Bali- arrival and ubud

we arrived at the airport in denpasar at approximately 11:45pm, 30 minutes after the flight was scheduled to land. it had been a long day for us as we'd been on course all weekend. oh well, we thought, at least there's a driver waiting for us on the other side... fools! fools! it took us about 2 hours to get to "the other side".

the indonesian airport was shoddy at best. we scrambled off the plane (from the first row!) only to discover a large group of lines snaking around the terminal. we got into one to buy our "visas on arrival", which for some reason make more sense then getting a visa in australia (which you can't actually get). after paying 50$ US for the visas, we jumped into another line. a painfully long line. we moved to the front of the queue at a snail's pace of 5mph (that's meters, not miles!). i tried not to be "that westerner" but i couldn't help thinking that such a disgrace at immigration wouldn't happen in canada... right?

when we finally crossed over, we went out to find the driver the hotel sent for us. and there he was, with a little hand drawn sign with my name on it...2 hours later! we hoped into the mini van and desperately clung to the seats as he drove - read: careened- through the streets. i figured it was best to close my eyes and ignore it all. about 20 mins later, we were ushered into our hotel room and drifted off to sleep.

day one in bali was spent as follows: wake up, eat breakfast, put on bathers and sunblock, grab book, sit by pool..... eat dinner, go to bed. that's about it. actually, we did go out for a walk late in the day and discovered that in fact, our hotel was in the middle of nowhere. we took a leisurely stroll through the rice paddies and in the streets of the slummy-village. we sort of felt like movie stars with all the locals and the kids shouting out at us, giggling and practicing their english. it was pretty sad to see the amount of garbage by the roadside and to note the state of the water in the "rivers" they were bathing in. felt a bit wrong knowing that we were staying in luxury only meters away!

day 2 was spent slightlly differently: we ventured into ubud. now, ubud is revered by most perthites as being "a really artsy, relaxing village with good shopping. but a much better vibe then the built-up areas, like kuta and it's soooo cheap". i have one thing to say to perthites: travel more! whilst (sorry chris) ubud is an interesting city, it is by no means a chill, little relaxing village. the main street is insanely busy, with barely enough room for one car, let alone multiple cars, scooters and pedestrians. it's hot, dusty and filled with people asking if you "need transport" or if we'd like a massage at the spa they're standing in front of. it's also full of shops- but not interesting, unique shops. nope. filled with shops like dolce and gabanna, ralph lauren, and the lesser known australian brands that i *ugh* deal with all the time. needless to say, we were mostly disappointed with ubud.

thankfully, we found a few great little restaurants which served the most amazing food (yes, even for us vegos!). we also stumbled upon an art gallery wherein the artist took photographs of water and printed them on canvases. they sound lame as i'm describing them here, but i can assure you that they are incredibly amazing. in fact, we purchased from the gallery.

we also strolled into the monkey forest. aptly named because there are approximately 340 grey, long-tailed macaques. you can buy bananas at the entrance but we chose not to because well, i didn't really want a monkey crawling on me. the monkeys are pretty funny though- eating bananas, grooming, stealing snacks and water from tourists hands and bags. john had a monkey "attack" him for the 1.5L water bottle he was carrying. one of the forest caretakers told us that monkeys love water bottles. i have a video of a monkey opening a water bottle (sealed with plastic on the lid) and taking a drink. too funny!

in the end, we just strolled around ubud until we were hungry enough to eat dinner. we found a great little organic/vegan restaurant which took forever to serve us but was well worth it in the end. after which, we sauntered over to the king's temple and waited for the mini-van to escort us back to the hotel. we did, after all, have a big day ahead of us at the australian embassy!

xo