And all of a sudden, there was a monkey sitting on my head. Needless to say I freaked out for a second. Just enough time for him to freak out as well and jump off of me. But for that instance, we were seriously broing out. I don't think I've ever had a closer companion in this crazy world than those few seconds with that wild animal.
But really, the monkey temple here in Ubud was excellent. We watched so many monkeys and as my mama would put it, 'we made so many friends!'
We've been in Ubud five days now after first traveling all the way across the island from Kuta to Lovina and then from the north to the east to Amed. We saw another smorgasbord of temples and palaces in between (not yet sure what the difference between a temple and a palace is here in Bali. The jury is still out on that one.)
There was a bat temple, which was kinda creepy (to be honest) and kinda really awesome. There was another one that was on a lake and some more sprinkled around the rest of our journey. At this point I'm so used to seeing them every few buildings that the awe and amazement has worn off.
However, the main thing that we did in both Lovina and Amed, was the snorkeling. In Lovina we had to take a traditional long boat into the middle of the ocean to reach the reef. That was an experience. We had to wake up super early first to go chase some dolphins though. It was a bizarre scene, with our fleet of maybe 20 boats all with 3-5 people in them chasing a (heard? school?) pack of probably 30 dolphins up and down a small area of ocean.
In Amed, however, the snorkeling was literally 15 steps and a few swimming strokes from our beds. After finally settling on that hotel room, mainly because of the proximity to a coral reef, we had a perfect beach evening/next morning. We got to roll out of bed and jump in the ocean to swim with so many beautiful, curious, colorful fish.
After our magical, quite, relaxing beach days we headed to the middle of the island to relax amongst the rice paddy's in Ubud.
Now for those of you who know New Mexico, people say Ubud is like Taos. It looks nothing like this small northern New Mexican spiritual haven, but the idea is similar. A bunch of white, foreign visitors, on spiritual quests have taken over and created a chill, artsy, foodie town that I really dig (unlike my feelings towards Taos).
My favorite place in Ubud has to be Kafe. It's a restaurant (as the name would hint) that serves raw food, veggie, vegan and also just an array of natural, health conscious stuff. When I ate there, I could just feel my body jump for joy at being cleansed (to sound totally esoteric woo-woo).
Besides eating our hearts out we've been getting spa treatments everyday while we've been here. This is a new occurrence for me and I am slowly getting into it. I have a really hard time relaxing when strangers are touching me, so it's taking me some effort to really appreciate how awesome being able to get 8 massages for the price of one is (although we have not yet gotten that many, nor do I think we will). I did get to take a bubble bath in our room here and that is the kind of thing that takes no effort to relax me. The room is our nicest to date! It is situated in the middle of a rice paddy just outside of town and is just altogether really lovely.
The other main activity we've gotten up to, has been shopping. We are taking advantage of the 100% genuine fake policies here in Bali (and the prices that equates to) and buying souvenirs, gifts, and a random assortment of other things.
There was one museum visit (mostly to satisfy my weekly need for art). I'm pretty sure no one else really wanted to go, but they all suffered through my love of cold marble rooms with square colorful things on the walls.
We also went and saw this dance/play one night at the palace. My favorite character was this old lady who blessed everyone. I'm pretty sure she wasn't actually part of the act, but she took it upon herself to bless the dancers and nobody stopped her. She was such a G. She walked in when everyone else on stage was going crazy with this demon curse thing and was all "y'all might be having an issue but you still need to be blessed." She then just walks around throwing water on everyone who continues to ignore her and pretend they are exorcising the evil out of themselves with wooden knives (or stabbing themselves in the chest while screaming in Balinese)
The next night in a turn of events, we ended up playing pool with our cabby, at a bar called the melting pot, which he called 'melting spot' that had signed flags from all over the world lining the walls. This was in the process of finding somewhere to watch the Super Bowl, because when traveling with my brother that becomes a thing. A thing that I have to wake up at 6:30am tomorrow to do...
On that note, goodnight!
But really, the monkey temple here in Ubud was excellent. We watched so many monkeys and as my mama would put it, 'we made so many friends!'
We've been in Ubud five days now after first traveling all the way across the island from Kuta to Lovina and then from the north to the east to Amed. We saw another smorgasbord of temples and palaces in between (not yet sure what the difference between a temple and a palace is here in Bali. The jury is still out on that one.)
There was a bat temple, which was kinda creepy (to be honest) and kinda really awesome. There was another one that was on a lake and some more sprinkled around the rest of our journey. At this point I'm so used to seeing them every few buildings that the awe and amazement has worn off.
However, the main thing that we did in both Lovina and Amed, was the snorkeling. In Lovina we had to take a traditional long boat into the middle of the ocean to reach the reef. That was an experience. We had to wake up super early first to go chase some dolphins though. It was a bizarre scene, with our fleet of maybe 20 boats all with 3-5 people in them chasing a (heard? school?) pack of probably 30 dolphins up and down a small area of ocean.
In Amed, however, the snorkeling was literally 15 steps and a few swimming strokes from our beds. After finally settling on that hotel room, mainly because of the proximity to a coral reef, we had a perfect beach evening/next morning. We got to roll out of bed and jump in the ocean to swim with so many beautiful, curious, colorful fish.
After our magical, quite, relaxing beach days we headed to the middle of the island to relax amongst the rice paddy's in Ubud.
Now for those of you who know New Mexico, people say Ubud is like Taos. It looks nothing like this small northern New Mexican spiritual haven, but the idea is similar. A bunch of white, foreign visitors, on spiritual quests have taken over and created a chill, artsy, foodie town that I really dig (unlike my feelings towards Taos).
My favorite place in Ubud has to be Kafe. It's a restaurant (as the name would hint) that serves raw food, veggie, vegan and also just an array of natural, health conscious stuff. When I ate there, I could just feel my body jump for joy at being cleansed (to sound totally esoteric woo-woo).
Besides eating our hearts out we've been getting spa treatments everyday while we've been here. This is a new occurrence for me and I am slowly getting into it. I have a really hard time relaxing when strangers are touching me, so it's taking me some effort to really appreciate how awesome being able to get 8 massages for the price of one is (although we have not yet gotten that many, nor do I think we will). I did get to take a bubble bath in our room here and that is the kind of thing that takes no effort to relax me. The room is our nicest to date! It is situated in the middle of a rice paddy just outside of town and is just altogether really lovely.
The other main activity we've gotten up to, has been shopping. We are taking advantage of the 100% genuine fake policies here in Bali (and the prices that equates to) and buying souvenirs, gifts, and a random assortment of other things.
There was one museum visit (mostly to satisfy my weekly need for art). I'm pretty sure no one else really wanted to go, but they all suffered through my love of cold marble rooms with square colorful things on the walls.
We also went and saw this dance/play one night at the palace. My favorite character was this old lady who blessed everyone. I'm pretty sure she wasn't actually part of the act, but she took it upon herself to bless the dancers and nobody stopped her. She was such a G. She walked in when everyone else on stage was going crazy with this demon curse thing and was all "y'all might be having an issue but you still need to be blessed." She then just walks around throwing water on everyone who continues to ignore her and pretend they are exorcising the evil out of themselves with wooden knives (or stabbing themselves in the chest while screaming in Balinese)
The next night in a turn of events, we ended up playing pool with our cabby, at a bar called the melting pot, which he called 'melting spot' that had signed flags from all over the world lining the walls. This was in the process of finding somewhere to watch the Super Bowl, because when traveling with my brother that becomes a thing. A thing that I have to wake up at 6:30am tomorrow to do...
On that note, goodnight!
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