Ubud, Bali has been probably one of my top travel highlights this year. It's a land of lush rice fields, peaceful rivers and the warmest people. I had a hard time leaving.
We traveled there with our good friends, Katie and Steve, in town from Chicago. We stayed at the beautiful Villa Semena where the hotel owner, Jurg, and his staff took the best care of us. They arranged every detail of our trip and gave us great recommendations on what to do and where to eat during our stay in Bali. The complimentary daily breakfast and afternoon tea outside overlooking the beautiful hotel pool and and river below was definitely a highlight.
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| The door to our villa |
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| Plunge pool overlooking the rice paddies |
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| A special spot to meditate by the river |
I could easily come back to Ubud just to chill out at Villa Semena for a week. It was such a peaceful place.
However, this time our 2 day schedule in Ubud was packed with activities including a trip to Monkey Forest, a bike ride through the town and surrounding villages, lunch in the rice paddies and practicing our acrobatic moves at a Flying Yoga class.
Monkey Forest may have been the boys highlight of the trip. Monkeys were everywhere looking for all of the bananas and treats they could find. I have to admit, they were pretty entertaining to watch.
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| A monkey jumped on M's back while taking a picture:) |
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| Feeding the babies |
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| They loved the offerings |
After Monkey Forest, we headed to Yoga Barn to take our first Flying Yoga class. Flying yoga is best described as acrobatic yoga with partners. Still confused? The pictures below may be helpful.
I am glad we tried it, but we all agreed that the more mainstream vinyasa yoga was more for us. Regardless, the Yoga Barn is a great place and I would definitely recommend you check it out if you travel to Ubud.
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| The Yoga Barn |
That evening, we had dinner at Naughty Nuris, a place famous for their ribs and martinis. I can't say Bali is known as the BBQ capital of Indonesia, but if you're craving grilled meats and a strong drink, this place is the perfect spot.
We kicked off day 2 with a private bike ride tour of Ubud with the goal of seeing a picturesque volcano that the locals rave about. After visiting an art gallery and coffee plantation via a minivan, where kick-backs were definitely involved, we told our tour guide that we had no interest in visiting the breakfast spot, since we had already had breakfast at our hotel. We wanted to start our biking adventure. Unfortunately, the breakfast spot was located at the volcano. so skipping breakfast meant missing the volcano (which we didn't learn until it was too late to turn back). On the bright side, we did see many beautiful rice paddies and some of the local villages.
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| Local waste management |
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| We visited a local school |
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| And rode past some breathtaking fields |
After lunch we went back to our hotel to pack up our things before heading to Semiyak (the beach!) that evening. Before leaving town, we had one final meal at Lamak, which serves delicious asian fusion dishes. I highly recommend the restaurant if you travel to Ubud.
I will write a detailed post on Semiyak, which was beautiful, but I must say Ubud is one of my favorite places I've visited. I hope to get back there again to spend some more time in the rice paddies:) In the meantime, I will live vicariously through Julia Roberts in "Eat, Pray, Love" as I re-watch the scenes in Ubud.
