Sunday, October 15, Day 2 Scooter exploration

After another wonderful breakfast, we prepared for our scooter safari. Our briefing on local riding regulations included specific warnings to not park on the street in central Ubud town If we did, the police would likely deflate our tires and we would have to call for help. (Later in the day when we passed though central Ubud, we did see the police impounding a couple scooters improperly parked by tourists. Traffic is so horrible there they are really serious about this.)

We packed up water and our sarongs, put on our helmets and I pulled up our planned route on Google maps. One of the wonderful features about maps is you can download an offline version. And even though I wasn’t on Wi-Fi or cellular data, it still tracked where we were on the map. (I have to look at the positive because otherwise it’s scary that they always know where you are even when you’re not ”officially” connected.)

Neil loves waterfalls. We were on our way to our first temple when we passed the sign for Manuaba Waterfall. We made a U-turn and parked in a dirt lot, then walked up a hill where we encountered the entrance booth and paid our admission fee. They also kindly loaned me a walking stick which I found very helpful going up and down on the hike to view the two impressive waterfalls. The waterfalls were definitely flowing and it was fun to walk through the stream which was actually part of the trail to climb back out to the road. I don’t know if I’d want to do it in the rainy season as the flow was already strong enough at this time of year! 

A side note is that all the tourist destinations, temples and attractions like waterfalls, now charge entrance fees. But it does help maintain the temples and grounds and in the case of our waterfall hike, the trails were very well maintained.

Our next stop was Pura Tiata Empul, known for its holy springs. It was packed with visitors but it was also Sunday and many of the locals were there in their beautiful temple finery. The pool with the Springs itself was so beautifully clear and you could see the water bubbling up into the pool. That was definitely my favorite part. 

There is another sacred springs temple very close by: Pura Gunung Kawi Spatu. It was much calmer and more serene walking through. Neil makes friends wherever he goes and there was a group of girls that were having trouble getting everyone into a single selfie. Neil offered to take pictures for them and they really enjoyed that with lots of coy giggles. 

Our next stop was the Ceking rice terraces. It was time for lunch and we found a lovely restaurant overlooking the terraces. We didn’t feel the need to walk out into these ones since our beautiful bungalow is nestled among rice fields. 

Just west of Ubud is Pura Gunung Leban, a temple made sacred by its position at the confluence of two rivers. By this point Neil started using the cell phone holder on the motor scooter, so he could actually watch the route and see the directions without me having to hold the phone in my hand and tell him in his ear. But that still didn’t help us find the turn off for the temple because it was one of those instances Google got wrong. When we finally did find the entrance, we found the temple locked up. A few of the little stalls were open, though, selling offerings and souvenirs. In chatting with one of the owners Neil found out to everyone’s amusement they happened to be cousins to the man who rented us the scooter! Small island. Even though the temple was closed Neil was still able to go down and explore the river! The confluence of clear water and muddy water was fascinating.

The Sacred Monkey Forest that is south of Ubud now feels like a metropolitan zoo. There is a huge Welcome Center and large parking lots for motor coaches and vehicles. What we remembered as a completely open rural area surrounded by forest and rice paddies is now surrounded by hotels, guesthouses and restaurants. They even had a full-time cop on the busy street directing traffic at the entrance. We parked and saw several monkeys including a baby on our way to the Welcome Center. It was already mid-afternoon and really hot, so I opted not to go in and told Neil I’d wait for him. He decided to skip it too. 

The temple of Goa Gajah is referred to as the elephant temple. There is a cave with carvings around the entrance and inside a sculpture of Ganesh. Outside, Neil explored a pretty stream and a path to the waterfall and the ruins of a Buddhist temple while I set to rest and meditate. Venturing further, Neil found some good photo spots and an unmarked pathway used by locals leading to a Hindu temple and a neighborhood on the opposite side of the sacred site. 

Neil did an incredible job driving the scooter with me on the back in the insane traffic on the streets of Ubud. He was zooming around passing and swerving among the cars along with all the rest of the scooters. He was gripping the handles so tightly that he would need to flex his grip when stopped at the few stop lights. He said his buns were also tight from gripping the seat. He said the traffic rules were pretty simple: drive in such a way as to make other drivers yield to avoid you. 

We decided to have dinner on the way back (and not take the scooter out again in the dark.) We found Warong Ikan Bakar dan Kolam Pancing Sawah Indah, a beautiful restaurant overlooking rice paddies. We dined as the sunset light reflected off the fields. We though at first it was an Indian restaurant but it was turns out it was very good Indonesian food. A lovely end to a full day.

