Ubud, Bali – The adventure continues

April 25, 2017
Bali Ubud

Welcome to our Ubud, Bali – Part 2 adventure! And today is our one year anniversary together! Feels like so much longer yet time feels like it went so quickly at the same time. We set out for a walk in a new direction after eating breakfast and saw a huge number of ducks quacking and wading through the rice paddies. A friendly worker was not camera shy and it helped me capture a beautiful story in the rice fields.

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We decided to go to Sage restaurant for lunch. We had been planning to go to Sage for our anniversary for a good few months. We managed to get two taxi bikes to Sage which was incredibly fun and I am having a good laugh about it as I write this. It required a bit of bartering and walking away but we managed to get the taxi bike for AUD$2 each for a 5 minute ride into town. Riding through Ubud, Bali is a real treat on a beautiful day.

Bali Ubud

The feel of Sage was very calm and it had a huge round window letting in a large amount of soft light, perfect for taking photos! I ordered a burrito and Katie ordered a burger with grilled pineapple, vegetable patty and other salads. Both were fantastic but I loved the burger the most. One of the best I’ve ever tried.

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We taxied it back home by car and had a nana nap before going out to dinner with Penny, the owner of our Firefly bungalow. The place was called Bintang and it was located off the side of a quiet road surrounded by more rice paddies. We got in at late afternoon with a very rainy feel to the sky. We ordered an eggplant dish and a noodle dish to share. Of course it was delicious!

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After that we had organised our driver to take us to a traditional Balinese dance called Kecak. You might be familiar with this stunning performance already if you have seen the movie ‘Baraka’. It originated in Ubud, Bali and the locals still keep it alive with everyone in the small village playing a part. This performance takes place every Monday evening 7pm and costs RP. 75,000 which is equal to $7.50. Before the dance begins, the priest blesses the performance with holy water to ensure that the dance will go well, and rightly honour its sacred origins. The dance is about ancient sanghyang trance rituals along with the story line from the Ramayana epic. One person from each family in this village has some role in the dance so there were quite a few there. The rain held off for us too! We are both very pleased that our anniversary fell on this day. It is hard to pick a favourite day in Bali although this one was very special to us both.

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Early breakfast at 6.30am then a 30 minute walk to the main street of Ubud to Casa Luna restaurant to take a cooking class. We went to local market and got shown around by our market guide Oleg and told what prices locals pay compared to tourists and were able to buy things at local prices. We bought Gado Gado paste for around AUD$1.50. The cooking class took place at a luxurious resort named Honeymoon Suites in an outside kitchen. Our cooking teacher’s name was Yuda who was definitely a laugher! She taught us traditional Balinese cooking methods and recipes including Mie Goreng, Coconut salad, an eggplant dish and a delicious and very refreshing hibiscus tea. We used round wooden stump cutting blocks and large grinding stones to make pastes out of chopped up ingredients. After eating all our creations we decided to taxi it home in a car due to heavy rainfall. Unfortunately as you guys know, our firefly airbnb requires a walk up a narrow path so we still got soaked at the end anyway!

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We dried off and chilled out for the afternoon before dinner at Moksa, a 10 minute walk from our Airbnb through the lush rice paddies. Thankfully the rain had cleared and left a pristine environment for us. It was easy to tell this restaurant was of “natural class” just by the entrance. The pathway took us up a beautiful lantern lit garden where we were welcomed by exceptionally nice staff. We were seated on the balcony overlooking another beautiful garden and a pink sunset. We ordered Pumpkin Uttapam which is like a pumpkin pancake with all delicious stuff inside and a Jacky Mignon. The food was sensational!

The next day began with a delicious breakfast, muesli with different fruits in it, thanks to Kadek again and some avocado and tomato on toast. Time to relax! We did some light reading underneath our little bungalow in the shady cool area. Hung out our wet clothes in the sun next to the pool while we went for a dip and charged our batteries in the beautiful Bali sunlight. Off to lunch at Alchemy. Mexican burger (no bread) and a Greek Salad with a chipmunk drink (chocolate chips, banana, cashew milk). We bought a bounty bar (chocolate filled with shredded coconut), and a white chocolate pyramid dessert to take away. On the way home we had to stop by our favourite juice place on the side of the street near our airbnb. We bought a sour sop drink from our friend Made for AUD$1 to freshen up after a hot walk back home. It was time to relax in the pool until our next traditional Balinese cooking class at 4.30pm.

Keep your eyes open to hear more about how our next cooking class went and the final adventures of our 2017 Bali trip! If you haven’t already read Candidasa and Ubud Part 1 adventures, we promise it is full of spectacular and delicious events.

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