Bali Day 3-6

(Mt Batur)

Day 3

Oh so happy to be getting the hell out of Kuta. That place is friggin insane. 

We got a taxi from our hotel to take us to Ubud. Along the way we stopped at some silver smiths, a batik weaving and painting place and a wood carving place to see some traditional artisans. The BF bought two handmade kites, which you see everywhere in Bali, traditionally used to scare birds from the rice fields.

We stayed at Villa Mandi in Ubud, which I can certainly recommend. It only has 4 self-contained villas with a lovely infinity pool overlooking the rice paddies. It is a short drive or about 20 min walk to Ubud central and is far enough away to be quiet. For $40 per night, it was as steal.

We had dinner and lunch the next day at an indian restaurant located just in front of the accommodation. It was a 3-story bamboo structure which was pretty cool in itself. It over-looked the rice fields and coconut trees and was had a 3-course dinner and the local Bintang beer for a total of about $20 for the tow of us!

Day 4

I insisted that we have a rest day. I had been pretty flat-out leading up to the trip, and hadn't quite normalised from the flight. Even though the flight was during the day, it really took it out of me. I could feel my tonsillitis symptoms flaring up and started to feel quite achy. So, we just went down to the market early in the morning to have a look and try some local delicacies, and I picked up some cloves to chew on (they are good for tummy-bugs i.e. intestinal parasites) jus in case that was part of my problem. WE went back to the accom for the arvo and chilled by the pool. I drank my Veuve Cliquot that the BF had bought Duty Free for our anniversary. At night we went into Ubud to see a traditional dance at the Palace.

The BF discovered he had lost his atm card! He had all our spending money (well, most of it) so this was indeed a set back. After one internet banking to get us back on the road, we went to bed early before our 2.30am start the next day.

Day 5

Today was hiking Mount Batur. At about 1700m from sea level, we hiked the last 500m or so, but it took a good 2 hours. Some of it was steep and difficult and some would be described as a rock-scramble. The Europeans that had all the gear and obviously hike frequently put us to shame, but we made it eventually. I was also dry-reaching the first hour or so and started to panic about getting tonsillitis. At the peak we watched the sunrise and had boiled eggs and banana for breakfast. Then we walked around some other craters and generally were in awe of being on an active volcano. The steam rising from small pits was amazing.

Afterwards we had a buffet lunch from another location looking back at the mountain and we couldn't believe how far we had hiked. I enjoyed it so much I'd like to do more hiking.

The BF wanted to stop at a Lewat coffee place, although I'm quite against using animals in this way as the Civets are kept in small cages to produce the coffee. I did try it though, and was not exactly impressed with the taste so I can say it's not worth it more multiple reasons. The lemon tea was beautiful and I must find some of it here at home.

We also stopped to look at terraced rice fields and I picked up my one of only two souvenirs which was a cow bone calved into a intricate detail of traditional Balinese style.

Day 6

I'm having trouble recalling what we did this day! Day 4, 5 and 6 are a bit blended into one-another. We did finish the evening at XL Lounge which had great food and cocktails and we spent about $100 which was a lot for Bali but a really great night. We also stopped for a massage on the way home.

Edit: I remember! We went to Bali Safari and Marine Park. It was pretty good. We got to cuddle a baby orangutang and ride a camel. We saw a white tiger and watched a really good musical production.