Day 5 & 6: UBUD!!
Ubud is in the foothills of the mountain range in central
Bali. It’s considered as the art and cultural capital of Bali. After the
release of Eat Pray Love, many tourists started flocking to this place.
The air is much
cooler and there are multiple drives around which lead into the beautiful country
side. There are seas of emerald green paddy fields around the place. The drives
around the country can be amazing, and would recommend getting off the main
road, and exploring any road that goes deep in. Its perfectly safe during the
daylight.
The
Tegallalang Rice fields are incredible and there are many nice cafes around the
place where one can pause time and sip the warm coffee in the cool hillside
watching the fields.
We reached the GUNUNG KAWI – a 11th Century
temple, which is nestled in the middle of the forest. It was one of the best temple
complexes I had seen in Bali. There are a couple of water fountains and a huge
park around the main temple. As at all the temples, you need either a sarong or
a sash to gain entry, apart from the ticket J
The evening was fun at Budha Bar – with a Live band
performance. It’s a small place, but the crowd was fun and the ambience was
pretty good.
Next day, we went to the Goa Gaja which is a cave temple
with an ancient Siva shrine and a few places to go around.
We reached the Ubud Palace- which is not much of a palace,
as large part of it is out of bounds for visitors as the royal family still resides
there. We caught a performance of the Balinese dance coupled with the Music
performance.
They played 5-6 short plays which were picked out of the
puranas – Sunda, Upasunda story, etc. Its definitely worth a watch for their
expressions and the radiant costumes they wear!
Ubud also has a few amazing party places and can rival the
Kuta/Legian area. We went to CP LOUNGE which is an intresting lounge with a LIVE band
here too. This is unarguably the best place to chill in the evenings.
One Restaurant – Bambi right opposite the Ubud Palace is worth a
mention for its outstanding food quality. Also its one of the most value for
money places in Bali !!
The westerners were quite fascinated with the Balinese women
when they landed, probably due the custom clothing of that era spanning only
the lower half. They did a bit of a study and learnt that their features were
due to the Hindu rituals where they used to balance heavy Cili baskets for long
walks to the temples.
One such artist – Antonio Blanco of Spanish origin was quite
enamored by the women and an entire art Museum is dedicated for his love of
Balinese women in various paintings.
The Monkey forest is also worth a visit in Ubud.Compared to the glitter and glamour of Kuta, we loved the
Ubud visit too much, probably because of the freedom to roam around on bikes!
Overall, Bali turned
out to be a dream vacation.
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