Sunday, June 10, 2012

Ubud [02/06 - 05/06]

AJ and me are now back on our annual holiday trip to Bali. This is our second time in Bali and this time round, we will be staying in Ubud for 4 days. We hired a good and affordable driver from Bagus Gelo tour for 1.5 days which they brought us from the airport to southern bali and up to Ubud. On the first night we are staying at Jeti 3 Bungalow. It is located along Jalan Monkey Forest road. The location of Jeti 3 Bungalow is quite difficult to find as it is located at a small side road from the main road. Only a small sign indicate that it is located in here. We made 2 rounds and finally found it.

The resort has a large and beautiful pool.

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Here is a peek into our hotel room. It is very well-ventilated, has a great balcony view, naturally cooling, there are no insects and we can leave our door / windows open for the natural air.

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Breakfast is provided and here is our breakfast area.

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The green pancake is really good.

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Walking out of Jeti 3 Bungalow, there is this other resort call Alamanda Accommodation. The door is very beautifully designed.

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The Balinese make flower offerings to the gods regularly.

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Campuhan Ridge Walk

This is one of the more popular walks in ubud. The starting point is the river intersection located along Jalan Campuhan, just off the Warwick Ibah Spa. It has a steep incline walk down from the main road to the bridge as seen below.

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Walking down from the bridge, we begin the trail proper. Both sides of the trail are rivers and visitors will be able to appreciate the splendid sights from it.

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We are able to see the local residents huts overlooking the river and hills.

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And the many cultivated rice terraces on the hills.

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Towards the end of the trail, there are many art shops with the painters peacefully painting.

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There is this splendid view of the rice fields where visitors can just sit by and enjoy the moment.

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We sat down and have a drink.

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And enjoy the rice field view below.

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Lying down in the huts, we can see the reflection of the water onto the roofs.

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And here we have a photo shoot.

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It is lunch time and we are off to the famous Babi Guling in the area. The cook is now preparing a whole pig for the feasting.

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And distributing it for all the restaurant patrons.

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It is a norm to have meals sitting down on the floor.

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Here is what I have ordered. (oops. I started starting the soup)

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Directly opposite from our lunch area is the Ubud Palace.

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It has some very well-preserved sculptures in there.

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A 5-min walk from Ubud Palace down Jalan Monkey Forest road, pass the Tourist Information Centre, we arrive at Kou Cuisine. It is located at the left hand side of the street if you are walking down from Ubud Palace. We bought a few jams.

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We also briefly walked past Ubud market.

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For our second day in Ubud, we move to Rama Phala Resort and Spa. It is located a short distance from Coco Supermarket, the junction of Jalan Hanoman and Jalan Monkey Forest.

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The exteriors of the hotels look nice.

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The furnishings are also quite alright.

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There is an open-sky shower. But there are 2 things which we do not like about here, and they are: the water has an iron smell to it. According to the hotel management, it is safe and they have already indicated there is an iron smell due to groundwater. Secondly, the sink is a bit too tall.

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Other than that, the hotel looks nice, with a large pool for tourist to relax.

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In the evening, we went to check out the Kecak dance. This performance is at Pura Datu Karu and we can get the tickets from the Tourist Information Centre. We bought the ticket at 7pm from a lady standing around the TIC and it is a 5mins walk north from there. It cost around 50k Rp for each person. It is said there are 100 performers for the Kecak dance.

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The chants reminded me of Chinese / Japanese Buddhist chants. The rhythm is similar.

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Anyway, the story of the Kecak tell that of the Ramayana, where Hanoman helped Prince Rama fight the evil King Ravana. It is around 1 hour long, and the atmosphere is just fascinating. It is a must watch for a visitors to Bali.

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We got back to our hotel at 9.30pm and we ordered Pizza Bagus which promptly arrive at 10pm.

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Breakfast is provided and we had pool-side dining.

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In the afternoon, we went to check out more spa and massage. On the way there, we walked past the Monkey Forest and there are lots of adorable monkeys. Can you identify which are the real monkeys and which are the statues below?

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We went to Venezia spa which has a good padi view from the room.

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The many flowers and herbs which they used.

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For dinner, we went to the famous Dirty Duck Diner.

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It cost 255 Rp for the Balinese Smoke Duck set below. 1-day advance booking is required for this special order. There are other dishes in the menu and it is not required to have advanced booking.

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