REAL TALK WITH DANIELLE - Travel in Ubud, Bali

Bali has a place for every type of traveler from backpacking to luxury resorts. There are dolphins in the north, water sports in the east, and party beaches to the south. But in the center of it all lies Bali’s spiritual haven. Ubud is a place to visit temples, find spiritual guidance, heal, do yoga, meditate, and stroll through the rice paddies. Whatever you may believe, the mystical spirit that washes over Ubud is undeniable. 

Things to Do:

Gunung Kawi Rocky Temple - The Rocky Temple has 10 large temples carved into its walls above a steady stream of water. Visitors need to descend about 200 steps to the location, but once there, it is something out of a movie. Trees, streams, and waterfalls surround this massive structure, which is just the entrance to the actual temple. The temple itself is thousands of years old and a simple building. As with all temples, we removed our shoes before walking inside. Without knowledge that this is a temple, it would look like a collection of large stones put together to create walls. There is no roof and the floors are covered in dirt and rocks. However, this is part of the majesty of Bali. It might not be a Roman Cathedral, but the greenery swallowing the structure, and the experience of climbing down to it are part of the joy.

Holy Water Temple - This temple had quite a few more tourists as opposed to the Rocky Temple. The structures are classic Balinese buildings with red roofs and gold painted statues of deities. The entrance to the temple has an enormous Koi pond. The temple invites visitors to bathe in the Holy Water pool and cleanse themselves of negative energies. Although I did not partake in the cleansing (there were way too many tourists), our host informed us that the Balinese visit this temple a couple of times a year to cleanse themselves.

Luwak Coffee - A popular tour in Bali is going to a Luwak Coffee plantation. I can’t tell you what it tastes like due to the coffee costing a whopping $50 USD, but the grinds smelled like roasted, nutty, honey flavored goodness. The luwak (pictured below) is known for finding the highest quality coffee beans to eat. After digesting the food, the luwak passes the beans whole, and what is left gets cleaned and ground into Luwak Coffee. This type of coffee became especially popular after it was mentioned in the film, The Bucket List. The best part was the end of the tour when we got to sample 13 different coffees and teas.

The Art Market - I have not seen anything like this in my entire life. Stall after stall of absolute garbage. Poor quality rings, ukuleles that can barely stay in tune, mass-produced round Bali bags - you name it, it’s there. Despite the lack of actual art, I would recommend going there at least once. Just being inside this kind of environment is an experience in itself. Every stall owner has lightning fast reflexes to anyone who peers their shops. A woman lightly grasped my forearm and kept selling to me after I said no twice. She only stopped after I told her no again and pulled my arm away. The reason I think it’s important to go, is because it made me very aware of my privilege, and I think that level of discomfort is important not to shy away from. It made me take an upfront look at poverty and desperation, and think about what I can do (besides buy cheap crap) to contribute to financial equality for everyone.

Yoga Saraswati - This studio is tucked away above one of the restaurants close to the city center. The room fits about 15 students, and doing a sunset yoga class was the perfect way to meditate on the culture shock I was feeling, and all of the other emotions that come with being a nomad for 6 months. I highly recommend this studio as it was only about $6 per class, and the teacher played really good indie tunes.

The Onion Collective Open Mic - We arrived pretty early in the evening at this open mic and were surprised to learn that Ubud has a thriving music community. There are a couple of venues where locals can walk in and play music to their heart’s desire. At this open mic, the host brought an electric drum pad, which I gave a solid try! It was also fun to just sing songs with my husband at an outdoor restaurant in Bali and meet a couple of locals who also love music.

Rice Paddies - The famous Tegalalang rice paddies of Ubud are a must-see experience! This is a very easy hike that showcases endless rice paddies and farmers against a backdrop of palm trees. It is luscious, green, quintessential Bali for a beautiful hour of walking.

Food:

The White Orchid - What an adventure this was! Terrance ordered all of the good things. I tried ordering a traditional Balinese dish, and did not like it. One of our servers told us that crispy pork belly is a staple in Bali. I later found out that it would staple my lower intestines shut for a while. I felt so constipated. However, I will say that the service was stellar and everything else we got was bomb! We had corn fritters, a yummy chocolate cake, and fried banana!

Milk and Madu - This place has a lot of good reviews from the foodie-sphere, so we went to try it out. It’s definitely where all the digital nomads go to work. This place had a lot of white people wearing yoga pants sitting behind computers. It’s like the foreign-owned Bali restaurant version of Starbucks. I got a delicious poke bowl filled with tuna, avocado, and sticky rice.

Taco and Grill Ubud - Okay, so apparently there are great tacos happening outside of Mexico! I can promise you that, because these soft shell chicken tacos were exactly the “taste of home” I needed (and by taste of home, I mean the delicious Mexican food that I’m spoiled with and indulge in heavily in Boston). Perfect blend of “just a little bit spicy but still good” from all the onion, tomato, lettuce-y happenings around the chicken.