Onward to the island of Bali, Indonesia. The town of Ubud in the central part of the island north of the airport was our first destination.

Neil and I had each visited Bali in the early nineties and both stayed in Ubud as well as other places on the island approximately 30 years ago. You can’t help but compare and reminisce about what it was before. We remember staying in little guest houses out in the middle of the rice paddies in the center of Ubud. Those rural places are now a dense commercial area. We remember the open air airport that is now thoroughly enclosed and modern and full of storefronts trying to see you SIM cards and transportation. And we remember that you could walk safely in the streets of Ubud with only a few cars occasionally passing. Now it was solid traffic from the airport to the center of town (and it took us 1 hour and 45 minutes to go the 25 miles from airport to hotel).  But then I reflected on how much Maui has changed in the 28 years I’ve lived here and I know that everything changes in both positive and negative ways.

Maui is still magical to me and Bali is still a magical island as we explored it deeper.

The first wonderful thing was that our hotel, Ubud Luweh, which Neil had booked online, is a guest house right out in the middle of the rice paddies. We had an end room and were able to open our windows to a view of newly planted rice paddies bordering the guest house.

So what was the negative?  The guest house was 4 km away from downtown Ubud and too far to walk to any restaurants. We shared a taxi with 2 other guests into the center of town our first night for a local Balinese dinner. We walked around the corner to view the Pura Tamam Saraswati water temple. The positive is that it was absolutely beautifully lit and looks very well maintained. The negative is that open air restaurants are now inserted into the edge of the temple grounds and while we were there, loud piped music (non Balinese) started to play and a synchronized multicolor light show began. This formerly sweet beautiful sacred water temple now reminded us of garish Las Vegas. Neil pointed at the sign that was asking visitors to respect the Balinese culture. We just shook our heads at each other.

Our room was lovely with a king size bed complete with mosquito net. It had beautiful Balinese furniture including a large wardrobe. We settled and were soon in Dreamland. 

Saturday, October 14, Day 1  Planning Day

We woke to the sunrise coming in our windows over the rice patties. We watched the swallows swooping over the rice at dawn (and later at dusk) feeding on the mosquitoes. (The bats took over the night shift.) They can have all the mosquitoes they want! And they must do a good job because we were not bothered by insects at all.

The hotel included breakfast. The manager offered us the menu the night before at check in to make our selections for the following morning. They have 5 choices including selections of both Western and Indonesian breakfasts. Neil chose nasi goreng, fried rice and egg, and I chose Mei Goreng, fried noodles and egg. They cooked it fresh for us when we arrived for breakfast in the morning and it was delicious. We had fresh juice and fresh fruit and a lovely cup of tea to accompany it. 

This first day, we planned to take relax and do some planning for what we wanted to see. The manager arranged for a driver to come and meet with us to coordinate a trip to the East side of Bali for the following day. We set up contact info on WhatsApp and then our driver Wayan called later to request our tour move to Monday.

Google maps works even in Bali, almost. It showed an ACK Chicken restaurant right near us by following a path through the rice patties and along a narrow alley across the stream. We thought that would be great for lunch and a fun little exploration. We found our way to the street going the most direct route through canyon-like sidewalk alleys but then we started going left and right looking for the restaurant. We finally were able to ask someone and they said oh no, they moved another kilometer down. With it being so hot, we decided to just go back to our room and eat some of our snack supply for lunch.

Late afternoon seemed the right time for dip in the pool. The water was warm and refreshing.

We decided to rent a motorbike for two days so we would have transportation into town for dinners and we could do some touring around the Ubud area on our own for Sunday. Somehow our request to the manager was lost in translation and the motorbike did not appear that evening and by the time they called for it, everyone had left the office so we wouldn’t get it until 8:30 the morning. We decided to try again to find the ACK Chicken restaurant. Rather than go to the street and walk a kilometer dodging traffic, we walked a dirt path among the rice patties as the sun was setting. The light was beautiful for photos. Our path eventually got to the main road that basically has no sidewalks and is full of traffic. We found the ACK which turned out to be a tiny open air KFC type restaurant. We later found that it’s a chain all through the island.

The walk back was the real adventure of the night along the busy street with 2 way traffic and sections of no sidewalk with large open drops. So glad we had our flashlights.