Bali Day Tour

On week three in Ubud we were visited by the dynamic duo, also known as Elvira and Felix. And because they are not as lazy as us, they booked a taxi driver for a day by the time they arrived from the airport. Actually they had booked three days but we only joined them for the first one. This is how it went.

Entry of the temple.

Center of the Temple of All Things Templish.

The first stop was the Taman Ayun temple. Yes, a temple. Which was very templish. With unidentifyable temple things. They were existing all around even though I didn't understand their purpose. Behind the temple was a park but we didn't spend time there because I assumed (and I was right in my assumption) that our time will not suffice to visit everything that was in our plan.

OoOOh spread your wings and fly, butterfly!

Our second stop was at the Bali Butterfly Park. They also had other bugs and some spiders in boxes but their main attraction was butterflies. I loved them (no homo)! I thought that the very colorful depictions of butterflies were the stuff of fantasy because all I have ever seen live was the brownish ones but these here were wild, beautiful, big, sometimes colossal to the point of being scary. Not hairy-spider-scary but still scary.

I have to look up what this is before it kills me.

This is some kind of bug and NOT a leaf.

Also not leaves.

I hadn't thought that the butterfly park would be interesting for me but it was.

Third stop were the Jatiluwih Rice Terraces which were impressive in their own, very different way. Nothing I could say about them that isn't explained better with pictures.

Rice fields.

Sky mostly.

Our fourth stop was supposed to be a bath in hot springs but time was running out and we went straight to Danau Bratan. I think that is its name because Google Maps has an alternative spelling. It is a temple in the water. This was more exciting than the first one because of the surroundings being more interesting and varied and there being a playing field for children. We rode a kind or round swing for two when you sit opposite of each other. Wheeeee!

Temple in the water.

That was supposed to be our last stop. What we didn't know was that our guide had another stop planned for us (not pictured).

What I liked in Bali compared to Thailand was that people seemed less inclined to relentlessly try to sell you things at overinflated tourist prices. This is true at least apart from the taxi drivers in Ubud. Those keep each others back like a wall of scam you can't penetrate. Our taxi driver for the day offered a price that was a significant pay day for him but wasn't more expensive than taking a taxi in Australia. Which brings us to our last stop.

Also close to the water temple just to break up the text a little.

Our driver asked us if we wanted to try Luwak coffee. We didn't. He asked if we want to do a coffee break and the friend who sat on the front naively said yes. We were brought to the most obvious and most deliberately evil tourist trap where got a tour of how they make their own coffee and let us taste different sorts of coffee and tea. Then they took us to their shop where we paid prices four times higher than what we found later in normal shops. I knew they were scamming us but agreed to buy something anyway because the price for the ride was pretty low, he was a good guide otherwise and I accepted that he gets a percentage of the things sold there.

I got a package with vanilla coffee for myself and Diana drank all of it.

Monkey Forest

While in Ubud, do like Ubud which means do the Monkey Forest ... or something.

Ubud is known for its monkeys and its hippie yogis which are almost the same thing. OK, they are nothing like each other at all. But perhaps the yogis can use their devine powers to communicate with the monkeys? If so, I have some use for them.

Criminals!

After our friends from the Germanies arrived, one of the first things we did was visit the monkey forest. I personally got a taste of the monkeys even before we got through the gate. Since I didn't have anything to eat, I bought two pieces of banana bread. When we were close to the forest and I was still naive, unsuspecting and therefore unprepared, I unpacked my banana bread, had a bite and then out of nowhere a monkey materialises before me, jumps and climbs on me and snaps the banana bread out of my hand. We laughed! But I was also angry.

Statues of criminals

If I found a yogi that can talk to the monkeys, I want her to tell the monkey that he owes me a banana bread and I want the monkey to buy it at the Coco Market because they have my favorite one. After that I was still hungry but weary. Before going through the entrance, I checked my surroundings, took out the second piece, saw another monkey coming at me and put everything in my mouth. The woman at the entrance told me not to bring any food with me and I agreed with her even though I am not sure she understood me because I talked with a very very full mouth.

No criminals in sight. Not that I know of.

The forest was nice to look at, the monkeys climbed on you, if you bought any bananas from the banana-stands there and it was funny if you were intentionally carrying food to feed them.

It was nice.

Base 27 - Ubud

August is peak season for tourists in Bali. This means that because we decided to go there a week prior, the choice of rooms was severely cut down. The first priority was to find something close to the Yoga Barn, so it was more difficult. I booked a room close by with a view to a rice field for three days. The plan was to look for something better for a longer stay when we arrive there.

We didn’t find anything.

Either the rooms were too far from the Yoga Barn, or they were too expensive or we had to switch rooms every one or two days if we picked the hotel. We also looked for some rooms in Penestanan close to another yoga place but every room we’ve seen there had an intense smell of mold. I don’t know if you can even fight mold in a place like that but it was a shame. I hurt to have accesss to the most beautiful houses for good prices but not being able to stand the smell.

Da masta bedroom.

So now, our room for three weeks. It was actually three rooms. The first three days was in a small room with a double bed. It was too small. The second one was way more roomy, on the second floor and with two single beds which we had to push together. It only half helped. Diana fell in love with this room and wants to stay there forever even though it‘s a bit shabby. Hot water was sometimes missing. The bathroom didn‘t have a window and was damp most of the time. Some corners had a bit of mold. But the feeling there with the view was freeing. It felt like vacation.

The lobby and restaurant were also flawed but lovable. We went there every day at the last possible moment to order breakfast, because normally none of us eats breakfast. So I ate fried rice with vegetables and banana pancake for three weeks straight. Is that wrong?