Warung Makan Bu Rus - This was the most authentic Balinese restaurant we visited. A warung is a family-owned restaurant. It was outdoors and had a very clean, positive vibe to it. I order Nasi Campur, which had a variety of chickens, sticky rice, and potato chips.

Vanabi Pizza - They make their pizza different in Bali. It’s not crispy... the dough is kind of chewy... I don’t know why they make it this way. This was our first and last attempt at pizza in Bali.

Rococo Warung - This was a good restaurant on the main road in Ubud that had some funky decorations. The smoothies were excellent (dragonfruit and banana!) They also served a popular Hebrew dish called potato latkes, which I ordered immediately because it’s so rare that I get to eat it! It was a really yummy and interesting take on the latke, with many ingredients (tomatoes, onions, cheese) added on top for extra flavor, and it really worked!

Sweet Orange Warung - I loved this place for the cats and the very friendly and relaxed vibe. Sweet Orange is an outdoor restaurant that is along the mile-long hike through the Tegalalang rice paddies. Many foodies talked about this as a “must see” restaurant and we ended up going twice. I ordered the national dish Gado Gado, which is a salad that places the cold ingredients on the outside, and the hot ingredients underneath a bed of rice drenched with peanut sauce in the center. I also ordered Nasi Goreng, which is another popular dish of fried rice, chicken, and a sunny-side-up egg. The servers here are so nice, and in the evening our waiter even offered us insect repellent to use for the mosquitoes. The restaurant also has a plethora of masks hanging from it, which are made from coconuts with “holes caused by squirrels” (as the menu explained). They offer guests the opportunity to buy a mask to decorate and hang at home or in the restaurant.

Spice by Chris Salans - I don’t know much about chefs but this was probably the most bourgeois of our Ubud restaurants. The chef also owns a very chic restaurant that you need to book an early reservation for, but this is the little sister restaurant that I would say is quite an incredible spread. The service was excellent and we enjoyed tapioca root fries, Balinese crab cakes, and got a baked cocoa cookie along with a slice of chocolate cake with passionfruit sorbet for dessert. They also served me the most incredible rosé wine I have ever tasted.

Homestay Breakfasts - I would be remiss if I did not mention this. Our homestay hosts cooked us some incredible breakfasts and essentially introduced us to Balinese cuisine. Their breakfasts consisted of Nasi Goreng (fried rice w/ egg), Mee Goreng (fried noodles w/ egg), Balinese cakes, banana pancakes (which were basically crepes), rice pudding, and more. I so appreciate the time and effort they took each morning to provide these delicious breakfasts and unfortunately I gobbled them up so quickly that all I have is this picture of rice pudding...

Getting Around:

Bali is usually traveled by motorbike, and I want to be that really cool person who hopped on a bike and zoomed around, but I am not. There are many, many bloggers out there who advise against traveling via motorbike unless you hold an International Driver’s License (IDL), which I do not. The reason this is so important is because if you get pulled over, the police will give you a fine (read: bribe) for driving without one. These fines can be ridiculously expensive, and as a budget backpacker, I didn’t want to risk it. Not to mention, traffic in Bali is absolutely crazy. Speed limits don’t exist, crosswalks are for decoration, and the lanes are completely ignored. Ubud is completely walkable, and it was easy enough to order a Grab (same as Uber) when we wanted to travel between the two towns.

Cost of Travel:

We spent $45 per day in Bali for everything (accommodation, food, activities, etc). We also stayed in some incredible AirBNBs, which are known as “homestays”. It is essentially the traditional version of a bed and breakfast. Both of our hosts were hospitality professionals and cooked us free breakfast every morning. Here is the link to our awesome AirBNB in Ubud!

You can have a really deluxe vacation or a backpacker-friendly holiday in Bali. If you are staying in hostels and only eating food from the markets, you can probably get away with a shoestring budget of $25 - $30 per day. But I have also seen prices as high as $900 per night for the luxury resorts in Seminyak. It all depends on what floats your boat.

Fun Facts:

Cock fighting - Our host informed us that cockfighting is a popular activity in Bali. In fact, he got way more excited about it than we expected him to. He even invited us to watch, which we quickly declined. I guess there really are places where it is ingrained in the culture to watch animals fight each other and place bets. I personally don’t agree with harming animals for monetary gain, but it is an unfortunate truth about the world we live in.

Galungan - We visited Bali during the festival Galungan. During these 10 days, Balinese people celebrate the victory of the positive energies in their lives and release the negative energies. (At least, that’s what I gleaned from my conversations). Bamboo is used to create decorative poles called penjor all around Bali, along with the offerings that Balinese set outside daily. Most shops are closed as people take time off of work for the first day. Everything opens up again on the second day.

Ubud is much bigger than I imagined and we did not have time to see everything we had hoped! It’s sprawled out from the Monkey Forest to the rice paddies, and it is helpful to hire a driver for a day if you aren’t using a motorbike. That said, what we did see was beautiful and I would highly recommend this place to anyone hoping for a unique experience of Bali. It has everything from food to spas to meditation, and will rejuvenate all travelers looking for that spiritual retreat.

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