Kimberley Trip, Day 2: Ubud

Friday, May 24, 2024

Our plan for the day is to visit Ubud, the cultural heart of Bali. A friend at home had recommended Wayan, a driver she has used in the past. I had arranged with him to pick us up at our hotel.

After leaving the Nusa Dua resort area, we crossed a long toll bridge to the north. Once off the bridge, traffic was terrible! Some of the traffic was destined for Sanur, a port to the north, but once past there, traffic was only a little better. We had expected that we would emerge from the city into a more rural area, but while we did encounter some farming areas, it never got to be what we would consider rural.

We asked to see some of the local crafts. Our first stop was at the Sari Amerta batik collection. We were shown demonstration of batik making, which involves the precise application of beeswax to control the spread of dyes added to the fabric. We were then invited into their store. As expected, we received quite a sales pitch there. Kenna found a lovely scarf and some fabric she plans to use to make a dress.

Our next stop was to a jewelry maker, again showing us the painstaking work of their craft. The shop here had a wide variety of jewelry, from which we chose a small set of earrings for our daughter, Celeste.

Along the way, we contacted our friends Dave and Jan, who are staying in Ubud, to see if they wanted to meet for lunch. It turned out they were considerably further north: Ubud is shown on the map as a city, but it’s actually a district, and they were some distance away. So we did our separate things for the day.

Our third stop was the Muji Family Art Gallery, where, again, artists were showing their craft, in this case, painting pictures, at the front entrance. I thought some of the artwork was nice, but I hesitated to comment because I didn’t want to get a sales pitch from the salesman trailing us. Although there were many lovely works, we didn’t have a place for most of the art, so we thanked them but didn’t purchase.

Wayan next took us to a local Hindu temple, the Puseh Batuan Temple, one of the “tourist-friendly” temples in the area. Upon arrival, we were issued sarongs to wear in the temple and crossed the street to the temple itself.

Wayan was very helpful in explaining a bit of the meaning of the various parts of the temple grounds. The stone and woodwork were intricately carved, and we looked closely at some recently replaced roof trim. Wayan also showed himself as a skilled photographer, borrowing my camera to take several pictures of us at various places in the temple area.

After returning our sarongs, it was time for us to eat lunch. Wayan took us to Samar Kuning Restaurant, situated on the edge of an expansive rice field. It is a large, open-air restaurant that services the tourist trade. Prices were quite reasonable by our standards but pricey by local standards. Wayan ate separately from us despite my invitation to join us and buy his lunch. I had one of the house specialties, the crispy duck, which was enjoyable but less tasty than classic Peking Duck.

After lunch, we went around the corner to Teba Sari Bali, which was introduced as a coffee plantation with a wide variety of teas, cocoa, and other spices such as vanilla, cinnamon, and ginger. It was my first time seeing a cinnamon tree and a vanilla (orchid) plant growing outside. We got a sampler of their teas and coffees. The Bali Coffee is prepared similarly to Turkish Coffee (ground to a fine powder, mixed with hot water, and left at the bottom of your cup). It was delicious and reminded me of the coffee I had tasted in Brazil many years ago.

The final thing on our wish list for the day was to visit a waterfall we had seen in various brochures. Wayan drove us to the Tegenungan Blangsinga waterfall nearby, where we descended several flights of very steep steps to get close. This was a favorite of the locals and tourists; many were swimming in the stream below. We got our exercise climbing back up those steep steps to the van where Wayan was waiting.

We were tired when we returned to the hotel after all that activity. We opted for a light sushi dinner at the hotel’s Japanese restaurant.

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This article is part of a series about our recent trip to Indonesia and Australia. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.