Ubud

Ubud was an interesting experience. I went in thinking it was almost going to be this like “spiritual experience”. Let me tell you, it was not.

We had taken a shuttle from the port where the boat stops on Bali (from Lombok) to a grocery store parking lot in the heart of Ubud. My first impression of my new home in Ubud for the next few days? It was very artsy, definitely busier, tons of shopping, and yoga and tasty food places everywhere. So, I was excited to get settled in and explore.

I have not booked accommodation anywhere since being in Bali, I like the idea of having freedom and getting to the area and booking something once there, so that is what we did here as well. Once off our shuttle we were approached by a few different people offering accommodation so we went with what seemed to be the best option. Our first selection of a place to stay was where this Ubud trip started going downhill. We were staying a night at a place called “Ubud Pantai” -not to self or anything reading this..don’t stay there. Dirty sheets, ants everywhere, disgusting walls covered in mold, and to top it off the pool which seemed to be the only positive thing about this place had so many chemicals in it I thought my skin and eyes were going to burn off. We made do for the night at “Ubud Pantai” because it was our only option and had a group decision that we would find something new the next morning.

Woke up the next morning at our awful hotel and I wanted to check out the “Yoga Barn” – I had wanting to go to a class at this place for so long and was to excited to be in Ubud to finally go to one. So, I woke up early, rented a scooter to get the class in before we had to check out. Turns out, this Pantai place doesn’t put a drop of gas in their scooters either. I ran out of gas on the busy Ubud streets about 39 seconds into my drive. Cool, thanks Ubud Pantai, ya jerks. Oh well, figured that situation out and made it to the Yoga Barn for on of the best Yoga classes of my life. I’m not going to go into too much detail but I will say the class was much needed and it was amazing to spend an hour and a half stretching in an amazing open room, surrounded by wildlife.

Yoga Barn Studio

One of the views.

Tastiest breakfasts after class

After the yoga class which left me feeling so relaxed and happy it was back to our disgusting hotel to pack up and find a new one. Once we were ready to go the three of us split ways on the street each going to go check a new hotel out. We went with Emma’s find which seemed amazing. It was $300,000rp ($30.00USD so, $10.00 a night each) it had a pool and was a traditional Balinese style. We set up camp thinking we would be there for a couple days and were stoked we had a place. Once we settled in we thought we would go rent scooters and check out some rice terraces and a holy water temple. This is were Ubud strikes again and things take a turn for the worst. We were on the open road with out scooters and like I mentioned earlier Ubud is quite busy. I was driving my scooter and Caylene was on the back, Emma was behind us on her own scooter. Things were going good and my scooter driving has gotten pretty good and I have been feeling very confident with it until… Scooter crash número uno for me. The scooter crash was probably one of the scariest things that’s happened to me and I hope I never get in one again, it doesn’t look bad from the photos but it was the experience that really shocked me. I’m not going to explain it on here it’s a story you’ll need to hear in person once I am home. Let’s just say though, it could have been a lot worse and we are all so lucky.

After being in the scooter crash I was in no shape or form to continue on so it was back to our place for a mellow day. I was starting to think this whole Ubud thing wasn’t meant to be. The day had past and we were getting ready to settled into our new little Balinese room at “Ubud Terrace” when we started noticing something on our bed. Bed bugs. Seriously. We had to switch rooms which led to the worst sleep ever and we were all pretty grumpy and ready to pack our bags and get back to the beach and out of Ubud.

Anyways, we ended up switching to a really cool hostel the next day and finally got to check out the rice terraces (which were amazing) and the holy water temple. I thought Ubud was going to go differently but it’s all part of the adventure and I’m happy that I did get to do some exploring and got to check out a class at Yoga Barn.

I was ready to move on and hit the beaches for my last few days of my trip! Back to Uluwatu which I have come to realize is my favorite place in Bali!

xx