Bali – Ubud

For you who are reading this and thinks that I have this traveling thing all figured out, here something for you to laugh about (And I can only tell this story now because time heals all wounds, and I can now laugh at it too):  When I was leaving Kathmandu I went to the counter at the airport and gave the nice lady from Jet Airways my passport, and waited for her to check me in. She asks me for a visa, and I politely told her that I didn`t need a visa for Indonesia, I would get in on arrival. She looks at me firmly and says: “ Madam, your TRANSITvisa to India. You are flying from Delhi to Chennai and need a transitvisa in order for me to check you in”.

I instantly felt sick, cuz I knew I was in deep shit. I swear, before leaving home I checked all those god damn visa rules for the countries I was going to, and managed to misinterpret India`s rules. From what I could remember, as long as you were staying no more than 24 hours in transit you would be fine. Of course that was the international transit, in the domestic you are actually entering India. Sooo, there I was, there was no way they could let me on the plane, and their office had just closed and she couldn`t call anybody to rebook in me on a flight directly out of India. Great. Great. GREAT! I feel so bad for everybody around me cuz there was so many not good word coming out of my mouth. And just as you know, we were 3 people doing the same mistake. I`m not the only idiot traveling 🙂  And to make this story short, the very nice people from Qatar Airways managed to book me on a flight to Doha and then to Bali. A hard lesson learned that was.

Anyway, after the all the hard activity in Nepal, I was more than ready to have some time off in Indonesia. The original plan was to stay for 4 weeks, but after I had changed my plan to go back to Zimbabwe I was left with 2 ½ weeks. So to start with I needed to get away from people, and do absolutely nothing. I found a beautiful and quiet place in Ubud, located in Bali. And it really was perfect, off from the center of Ubud, and not a lot of other people. Just this nice couple who was on their honeymoon. Very thin walls in this place…..
The resort was located in the lush green hills of Ubud, viewing down on the river and some rice terraces. Absolutely stunning! I instantly fell back in to island coma, oh sweet state of mind how I have missed you.

One of my all-time favorite movies is Eat Pray Love, and so I had somewhat of a very romantic and rustic view of how Ubud would be. And from what I have already learned on this trip, I should have known that the world is so traveled now, you will hardly find a place that isn`t crowded with people. And so it didn`t live up to my extreme expectations, but still a beautiful place. On every corner you`ll find a temple, and it`s the good kind of temple. Not the kitchy-old-mixed-with-all-that-glitter-and-shines-kind of temples, but the beautiful architect and proper old with moss growing on them,   surrounded with water, flowers and small offerings.
The main street was just as any other main tourist street: Shops, restaurants, cafès, street sellers, taxi drivers on every corner, and so on. I had three trips in to town and just walked around for some time. So hot. Too hot. I ran in and out of every shop I could spot with an air con so I could cool down and keep it going a little bit more.

I only went to one really touristy thing, The Sacred Monkey Forest, a nature reserve and Hindu temple complex in the middle of Ubud.  I`m having a hard time learning on this trip, and so I walked the 25 min down from where the taxi dropped me off. “It`s gonna be great, then I`ll get to see more of Ubud”. Idiot. It is too freaking humid to be walking around, I know this! So all sweated out I arrived and walked around there for an hour or so. Beautiful place and hundreds of monkeys all over! Afterwards I found a restaurant overlooking a temple and a pond of lotus flowers and tried my best to calm down and try to stop my face from melting.

My hotel was about 15 min drive from central Ubud, and there are taxies lined up everywhere so finding a ride wasn`t hard. The hard part was finding a taxi driver who would just drive you, ask you nicely where you are from and leave it at that. I first got the very direct harassing driver: “ You need man for tonight with happy ending, you call Wayan. You want pill first I get”. First of all: F*** you. Second of all: Drugs? I don’t even freaking do drugs back home, but in Indonesia where they sentence you to death for drugs, yeah this would be a good place to start. I then got the more subtle harassing one: “you very pretty lady, I`m very lonely man”. And the ever so sweet handshake where they poke you with their finger, meaning; Sex.
No. Hell no.
Reading up on Indonesia in Lonely Planet they said that Bali was one of the best places to travel as a single woman, abut ya`ll better rewrite that section. I haven`t gotten so many comments, offers and looks in any other country so far. Boys, tuck your shit in and keep your god damn mouth closed.

Despite the bullshit, I really loved being in Ubud 🙂

For the last day I confined myself to the pool during the hottest hours of the day, mustn’t forget to work on that tan. To my surprise the weather wasn`t on my side at all. It rained every day, either in the morning or in the evening. While at first I was desperate and thinking this would ruin my whole stay, it was rather nice to have it cool down, and not feeling guilty about doing absolutely nothing. So, true to form it started raining right after lunch. I had already tried some of the restaurants LP recommends in Ubud, but I was saving Three Monkeys until the last night. Amazing restaurant overlooking rice terraces and off the busy street in a calming atmosphere. I treated myself to a very good dinner and a Bloody Mary. Perfect ending to my Ubud experience 🙂

Next up, Gili Trawangan.