Ubud, the Sacred Center

Before I returned to the states from my one year contract in Singapore, I decided to take a relaxing vacation in the center of Bali, Indonesia in a town called Ubud. 

Ubud is unlike the party and surfer vibe of Kuta, or the luxury resort feel of some other towns in Bali. To imagine it, think of the novel and movie Eat Pray Love. The small town is a spiritual hub for meditative yogis, hippies, anyone seeking to get away and to get reconnected with themselves. I believe the town itself experienced a surge in tourist numbers because of the novel! What great unintentional marketing for the tourist industry. In some ways, it feels extremely cliche, but I can't deny that the various amenities offered in Ubud do support this holistic lifestyle quite well. 

The town is almost entirely made of businesses to support these lifestyle tourists - resorts and hostels, massage, yoga, and holistic health centers, raw restaurants and vegan cafes, fair trade boutique shops and temples around every corner.

The local art scene is also thriving, and there are numerous museums and galleries dedicated to showcasing some of this talent.

There are three main streets (Jalan Monkey Forest, Jalan Hanoman, Jalan Raya) in the town, crammed with shops and businesses, but it is still possible to find a bit of nature in Ubud. One morning, I walked through a small side alley from Jalan Monkey Forest to a parallel road named Jalan Bisma. Rather than a busy paved street, I was greeted with rugged dirt roads and lovely rice paddies.

Unfortunately there was a fair bit of new development occurring alongside this road - new resorts, villas, and inns to add to the tourist industry. I'm guessing in a few years it will look completely different. It's a tough ethical point - tourism completely changes the landscape of the area and the lifestyle of the locals, and makes them completely dependent on foreigners, yet the industry is very profitable and helps maintain some parts of the local culture, though of course in a commercialized and simplified manner.

On a less serious note, the food in Bali was great! Affordable, healthy, largely organic, and well-prepared. Many of the restaurants and cafes had cool ambiances and design concepts, made to promote relaxation. It's strange; because there is such a large number of businesses, at any given time, all but the most popular ones will be mostly empty, with many staff members lounging around waiting for customers. I'm not sure how they manage to stay in business! Most of them are experts in the tourist industry though, and facilities are clean and service is friendly.

For example, one morning I went to a lovely restaurant for brunch called Maha on Jalan Monkey Forest. It was completely devoid of customers but I decided to give it a shot, having passed by it a few times before. It has a lovely interior, with a nice garden in the back and patio seating.

This whole brunch, including a latte, was only around $6 USD.

Ubud is definitely a health foodie paradise - crammed full of cafes and restaurants offering fresh blended juices and smoothies, raw chocolates and desserts, big colorful salad bowls. Again, it does cater to a specific clientele, and they can't get enough. I don't think you can go wrong with a meal - everything I had was delicious.

I prefer the relative peace in Ubud to the craziness of the beach town of Kuta, though the main town is quite bustling. There isn't too much to do if you are an active tourist who is always on the go, but it is a nice place to relax, let go, and get some affordable massages and nice food. 

Beautiful Bali

The beautiful open landscape of Bali, with its beaches, cliffs, and rice terraces was a tremendous contrast to the hectic cities I have traveled to so far on this trip.


Two things stood out to me on this trip: the slow pace of life on Bali as well as how the tourism industry has completed transformed and taken over the society.

Perhaps it is ingrained in the spiritual culture of the island, but the pace of Bali was extremely laid-back and relaxing. We joked about "Bali time" and "Bali distance." When people told us a time, we could always expect them to be at least fifteen minutes late. When people told us a distance, we could always expect it to be at least ten times further away. Therefore, life on the island is extremely unrushed, and there is the ability to simply enjoy the moment.

The city where we stayed, Kuta, is the backpacker and tourist district of Bali - I shouldn't have been surprised at total domination of the tourist industry. Every single business, whether it be a spa, yoga studio, surf shop, restaurant, hotel, bar, boutique, is catered specifically for overseas travellers. Every Balinese local that I met was working in the tourism industry, whether as a driver, vendor, service worker, or hotel manager. Though these developments have brought a lot of profits and have created jobs in the area, I wonder how much authenticity is left.

We stayed at Fat Yogis Cottages on Poppies I, a narrow street that runs perpendicular to the beach. It was a pretty decent budget option - clean and very simple. For 3 people, it was about $50 a night. The location is about a 5-10 minute walk to the beach.


Complimentary breakfast was provided every morning. We ordered toast with jam, poached eggs, fresh fruit, and coffee.


There is a great tranquil atmosphere outside in the courtyard, with a pool and lounge chairs.


On the first day we hired a private driver to take us around. This is a really good option because it costs about $40 and the driver will take you wherever you want to go for the whole day. We went to Ubud, the cultural heart of Bali. Our first stop was the Monkey Forest. Here, hundreds of monkeys roam around freely. You can interact with them at your own risk.




Some of them were very mischievious and tried to steal people's water bottles. Others were quite zen, like this old fellow below.



We went to lunch in a very cute cafe called Warung Lada. "Warung" is what they call any type of family business. This place serves traditional Indonesian food at very reasonable prices. Each dish is usually under $5. I ordered the gado gado, which is a plate of various items dipped in peanut sauce.


Right outside Ubud are these lush green rice terraces. They are a huge tourist attraction, despite how commonplace and everyday they must seem to the Balinese.



We made it to Tanah Lot for the sunset. Tanah Lot is on the west coast of Bali. It is a temple out in the sea, and another huge draw for tourists. We had to walk through a maze of vendors before reaching the shore. There was even an officially licensed store selling Crocs shoes.


Tanah Lot is a Hindu Temple (Bali is mostly Hindu, as opposed to the rest of Indonesia which is predominantly Muslim). Not being Hindu, we couldn't go onto the temple itself, but at least I got to take photos from the ground!



The next morning I tried something new - Surfing!

There are a lot of surf shops and surf schools that offer full day lessons, but if you just want to "test out the waters," the best and cheapest way to learn is to go to the beach. There are tons of surfer dudes lined up with their surfboards propped up along the beach. They will each offer to teach you how to surf and name a rate. We passed by three different people until we reached a guy who would give us a 3o min. lesson for about 50,000 rupiah ($6). Bonus - he said the lesson would be free if we couldn't stand up on the board by the end of it.


So I didn't get a free lesson!

For lunch we went to this restaurant by the beach. I got this salmon salad. Not sure if the salmon was fresh, but it was still really delicious. Here I tried experimenting with the macro setting on my camera.


In the afternoon we went back to the beach and were surprised at how much the tides had receded. There were huge expanses of sand that went out maybe 100 meters out into the sea. People were playing soccer on the wet sand and kids were building sandcastles.


There was so much left to see, but I'm glad we didn't try to squeeze tons of activities into our limited time. I'm already looking forward to my next trip here.