Before I came to Bali, everyone told me I needed to go to Ubud. After settling into our Canggu (pronounced like Chaun-gu) neighborhood and getting a feel for the local expectations and apps that help us navigate Bali better (read about those from our first week in Bali), we decided to venture out and find out what made Ubud wonderful for other friends who had come to visit.
I spent several hours looking at different tour operators and options for trips around Ubud. I'm normally up for a good bargain, but after some searching it appeared that good reviews were going to be much more important than price. TripAdvisor gave me the most detailed information from reviewers. In the end, I found a package with a reputable trip operator on Tour Bali Driver that covered a more cultural and traditional itinerary, listed as their Bali Full-Day Traditional Village Sightseeing Trip with Lunch.
Once again, I felt like the magical expectations and experiences that other people shared of Ubud, who had visited years ago, were met with the stark realities of crowded streets of traffic and sidewalks full of tourists. We decided to get a hotel in the heart of Ubud so that we could walk around and explore the shops, but when we saw how crowded it was on the streets, we decided that it would be far more relaxing to simply stay on the hotel property the evening and morning after our tour around Ubud rather than exploring on foot. As part of our Ubud tour package, we arranged for a pickup from our Canggu villa and drop off at the resort in Ubud to make it easier.
What may have once been a wonderful city to walk around in, now seems more desirable to view from a car window while passing by it onto greener pastures and dedicated sites only accessible by car. In New York City terms, Ubud has become the Times Square of Bali, minus neon lighting and elmo fuzzies. However, unlike Times Square, there are no large pedestrian-only streets to accommodate the large number of tourists- more like barely there sidewalks that require partner dancing with strangers to navigate. *sigh* I digress. If I wasn't an energetically sensitive person who could feel everyone else's stuff, this might be considered "exciting", but as a sensitive person, it puts my defenses on high alert until I can get somewhere to relax with nature and water. All of that means that traveling around in a car is the best option for someone who is very sensitive.
Our first major stop was at the Batuan Temple, which was much less crowded than the Ubud Temple. This was a great choice on the part of the tour operator, since we had more space to look around and the temple wasn't so large or overwhelming that we would spend an extended time there. We were asked to wear Saris as a respectful way to enter because the temple is still in operation as an active religious site. Our tour guide, Partama was quick to take photos of us in all the photo spots.
The next stop was the Sacred Monkey Forest, which was fairly crowded near the main parts of the park and seemed to make the handlers a little more anxious about needing to watch visitor behavior to keep the monkeys and visitors safe, but as we went deeper into the park and off into less active areas, we were able to see monkeys in their normal playful and adventurous behaviors rather than behaving for treats or coming to feeding sites to eat lunch.
Then our tour went further out north of Ubud to the farming area around Mount Batur. We visited the Natural Rice Terrace, which is designed to give tourists the experience of what it's like to walk and navigate the rice fields without actually damaging someone's private rice field. There are also a couple of large swings at this site for tourists who want the seasickness- I mean the thrill- of swinging out over the valley on a large swing.
For lunch we stopped at an overlook buffet style restaurant that looked out over Mount Batur. We were lucky to grab a few minutes of views before the clouds rolled in over the ridge and obscured the view, but by that time we were just happy to be enjoying an Indonesian lunch. Our guide made sure we both tried the snake fruit, which I haven't had anywhere other than Bali. Other local foods were satay, curries, egg soup, veggie soup, tempura veggies, seasoned rice, fruits, and corn fritters. If you scroll through the images in the instagram post below, you'll see a couple plates of food to see more.
After lunch we stopped for the local specialty of Luwak Coffee. One of the most expensive coffees to produce, but also one of the lowest in acidity and caffeine due to the Luwak digesting parts of the bean before it's collected from their poop, cleaned, and roasted. We were told about the various ways that Luwaks are kept and taken care of around Bali. Like all farming practices that involve animals, some producers are more empathetic to the animals and what they need, while other farmers are more abusive to animals. More expensive Luwak coffee generally comes with more care and freedom for the animals and more hand-labor for the caretakers and cultivators. There are many of these tasting rooms and plantations when you get closer to the volcanos of Bali.
Our last stop of the day was at the Tegenungan Waterfall, which has been turned into a tourist attraction with a large parking lot, series of shops before you get to the hike, and many "instagrammable" photo stops along the way. Since this stop came at the end of our day, we were not as excited or interested to hike down to the falls and back up again, so we simply stuck around the cliff edge, checked out the volume of tourists and activities, and I decided to find another waterfall with less craziness later on since we had more days to explore.
If this had been our only tour in Bali for a short stay, it would have been a great sampling of everything you can find around Bali. Our tour guide and driver was great, decent English, and from what I heard at various stops there are drivers who speak a lot of different languages to accommodate the various European, Russian, and Chinese tourists! Since we spent most of our travel time in the car, the experience of getting from place to place was very pleasant and air conditioned, and our driver was excellent at navigating tricky road situations that I wouldn't want to attempt as a tourist! I'm also glad we didn't have anything scheduled for the next day since that one day was so jam packed with sites and information. It made just relaxing in our villa afterward feel refreshing and recuperating.
PS. I decided to figure out how much time it took to research, photograph, curate, write, edit, and format this post and the total came in around 30-40 hours. From one guided day trip I created:
- 8 Instagram Posts with 73 total images, 1,624 words, 8 Locations, 143 Hashtags
- 1 Blog article with word count 1,173 words and 8 embedded instagram slideshows
Why would this matter? If you've seen Part 2 of the Pricing Workbook for Creatives, it's all about knowing how much time a workflow takes if you plan to turn it into an offering.
