some snaps. Really beautiful.

Upon reaching the north coast, the rain came and boy did it come! Being a nice, sunny day when we departed, we weren't exactly prepared and ended up getting completely drenched on our long trek back to Ubud. Having the Scooter is a fantastic way to see Bali in the sunshine but it's far from ideal when you encounter this sort of rain. We were both frozen, had ended up around 3 hours from where we were staying and therefore couldn't get back quick enough. A pretty miserable ride home if I'm honest but we had a good laugh about it once we had got showered and dry. That's rain season for you!

The second day we headed out to Gunung Kawi, which is an even better Temple with numerous carvings forming part of a cliff face. We spent an hour or so wandering around there before heading further towards the eastern coast when, guess what......the rain came again! Thankfully, not as heavy this time and we were better prepared clothing-wise. We didn't want to mess around though so headed back to Ubud. It's difficult to plan anything during rain season as there's no way of knowing when and where it will strike.

Day 6: Jay had some things to buy in town so I decided to take the Scooter out on my own this time, in search of Pura Besakih - supposedly the most impressive Temple throughout Bali. After Angkor Wat, I had lost my enthusiasm for Temples for a while but having not seen any for a couple of months, was now keen to check some more out.

This journey was really nice as it was a glorious day meaning stunning views through the mountains and over the rice paddies. The scenery on the way to the Temple was some of the best I've ever seen and I must have pulled over 4 or 5 times just to get a picture. Safe to say that Bali has now taken over from Koh Phangan as the most scenic place I've been.

It was quite a trek up to the Temple, meaning several winding roads up a mountain. After getting slightly lost a few times, the locals set me straight and the trip was well worth it. Besakih is a collection of differing sized Temples, all with these cool black-thatched roofs. I spent over an hour walking around and getting some great photos. Well worth the adventure to get there.

On my way back from the temple, I decided to head towards Amed, a small town on the far east coast of Bali. This is home to a WWII Wreck called the Liberty, which is supposedly a great dive site. Besakih was half way there so I decided to make a day of it and head over there to check out some deals and maybe book to dive the following day.

It took me another couple of hours to reach Amed and the scenery got better and better. Unfortunately, the weather did not and took a turn for the worse once I got there. I checked out a couple of deals before bumping into Olivier, who had dived the site the previous day. He confirmed my fear that the visibility was pretty awful around the site and it wasn't really worth diving. Pretty disappointing but it would be pointless to spend the money if there isn't much to see. Probably just as well anyway because all the electricity was out in Amed, which would have meant a cold night's sleep and also no way of letting Jay know I was over there. I decided to give it a miss and headed on the long trip back to Ubud. In total, I probably spent about 8 hours on the bike all day and my backside knew it once I got back. Was worth the trip though and I managed to see a lot of the East and South-Eastern coasts along the way.

Day 7: One final day on the Scooters before heading back to Kuta. Jay and I went off in search of a Bamboo Chocolate factory he had heard about. We never found it though, despite asking dozens of locals who lived right by where he thought it was. Cruised around a bit more but I was pretty spent from the day before. Headed back to the guesthouse that afternoon and just chilled out for the rest of the day.

Bus back to Kuta in the morning. Cant Wait.