07.09.08: I didn’t really feel like we were “in Bali” when we were in Sanur. But Ubud definitely changed all that. We stayed for 3 days, but we could have stayed at least a couple days longer. I was getting used to booking rooms last minute because it was no problem in Thailand or the Philippines where it was low/rainy season. But here in Bali, it’s high season. I also found that most of the mid-range places don’t have the ability to book online. So, the morning that we were to leave for Ubud, I was on the hotel’s phone. I thought I could use up the last of my credit on my Singapore SIM card, but didn’t read the fine print that said you need at least $8 SIN to dial internationally. Oops! Somehow, we lucked out with the first place I called, which was my first pick, Alam Shanti. They had a no-show the night before and it was even the room I was interested in. We took it for the 3 nights it was available. We found later that they were completely booked for the entire months of July and August. So, we REALLY lucked out! For a price, they were even willing to pick us up in Sanur. So, that was a relief not to figure out how to get there.
Ubud is situated in the middle of the island and not by the beach. It’s also Bali’s capital for arts, crafts and culture. On the ride there, we already saw rows of shops where they were making and selling wood and stone carvings, and lots of other art/craft work. We were already drooling over it all! When we arrived at Alam Shanti, we were blown away by the tranquility of the place. It was a beautiful Balinese compound of 10 rooms a block down from the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary. You walked into our room through traditional Balinese wooden doors where it had a large poster bed with mosquito net and large bathroom with big tub. But, most of all, it had a HUGE veranda with breakfast table and TWO day beds to lounge on and view the nearby rice paddies and listen to chicken, ducks, frogs and other creatures in the background. Every morning, we were served breakfast out on the veranda. I got the Balinese black rice pudding or jaffle (toasted bread pocket) filled with cheese, tomato and avocado, and Sean got cheese omelette. This was accompanied with fresh fruit and juice, homemade toast and croissants and Balinese coffee or tea. After, you couldn’t help but get sucked into a day bed after eating, to continue absorbing the surroundings while you digested: chickens cackling, ducks quacking and the calming hum of all the kites that they like to fly in the rice fields just to name a few.
That afternoon, we dove-in to see what Ubud had to offer. You have to walk around or through the Monkey Forest to get to town, and we were already greeted by the local monkeys a few steps down from our place. In town, there were shops filled with handcrafted artwork, jewelry, carvings and more. We only window-shopped that day, figuring out prices and exactly what we really wanted so we could figure out, logistically, how we were going to get it all home. But, we did end up getting some organic wine, organic Gouda cheese, salami and a baguette. I guess some of our ways from when we were in Europe are dying hard! It was nice to be in a community where healthy food, yoga, arts and culture are abundant! As we got a bit lost in the streets, we stumbled upon a restaurant called The Bebek Bengil, aka The Dirty Duck Diner. Not your typical restaurant, the place had several standalone pavilions, each with a knee height table and cushions, set amongst the gardens with rice paddies in the background. They also served up some awesome crispy fried duck! Another great thing about where we stayed is that they offer free shuttles to/from town. So, just as you’ve walked far enough, you pop into a café for something to eat or drink and call for a pick-up. Our hotel also has a fairly long list of cultural performances happening every night. This ended up being VERY convenient! That night, we went out to see a wayang kulit (shadow puppet) play. It was a little drawn out, but interesting to see nonetheless. The narrator had a great voice and interesting how they choreograph the play with music. When Kailani got a little too loud and squirmy, I took her outside to find a window where you can see what they are doing “behind the scenes”. It was a bonus for us!
The next day, we spent some time exploring the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary, feeding the monkeys bananas and seeing the temples. There are three temples and they believe the monkeys are there to protect the temples. After, we walked into town. I was on a mission to find this restaurant that I saw on Anthony Bourdain’s show, No Reservations, called Warung Oka Ibu. As we walked there, we window shopped a bit more. We also walked by the Ubud Palace, they actually had the streets closed off because the community was getting ready for a Cremation Ceremony the next week. We learned that they usually bury people as they die, then have a mass cremation later. This ceremony was a bigger-than-usual one, because it was for a local king and another local politico. They were building very large paper mache structures and crafting tons of other little decorative pieces for the ceremony. They would carry the dead up one of the “tower” structures, drop the bodies into a “bull” structure and then light it on fire. We hope we can go back to Ubud to see it happen. We finally found Oka Ibu, and the place was packed. We sat on a ledge amongst others who couldn’t get a table and ate our roasted suckling pig topped with a spicy concoction (except for Kai’s plate), simply served with rice and a vegetable saute. It was as good as Bourdain made it up to be, especially the sweet crispy skin that was basted with coconut water the entire morning. Even Kai kept asking “More pig!” I was very happily vegetarian for 7 years of my life. But, the past couple days of duck and pig carnage has been pretty delightful too! Now if I can just work it all off…. After that, being fat dumb and happy, we called for a pick-up and spent the rest of the afternoon “digesting” on our veranda’s day bed, as well as another mad scramble to find somewhere to stay next. I took the first place that replied back to me.
