Back to Bali, Canggu & Ubud

The journey back to the mainland was long and before we knew it, we just had two days left of our Indonesian holiday. 

Our arrival to Canggu was timed perfectly with the sunset so we swiftly ordered a cocktail and made our way down to the beach. The sand here is a lot more gritty than in Gili and the water is turned up by the 4ft waves crashing in. The sunset, on the other hand, lived up to its sister islands and was easily one of the best we've seen yet. 

Keen to make the most of every last second, we then jumped straight into a taxi to Jimboran Bay where we'd been told we'd find a seafood market. What we actually found more closely resembled an Asian Butlins! The beach was buried beneath endless rows of long tables which were filled with Asian tourists finishing up their tours with a last supper at one of the many restaurants lining the coast. Either it's changed significantly in the last few years or there had been a mistranslation somewhere along the way.

Nevertheless the food was okay and it was great to sit on the beach and soak up the atmosphere. There were more people on that strip alone than we'd seen on the whole of Gili T! In addition, there was entertainment in the form of Balinese dancers and an acoustic band who played their own rendition of Pretty Woman right beside our table. Kate then decided to add to the performances, vomming on the beach in front of hundreds of stunned tourists. She'd caught a bug on the boat back to Bali and we took this as a sign we should probably make our way back. 

Bartering hard for a taxi, we ended up with a driver who in fact wasn't a driver but worked in the Tourist Office and was happy to head that way. Only after setting off did he realise that 'that way' was Canggu and not Uluwatu but he took us nonetheless. It was close to an hour's journey and he chatted away to us the whole way home. He explained that his real name is 'Satu' but that there are hundreds of Satu's in Indonesia as it translates to the number 'Two' and all Balinese babies are named according to the number of siblings who've proceeded them. Therefore, most go by their second names but as his was impossible to pronounce he settled on 'Jim', short for Jimboran Bay - his place of work. That sat far better on our lips and we immediately came to like our Jim. So much so in fact, that we put in a special request for him to be our driver for our trip to Ubud the following day. 

We woke tired the next morning (to the extent that I mistook mosquito repellent for hairspray) but Jim arrived early and before we knew it we were setting off for Ubud whilst Jim put his best Tourist Office knowledge to practice. 

Along the way we passed through many small villages and Jim explained that each is famous for a different produce. Our first stop was at the embroidering factory where we learnt how the women weave without any sign of machinery. Secondly, we visited the silver factory and again saw how the wealth of jewellery is pieced together by the steadiest of hands. 

The third, the art studios were by far my favourite. The artists themselves were sat on the patio outside painting large canvases and using the palms of their hands as a palette. What really stood out was the fact that these picture perfect paintings were not copied from photographs. Each was created from either memory or imagination and thus could take up to three months to complete. 

Finally we stopped at the coffee plantation where a young Balinese boy showed us the process of transforming the coffee beans into powder. He also explained that the very special luwak coffee, traditional to the area, tastes so much better because it passes through the digestive system of the luwak. Essentially it comes from shit but tastes quite the opposite as the animals pick only the best beans to eat and the fermentation in the stomach helps to bring out the rich flavour. 

At the end of the tour we were offered tastings of every variation  they produce on the farm. We tried not only the luwak but ginger, vanilla, coconut and lemon coffee, as well as mangosteen, lemongrass and rosella tea. Each has different benefits to the health system and were all rather exotic in taste. 

By midday we'd still not arrived in Ubud and had a couple more stops yet to come. Next up was Mount Batur, an active volcano in the North East of Bali. Though it had clouded over (Jim told us it's always cloudy here) the view was still incredible and as we sat down to lunch on the terrace looking out over the summit, it gradually began to clear. With the backdrop of a blue sky, it was even more beautiful but we had to tear ourselves away or we'd never make it to Ubud! 

Our final stop was at the famous Tegalalang Rice Terrace which is widely acknowledged as the most picturesque of its kind in the whole of Asia. Tall palm trees surround the entrance to the endless steps which take you through the very centre of the rice fields, immersing you in a world of green.

 It was beautiful but it was time to move on. My memories of Ubud weren't the best as Hana and I had both been ill on my last visit (predominantly from our Mount Rinjani hangovers.) However, I did remember it being very pretty and the little yogi town certainly lived up to my expectations in that respect. Every fifth building is a temple of some sort, so casually placed that you could almost glaze over it. On closer inspection, they're simply stunning, filled with intricate carvings of their divine Gods. 

We wandered around the markets and the upmarket shops which play rather heavily on the Eat, Pray, Love scene. At the end of street we found the notorious Yoga Barn which is now one of the most popular retreats in the whole of Bali, made famous by the book and film. However, once we'd spotted a spider bigger than my face (no exaggeration) we left pretty swiftly feeling the least relaxed that we have on this entire trip. 

Animals continued to pose as a bit of a problem as on our return journey we met a whole hoard of monkeys. Whilst they're cute from afar, they're more menacing up close and they do get seriously close! One particularly large male made a grab for my Tim Tams in my bag, at which point I decided I don't like monkeys at all. 

If we'd begun the day tired, we ended completely exhausted. It had been wise, however, to keep busy on our last day because we had some rather emotional goodbyes impending. 

Kate now lives on the other side of the world and we have no idea when we'll see her next. In the ten days we'd spent together, we'd become so quickly used to having her back that I had to keep reminding myself that she wouldn't be returning with us to London. Which sucked. 

However, whilst it's undeniably sad we can at least take comfort in knowing that there's no distance too far, nor time too long to come between best friends. We'll just have to continue to meet in the middle and as the 'middle' happens to fall in the most beautiful and exotic Asian continent, you're unlikely to find me complaining for long.