I spent several hours looking at different tour operators and options for trips around Ubud. I'm normally up for a good bargain, but after some searching it appeared that good reviews were going to be much more important than price. TripAdvisor gave me the most detailed information from reviewers. In the end, I found a package with a reputable trip operator on Tour Bali Driver that covered a more cultural and traditional itinerary, listed as their Bali Full-Day Traditional Village Sightseeing Trip with Lunch.
Once again, I felt like the magical expectations and experiences that other people shared of Ubud, who had visited years ago, were met with the stark realities of crowded streets of traffic and sidewalks full of tourists. We decided to get a hotel in the heart of Ubud so that we could walk around and explore the shops, but when we saw how crowded it was on the streets, we decided that it would be far more relaxing to simply stay on the hotel property the evening and morning after our tour around Ubud rather than exploring on foot. As part of our Ubud tour package, we arranged for a pickup from our Canggu villa and drop off at the resort in Ubud to make it easier.
What may have once been a wonderful city to walk around in, now seems more desirable to view from a car window while passing by it onto greener pastures and dedicated sites only accessible by car. In New York City terms, Ubud has become the Times Square of Bali, minus neon lighting and elmo fuzzies. However, unlike Times Square, there are no large pedestrian-only streets to accommodate the large number of tourists- more like barely there sidewalks that require partner dancing with strangers to navigate. *sigh* I digress. If I wasn't an energetically sensitive person who could feel everyone else's stuff, this might be considered "exciting", but as a sensitive person, it puts my defenses on high alert until I can get somewhere to relax with nature and water. All of that means that traveling around in a car is the best option for someone who is very sensitive.
Our first major stop was at the Batuan Temple, which was much less crowded than the Ubud Temple. This was a great choice on the part of the tour operator, since we had more space to look around and the temple wasn't so large or overwhelming that we would spend an extended time there. We were asked to wear Saris as a respectful way to enter because the temple is still in operation as an active religious site. Our tour guide, Partama was quick to take photos of us in all the photo spots.
The next stop was the Sacred Monkey Forest, which was fairly crowded near the main parts of the park and seemed to make the handlers a little more anxious about needing to watch visitor behavior to keep the monkeys and visitors safe, but as we went deeper into the park and off into less active areas, we were able to see monkeys in their normal playful and adventurous behaviors rather than behaving for treats or coming to feeding sites to eat lunch.
Then our tour went further out north of Ubud to the farming area around Mount Batur. We visited the Natural Rice Terrace, which is designed to give tourists the experience of what it's like to walk and navigate the rice fields without actually damaging someone's private rice field. There are also a couple of large swings at this site for tourists who want the seasickness- I mean the thrill- of swinging out over the valley on a large swing.
For lunch we stopped at an overlook buffet style restaurant that looked out over Mount Batur. We were lucky to grab a few minutes of views before the clouds rolled in over the ridge and obscured the view, but by that time we were just happy to be enjoying an Indonesian lunch. Our guide made sure we both tried the snake fruit, which I haven't had anywhere other than Bali. Other local foods were satay, curries, egg soup, veggie soup, tempura veggies, seasoned rice, fruits, and corn fritters. If you scroll through the images in the instagram post below, you'll see a couple plates of food to see more.
After lunch we stopped for the local specialty of Luwak Coffee. One of the most expensive coffees to produce, but also one of the lowest in acidity and caffeine due to the Luwak digesting parts of the bean before it's collected from their poop, cleaned, and roasted. We were told about the various ways that Luwaks are kept and taken care of around Bali. Like all farming practices that involve animals, some producers are more empathetic to the animals and what they need, while other farmers are more abusive to animals. More expensive Luwak coffee generally comes with more care and freedom for the animals and more hand-labor for the caretakers and cultivators. There are many of these tasting rooms and plantations when you get closer to the volcanos of Bali.
Our last stop of the day was at the Tegenungan Waterfall, which has been turned into a tourist attraction with a large parking lot, series of shops before you get to the hike, and many "instagrammable" photo stops along the way. Since this stop came at the end of our day, we were not as excited or interested to hike down to the falls and back up again, so we simply stuck around the cliff edge, checked out the volume of tourists and activities, and I decided to find another waterfall with less craziness later on since we had more days to explore.
If this had been our only tour in Bali for a short stay, it would have been a great sampling of everything you can find around Bali. Our tour guide and driver was great, decent English, and from what I heard at various stops there are drivers who speak a lot of different languages to accommodate the various European, Russian, and Chinese tourists! Since we spent most of our travel time in the car, the experience of getting from place to place was very pleasant and air conditioned, and our driver was excellent at navigating tricky road situations that I wouldn't want to attempt as a tourist! I'm also glad we didn't have anything scheduled for the next day since that one day was so jam packed with sites and information. It made just relaxing in our villa afterward feel refreshing and recuperating.
PS. I decided to figure out how much time it took to research, photograph, curate, write, edit, and format this post and the total came in around 30-40 hours. From one guided day trip I created:
- 8 Instagram Posts with 73 total images, 1,624 words, 8 Locations, 143 Hashtags
- 1 Blog article with word count 1,173 words and 8 embedded instagram slideshows
Why would this matter? If you've seen Part 2 of the Pricing Workbook for Creatives, it's all about knowing how much time a workflow takes if you plan to turn it into an offering.
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