We arrived to Bali yesterday afternoon. We were starving so grabbed a quick* lunch at the airport before heading to Ubud. *I say quick because it feels like no matter how “quick” you try to be, it’s at least an hour to pull off. Ubud was about 1.5 hours from Denpasar airport. We arrived with enough daylight to drop our stuff off at Blue Mango Guesthouse, our simple abode for the night, and head out to explore Ubud by foot. Ubud has a really cool vibe about it, with a mix of independent shops & restaurants, and giving off a nomadic/yoga vibe. It reminded us in some ways of our early visits to Tulum, Mexico (but with a totally different layout).
Dinner Switcharoo
We grabbed a drink as the sun set and played a few rounds of family Monopoly card game. Man, has that game been the hit of the trip! For dinner we walked back to a stretch of Gootama, a street filled with mini restaurants of varied cuisines. In the end we split up with the girls because Paige was eyeing one restaurant, and Sadie another. We figured, why force one of them to settle when we’re overdue to have 1:1 time with each girl. The girls were surprised & excited at our proposed dinner plan!
In terms of food, Doug & Sadie picked better than me & Paige (to the point where Paige ended up popping over there towards the end of our meal to order a chicken satay). But that wasn’t the point. Paige & I enjoyed a really nice meal just the two of us. We were chatting about ideas of where to live after our travel adventures wind down. She has a slight bias towards NYC (misses her friends), but was actually very open to the idea of moving somewhere else. Fun to have conversations like that with our Little Miss P, who’s maturing more & more by the day :)
This morning we packed up and headed out with our driver for the day, Teken. Our ultimate destination was our Bali home base for the following 6 nights (Alila Manggis), but we had four stops along the way:
Monkey Sanctuary
After our scare with monkeys in Malaysia, the girls were understandably skittish about going to a place full of monkeys walking around freely. We pushed the plan of going to the monkey sanctuary - probably because it seemed like the “thing to do” when you’re in Ubud. In retrospect, we totally should have skipped it altogether. Even though the monkeys are able to roam freely, it felt like a very contrived, Disneyland-like space. The monkeys were calmer than I think we were all expecting. Granted, there were signs all over the place reminding folks to keep their distance, not touch or feed the monkeys, etc. We saw clusters of monkeys playing, and others at feeding time, taking down sweet potatoes and corn on the cob. We saw a few monkeys banging rocks on the ground, wrapping them in leaves and then scraping them back & forth on the ground. I asked a worker what they were doing, and he said they’re just playing. Amazing to see how agile & human-like the monkeys were at using their hands!
The girls - especially Sadie - had reached the end of their ropes, and were insistent it was time to leave. We agreed and as we were walking back through the sanctuary to exit, we suddenly heard Paige screech. A monkey had hoped onto her shoulder/back and it totally spooked her (and Sadie). A nearby worker told her to stay calm and just walk slowly. Sure enough, within seconds the monkey jumped off and went on his merry way. Phew! It definitely rattled the girls. Hours later Sadie told us “My heart is still beating because of Paige and the monkey!”. Sadie even wrote about it in her journal entry:
Hike
Monkeys long gone, we headed next to the nearby Campuhan Ridge Walk. It’s a hiking trail that has sweeping hilltop views of Ubud and then weaves through a series of small lodging, cafes & restaurants. It was really hot when we set out (even though it was still relatively early), so it was a bit of a trudge with the girls on the initial ascent, fully exposed to the sun.
But once it flatted out and we were walking amidst little villages, they were way more into it. It was a really beautiful way to see parts of Ubud. We saw several women placing traditional Balinese offerings. We saw these small arrangements of flowers and sometimes food all over - on statues, motorbikes, temples, homes & shops. They're called "canang sari" and they are a traditional daily offering, in practice for over 1,000 years in Balinese Hindusim. The purpose is to maintain a balance of peace between good/evil, gods/demons and positive/negative energies. It's a daily ritual that we saw taking place everywhere we turned. We especially enjoyed seeing a number of elderly Balinese women going about their spiritual traditions while we strolled through this part of Ubud. I fell in love with a particularly joyful statue of an older woman :)
We arranged for our driver, Teken, to meet us at the opposite end of the ridge walk so that we didn’t need to double back. Totally the right call.
Luwak Coffee
Back in the car with Teken, we mentioned that we’d love a chance to try Bali’s famous “luwak coffee”. We admittedly didn’t know much about it, and were happy when we had a spot in mind. We pulled into Satria Agrowisata and were met by a worker named Amir, who proceeded to show us around the property & explain what makes luwak coffee unique. We learned that luwak (aka mongoose) are nocturnal animals of the cat family that eat the good quality sweet skin from the coffee bean trees. The luwak ultimately poop out the coffee beans, and workers then collect the poop, wash it with hot water until clean and then dry the beans. They repeat that process 5-6 times and then roast the bean and mortar/pestle them to make a medium powder. That powder is what it used to make luwak coffee, a delicacy that commands a high price.
We had the opportunity to try a bunch of teas and coffees made on the property, including the luwak coffee. The luwak coffee tasted like a good cup of drip coffee that you buy in NYC. It was good, but given its cost premium vs. ordinary Balinese coffee, I don’t think we’ll be buying it again any time soon in Bali :) Still fun to learn and have the experience. The store (of course) was the final destination. We ended up buying a few teas (to bring some to Trisha in Australia) and some dry spices (for our cooking on the road in Australia).
Lunch with a View
Our final stop before heading to Alila was lunch at a spot called Layana Warung. The service was painfully slow and the food OK (not great). The view was pretty stellar, though, looking down on a deep gorge and palm trees all above. Freakishly there were no rails to guard against the steep drop aside our table. Bellies full, we were anxious to get back on the road and settle in at Alila.
Alila Arrival & Evening
We checked into Alila (fragrant, refreshing facial mist, anyone?!) and promptly had a family swim session in the huge pool. Lovely setting! There was some kind of small private event happening on the hotel grounds that night. As part of that, a group of men came to perform a traditional story-telling dance. We were fortunate to get to watch as well from the pool as the sun set :) Dinner was chill at the outdoor hotel restaurant. We hit the sac exhausted, and all excited to enjoy Alila in full the next day.
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