It‘s all good.

Da masta restaurant.

We also had a third room for two nights because our favorite room was booked but it was horrible and we best forget about it.

Bali Ubud

After Diana came back from Thailand to Australia (did I mention, she was in Thailand?) she wasn't happy. Her stint in Thailand was more work than relaxation and she wanted to do more yoga and drink out of coconuts.

So, Bali. It is supposed to be something like an Australian colony because it is the cheapest vacation Australians can do outside of the country. At least that was the reasoning I wanted to use for including it in the blog. It's all a lie. We have heard more Germans than Australians here.

Where The Streets Have No Numbers

OK, it is not a lie, we are just on the wrong spot. The partying Australians are just in different parts of Bali. When we arrived here, I shamefully didn't know anything about Bali or Ubud. We came here because Diana was told it has the best yoga places. I just found out yesterday that the whole of the tourism here is rooted in the book/film Eat, Pray, Love. The core of it are women in their 30s looking for spirituality, fitness, cleansing, health, whatever. That's me basically.

First meal in Ubud.

I like and I don't like the center of Ubud. It has lots of good restaurants (and shops if you like that kind of thing). The people are good natured. It is cheaper than Australia. I like the traditional architecture. Also the rooms they do yoga in are stunning in their beauty and I don't even care for that kind of thing. What I don't like is the endless traffic and constant loudness and the taxi drivers asking for prices beyond what you would pay in Australia.

Working place in our hotel.

If you go a bit outside of the centre of the village, it is a completely different feeling. Traffic becomes much less and you see a mixture of beautiful nature, small, neglected shops and traditional courtyards that house multiple generations of families with their own mini-temple. Next time we come here, we will get a room a bit outside of town.

Then we will see more of this.

Base 23, 24, 25, 26 (Damn!)

Like I said, four apartments in two weeks. Let's get it over with.

West End 1

The first one I picked because Diana arrived at 6 in the morning and didn't want to wait until 12 to check-in. Most of the room are only available after 12 or 2 pm. It was in West End and would be a nice place to say in the summer but the winter nights were 12°C outside and inside this apartment it was considerably colder.

West End 2

Not for us then. The second one was in Highgate Hill, more modern, a more comfortable stay with pretty impressive views.

Highgate Hill 1

It was a bit warmer and more comfortable. I had a nice desk to work from for a bit which is where I took the photo above.

Highgate Hill 2

The negative was that it was pretty far from anything that wasn't more apartments. In order to reach a restaurant or to go buy food or something, you were best advised to get a bus. Still nice enough but a bit expensive. Let's go to Hamilton next.

Hamilton 1

There were a couple of good things there. We had the whole apartment to ourselves. It was modern, beautiful, it has a nice desk for me to work, although the chair needed some kind of cushion to make it bearable.

Hamilton 2

The apartment gets bonus points for having its own underground parking place but we had to go through a labyrinth with two lifts to get there. Also restaurants and a super market very close by. And a great view. But because of bad timing with booking the place and a flight to Bali, we had two days left to fill. Enter Nundah.

Nundah

This one was close to the airport and close to where we wanted to leave our car before going to the airport. Nothing remarkable about it except from the part that the guy who lived there had his own "start-up" together with three other people and they worked on their e-learning website in order to sell it. I have never heard it being said so explicitely before that you make a company not in order to do something but in order to give it value and sell it. Damn!

Brisbane Revisited

Back to basics! Or Australia! One of those two!

Last time when we left Australia, we have only seen Brisbane for a day. Actually I did. Diana left pretty early in the morning. The impressions I got from the city were not good but a bit promising. I liked it much better when stayed there a second time.

Closed cabins, so Diana was not interested.

We lived in a record-breaking four rooms in two weeks so we had the chance to see lots of Brisbane (but not much of the beach). The downside of Brisbane is that it doesn't offer anything spectacular as far as we have seen. The upside is that as far as big cities go, it seems like a nice place to live.

Not the center.

The center of the city is centery and offers everything you'd want but is not overcrowded. The rest of Brisbane offer some nice walks along the river, nice streets with restaurants (probably close to where you live), some malls, also with good restaurants, good weather even in the winter. It's not as expensive as Sydney, more cosmopolitan than Perth.

The center.

What I also liked was that traffic was bearable considering the size of the city. Brisbane is full of tunnels and bridges that often let you get out of the way of congestions and it relieves some spots you'd assume would be more problematic of much of the traffic.

I liked Brisbane.

One Day of Brisbane (also Base 22)

Where were we? I was lazy with writing the last couple of weeks.

Ah, Gold Coast. That was the last couple of weeks in Australia, before leaving to lands unknown. Before going to the airport we had one stay in Brisbane in a skyscraper on the 64th floor.

There was not much when it comes furniture but
there was everything I needed.

We arrived in the evening, found a street to leave the car relatively close to the airport but far away from the centre of the city where we slept because there were no parking spots in the centre and certainly no free ones. Then we took the train back. Brisbane wins the prize for the ugliest interior of all Australian trains.

We went for a walk and then to sleep. Didn't get to see anything impressive in the first half an hour.

But the view from the room was great.

On the next day, Diana was leaving first so I brought her to the train station and went to find a supermarket to buy some nuts for my own flight. That was the day I found the shopping district.

Brisbane impressions getting a bit better.

The day was warm, the place was open and clean and I liked it. I went and ate at a Vapiano, bought some excessively expensive nuts, walked around a bit and went home. A suitcase was packed. A key left behind. A ridiculously small airport for a city this big was reached by train. A continent was left behind.

Goodbye Australia!

For now.