That night, we went to the restaurant next door, where they had a dance performance. One dance was called a butterfly dance, where the women held “wing” fans and fluttered them as they danced. We especially liked the children’s rabbit dance, where the children had rabbit ear hats and hopped as they danced. The last dance was considered a “flirting” dance and dancers picked audience members to come up and dance with them. I nailed it when I said that Sean would be picked. I was pretty bummed that, when he went up there, he had our camera still in his pocket, so no embarrassing shots. Of course, because I was laughing at him getting picked, a gal came up to pick me. Trying to figure Balinese dancing is a lot harder than it looks!
On day 3, we went into town to actually buy some of the great pieces of art work that we’ve been drooling at. Later that day, we had a Balinese cooking class at the same restaurant that we saw the dance at the night before. It was great to see the place in the daylight. The place was very similar to the Dirty Duck, with several private small eating areas set amongst the gardens with rice paddies behind it. They also had a great vegetable and herb garden and our teacher, Wayan (means “first child”, so there are several Wayan’s in Bali), pointed out what everything was. The class was fun. Sean and I were the only students. It was interesting to see what is typically used in Balinese cooking as well as to simply cook for the first time in months. It was also nice to have someone there to play with Kailani while we cooked. We made nasi goreng (fried rice), grilled chicken salad, chicken coconut curry and sweet and sour shrimp. My favorite dish to learn was the black rice pudding that I’ve been eating every morning for breakfast. It ended up being very simple to make too! After all the cooking, the three of us got to eat what we made for dinner. Unfortunately, we were not too hungry after all that cooking. However, they were nice enough to pack it up and I had some more the next morning.
The next morning, we packed up and got ready to leave. As previously mentioned, I really missed not having a kitchen for the past 2 months. So when we picked out our next spot, I got a villa with kitchen. Ubud happened to be having their weekly organic farmer’s market, albeit very small. But, we went there to get a couple things before leaving, as well as a couple more paintings that we had our eyes on but didn’t get a chance to get. Now with a whole carload full of stuff, we drove off to our villa in Seminyak by the beach. And, our list of great places to stay got longer when we arrived!
Ubud is situated in the middle of the island and not by the beach. It’s also Bali’s capital for arts, crafts and culture. On the ride there, we already saw rows of shops where they were making and selling wood and stone carvings, and lots of other art/craft work. We were already drooling over it all! When we arrived at Alam Shanti, we were blown away by the tranquility of the place. It was a beautiful Balinese compound of 10 rooms a block down from the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary. You walked into our room through traditional Balinese wooden doors where it had a large poster bed with mosquito net and large bathroom with big tub. But, most of all, it had a HUGE veranda with breakfast table and TWO day beds to lounge on and view the nearby rice paddies and listen to chicken, ducks, frogs and other creatures in the background. Every morning, we were served breakfast out on the veranda. I got the Balinese black rice pudding or jaffle (toasted bread pocket) filled with cheese, tomato and avocado, and Sean got cheese omelette. This was accompanied with fresh fruit and juice, homemade toast and croissants and Balinese coffee or tea. After, you couldn’t help but get sucked into a day bed after eating, to continue absorbing the surroundings while you digested: chickens cackling, ducks quacking and the calming hum of all the kites that they like to fly in the rice fields just to name a few.
That afternoon, we dove-in to see what Ubud had to offer. You have to walk around or through the Monkey Forest to get to town, and we were already greeted by the local monkeys a few steps down from our place. In town, there were shops filled with handcrafted artwork, jewelry, carvings and more. We only window-shopped that day, figuring out prices and exactly what we really wanted so we could figure out, logistically, how we were going to get it all home. But, we did end up getting some organic wine, organic Gouda cheese, salami and a baguette. I guess some of our ways from when we were in Europe are dying hard! It was nice to be in a community where healthy food, yoga, arts and culture are abundant! As we got a bit lost in the streets, we stumbled upon a restaurant called The Bebek Bengil, aka The Dirty Duck Diner. Not your typical restaurant, the place had several standalone pavilions, each with a knee height table and cushions, set amongst the gardens with rice paddies in the background. They also served up some awesome crispy fried duck! Another great thing about where we stayed is that they offer free shuttles to/from town. So, just as you’ve walked far enough, you pop into a café for something to eat or drink and call for a pick-up. Our hotel also has a fairly long list of cultural performances happening every night. This ended up being VERY convenient! That night, we went out to see a wayang kulit (shadow puppet) play. It was a little drawn out, but interesting to see nonetheless. The narrator had a great voice and interesting how they choreograph the play with music. When Kailani got a little too loud and squirmy, I took her outside to find a window where you can see what they are doing “behind the scenes”. It was a bonus for us!
