Bali Trip - Part 3

Diving with Manta Rays, incredible rice terraces, sea temples, and dinner on the beach... I'm sure you're thinking, "it's not possible for this trip to get any more amazing!"... but you're wrong.  Our last few days in Bali were some of the most memorable - for different reasons.  Day 5 started off incredibly.  Our ever faithful driver Gusti picked us up at our villa in the morning, and we made our way up to my favorite area in Bali - Ubud (as seen in the movie Eat, Pray, Love).  One of the best parts of the day was getting to rent a mo-ped and drive around exploring the city on our own.  Ubud is pretty much in the middle of the Bali jungle.  However, Ubud central is a tiny, bustling area with many shops, restaurants, temples, and markets, and it was quite easy to find our way around.  It was also the only place in Bali I felt remotely safe trying to drive at all!

The first stop of the day was to the famous Monkey Forest, where we had even more fun interactions with monkeys than our first day of the trip.  I'm telling you, this vacation completely changed my idea of monkeys!  For some reason, I used to think they were cute, furry, little animals - sort of like puppies or kittens.  Not the case.  Monkeys are vicious, thieving, little creatures - sorry to the monkey lovers out there.  Matt and I purchased a bunch of bananas at the front to feed them as we walked through the forest, and we made it only about 100 feet before the bananas were all gone.  Once the monkeys see you have bananas, they pretty much come at you from all angles, including from above!  Matt was the one with the bananas, and he literally threw the whole bunch to them just to keep them from surrounding him!  I thought it was kind of funny.  The rest of the time in the forest, we watched the monkeys steal things from tourists, jump on tourists, get into fights with one another... they were EVERYWHERE!   

One monkey in a fight with a child for the string of his pants

Check out this video to get the true Monkey Forest experience:

After we had had our fill of monkey, we drove the moped to go get some lunch.  And by "we", I mean Matt drove the moped - and I sat on the back (Thailand-style).  Our driver Gusti had found this one road for us that led up to an organic restaurant that I had wanted to try, but he told us that it was a road that no cars were allowed on.  Matt drove us to this road, which went way up-hill and wasn't much of a road at all.  I would describe it as more of a very narrow dirt path, myself.  Anyway, it was really a neat area, because after going up-hill, it opens up to gorgeous, green rice paddies on all sides of you!  It was such a cool area to explore on our own.

Matt on our moped

Ducks in a row:)

Having watermelon juice at Sari Organik for lunch - this restaurant was in the middle of the rice paddies with an amazing view!  Ubud is all about health, wellness, and inner peace... I think most of the other patrons had just finished up with their yoga classes - no joke!

After lunch, we stopped at a tiny and natural spa called Cantika, also located right on the rice paddies. I got a facial with their fresh masks made from the herbs they grow right there on site.  

Check out this video clip of our moped drive through the rice paddies:

Matt and I spent the remainder of our day driving around central Ubud, having a blast, until I ended up getting majorly sick from something I ate and needed to have Gusti drive us back to our villa.  Matt swears that it was the organic food I made him eat, but I felt like I had a fever from the time I'd woken up that morning.  I'll spare you the details here, but when I say majorly, I do mean majorly sick, like almost couldn't get myself off the floor sick.  I've never felt like that on any trip before, or in my life before, and I never want to feel like that again!  Second to feeling as if I was about to die, I was also upset over the possibility that I would be ruining the rest of the trip.  At this point, we still had two more full days ahead of us!  Thank God Matt was able to get to a nearby pharmacy and explain what I was going through.  He came back to the villa with a whole mess of meds, which - long story short - quite literally saved me and the trip.  Within an hour of re-hydrating and taking the pills, I was feeling slightly better.  Although we had to cancel our tour the next morning because I wasn't feeling well enough to rappel down waterfalls, I still woke up feeling 100% better than I had the night before.  Matt and I took it easy that morning, and by early afternoon, we were back in Gusti's car to see a few more places around Ubud.  

Amazing Gunung Kawi

Matt (in another skirt) & our driver Gusti

Tirta Empul - healing water temple

These type of gates are so unique to Bali

Central Ubud

Offerings on the street

Matt with the Balinese Police

Ubud Market

Luckily, the experience of food poisoning really didn't ruin our time in Bali at all.  Don't get me wrong - it was an experience I will always remember - but, with the exception of not getting to go out for dinner that night, it really didn't take anything away that we had planned for the trip.  We still got to see and do everything I had wanted to, including our last tour, which we were able to switch to our 7th and final day in Bali.  As I alluded to before, we were cliff jumping, watersliding, and yes - rappelling down waterfalls - in what is known as Canyoning.  This was AMAZING and the perfect, adventurous end to our trip!

Matt and I suited up and ready to rappel!

Natural water slides - these were so fun!

Me taking a giant leap

Matt on one of our tallest waterfalls

That's me!

Our last waterfall of the day - a giant TWIN waterfall - you can see tiny Matt down in the water below!

Check out this video Matt took on his helmet-cam while rappelling down the twin waterfalls in Kerenkali Canyon:

  Adventure, beaches, scuba diving, fun shopping, gorgeous sunsets, unique restaurants, culture, and private villas - Bali has it all!  Matt's on the fence, but for me, this was the most amazing trip and the most amazing place I think I've been to - even despite the food poisoning;)

Thanks for following along on our world travels!

-C