Ubud

Strange gaurdian Demon at one of the temples in Bali

Ubud, this is a town in central Bali, its in the hills making the climate more acceptable, what its really known for is the chilled back atmosphere, the many eateries and the varied artisans. This vibe has attracted many travellers and package tourists and also the infamous Hippy crowd.

Our new buddy, Anna the Anaconda, 40kg worth of snake!

We enjoyed our stay at Ubud which was only meant to be for a few days but turned out to be 5. the combination of the climate, scenery and FOOD! yes this was the place we officially got fat! some of the highlights for restaurants were Indus, a restaurant overlooking Rice fields and the tallest mountain in bali, spectacular! also Bali Buddha was great for vegetarian food and deserts, where we had Mexican and Preet had a Tofu burger. being a healthy hippy joint they had a range of healthy drinks, i thought lets try one, so i ordered a drink thinking it would be a nice refreshing health drink, what i got was something that resembled boiled mud in both taste and looks!! i really couldn't drink, even after stirring in a pot of honey and ginger sugar!

It looks like ####, tastes like #### must be ####!

I'm sure the waiters had a laugh as i was ordering, there is o way anything living could drink that! apart from that the rest of the food was great, and they do a killer chocolate mouse made with rice starch.

Offerings...

The locals in Bali are mainly Hindu, they are quite superstitious, they all put out offerings in front of there doors, the offerings are for good spirits, to keep them happy and bad spirits so they dont enter the house/shop/office.

Egg-plant! in Bali we found vegi food more difficult to get hold of, i was just saying to Preet before i took the below picture, it would be so easy if eggs grew on plants!! and as if by magic, we found an egg-plant, which was really someone being artistic by putting empty egg shells on a plant. after a day or two in bali we found many, many vegi options. so all good!

Rice Paddies...

Ubud is known for its rice paddy walks, and hadn't been for since we got there, so one afternoon we thought we would go, so taking the moped we went to the start of the walk. after an uphill walk we were greeted by some great views and fresh air of the rice fields, oh and the many ducks. rice walks, highly recommended.

Shadow puppet show..

One thing Bali is known for is the shadow puppet shows, this is something which is entwined with the religion of the locals, which happens to be Hindu. the traditional way of doing this is to have a master puppeteer who sits behind a white linen screen which is lit by a large flame. the shows are normally based on Hindu mythology, the show we saw was based on a scene i think in the Mahabharata, two of the characters were Krishan and Arjun. the show was great but it would have been better if i understood the language.

Markets...

Ubud is a base for the arts, a lot of the local people have skills which have been passed down over generations be it wood carving, painting or masonry work. some of the artifacts can be bought in the market at sometimes really good prices and things you would never find in london, except in boutiques for really high prices. Yes, we did shop, but only after confirming that we could ship the goods to london, which cost as much as the products themselves.

Pics to Follow!