The next day, we spent some time exploring the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary, feeding the monkeys bananas and seeing the temples. There are three temples and they believe the monkeys are there to protect the temples. After, we walked into town. I was on a mission to find this restaurant that I saw on Anthony Bourdain’s show, No Reservations, called Warung Oka Ibu. As we walked there, we window shopped a bit more. We also walked by the Ubud Palace, they actually had the streets closed off because the community was getting ready for a Cremation Ceremony the next week. We learned that they usually bury people as they die, then have a mass cremation later. This ceremony was a bigger-than-usual one, because it was for a local king and another local politico. They were building very large paper mache structures and crafting tons of other little decorative pieces for the ceremony. They would carry the dead up one of the “tower” structures, drop the bodies into a “bull” structure and then light it on fire. We hope we can go back to Ubud to see it happen. We finally found Oka Ibu, and the place was packed. We sat on a ledge amongst others who couldn’t get a table and ate our roasted suckling pig topped with a spicy concoction (except for Kai’s plate), simply served with rice and a vegetable saute. It was as good as Bourdain made it up to be, especially the sweet crispy skin that was basted with coconut water the entire morning. Even Kai kept asking “More pig!” I was very happily vegetarian for 7 years of my life. But, the past couple days of duck and pig carnage has been pretty delightful too! Now if I can just work it all off…. After that, being fat dumb and happy, we called for a pick-up and spent the rest of the afternoon “digesting” on our veranda’s day bed, as well as another mad scramble to find somewhere to stay next. I took the first place that replied back to me.
That night, we went to the restaurant next door, where they had a dance performance. One dance was called a butterfly dance, where the women held “wing” fans and fluttered them as they danced. We especially liked the children’s rabbit dance, where the children had rabbit ear hats and hopped as they danced. The last dance was considered a “flirting” dance and dancers picked audience members to come up and dance with them. I nailed it when I said that Sean would be picked. I was pretty bummed that, when he went up there, he had our camera still in his pocket, so no embarrassing shots. Of course, because I was laughing at him getting picked, a gal came up to pick me. Trying to figure Balinese dancing is a lot harder than it looks!
On day 3, we went into town to actually buy some of the great pieces of art work that we’ve been drooling at. Later that day, we had a Balinese cooking class at the same restaurant that we saw the dance at the night before. It was great to see the place in the daylight. The place was very similar to the Dirty Duck, with several private small eating areas set amongst the gardens with rice paddies behind it. They also had a great vegetable and herb garden and our teacher, Wayan (means “first child”, so there are several Wayan’s in Bali), pointed out what everything was. The class was fun. Sean and I were the only students. It was interesting to see what is typically used in Balinese cooking as well as to simply cook for the first time in months. It was also nice to have someone there to play with Kailani while we cooked. We made nasi goreng (fried rice), grilled chicken salad, chicken coconut curry and sweet and sour shrimp. My favorite dish to learn was the black rice pudding that I’ve been eating every morning for breakfast. It ended up being very simple to make too! After all the cooking, the three of us got to eat what we made for dinner. Unfortunately, we were not too hungry after all that cooking. However, they were nice enough to pack it up and I had some more the next morning.
The next morning, we packed up and got ready to leave. As previously mentioned, I really missed not having a kitchen for the past 2 months. So when we picked out our next spot, I got a villa with kitchen. Ubud happened to be having their weekly organic farmer’s market, albeit very small. But, we went there to get a couple things before leaving, as well as a couple more paintings that we had our eyes on but didn’t get a chance to get. Now with a whole carload full of stuff, we drove off to our villa in Seminyak by the beach. And, our list of great places to stay got longer when we arrived!
3 comments:
It sounds like you guys are having s agreat time. Thanks for the detailed discriptions and beautiful photos. My list of great places to stay is also getting longer. ;)
~ Christina
That "black rice pudding" also has a filipino version--it's called champorado. Shoots, I thought I was having an adventure in Hawaii, but you guys are killing it!
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