Ubud, Bali is amazing and authentic

By The Wandering Vegan
2 nights in Seminyak was more than enough, and friends told me to head north, into central Bali, for a more authentic experience in Ubud. I found a new hostel on hostelworld.com with no ratings yet – I will ALWAYS take this gamble, because new places are working out their kinks but suck up to their customers a lot, in order to have great reviews online. The No Problem hostel was calling my name, and it also boasted of being on a quiet street outside the main tourist area. Perfect.

When leaving my annoying hostel in Seminyak, one of the employees further proved to me why I hated this place: 1-he kept telling me that I needed a bus south to another bus to another bus up to Ubud. From what I’d found online, I knew there were other options, though he was telling me those buses didn’t exist. Another employee finally told me that for the price I was going to pay for these buses, I could take an Uber car, get picked up & dropped off where I wanted, and save 2 hours. Why didn’t the other guy mention this? 2-when leaving, the annoying employee INSISTED that he take a picture of me for the hostel’s Facebook page and wanted to know my contact info. I gave him the finger in the picture and told him to find Mike Jones on Facebook. That’s clearly not my name, and I can only imagine there are thousands of them to sort though.

On the drive to Ubud, the Uber driver was smoking in the car, kept saying he wanted to turn off the meter & charge me cash, but made the trip non-miserable by having wifi in the car somehow. I complained to Uber about his smoking & trying to scam me, and they refunded me for the ride, so that was sweet.

The hostel is built into one of the mini-temples that abound in Ubud, and I LOVED the look & feel & atmosphere of it. The staff were super nice, as well, and the views from the roof made me super happy that I was staying at this spot.

The hostel was at the south edge of town, about 10min walking to the start of the tourist areas, but definitely quiet in the evenings, so you could relax and actually enjoy the rooftop.

When I arrived at the hostel, an Austrian girl & Australian girl were arriving at the same time. They’d spent 2 nights at a hostel in the center of the tourist area in Ubud, and they wanted something quieter. We walked around together that evening, along with a British guy who showed up, and checked out the town. I heard some music and wanted to check it out, and it turned out to be a traditional Balinese band practicing for a performance the next night. They invited us to sit down and watch for as long as we liked. We stayed for probably 10 minutes, and it was amazing. These are the moments you can’t plan but love to find.

The next day, the Austrian girl and I wanted to do some sightseeing, so we rented a scooter together. Price: $4 US for a 24-hour rental. Incredible.
We drove out to the famous rice fields, which had some great views along the way. The fields themselves are incredible. We’d missed the harvest, but I still found them breathtaking.
While at the rice fields, we got caught in a massive rainstorm and holed up in a cafe for a bit, drinking iced coffee and contemplating our situation. Neither of us had a rain jacket (left in the hostel, like the geniuses we are), so we finally ran to the scooter and started driving during a lighter spot of rain. No more than 3 minutes down the road, the rain ended, and the street was completely dry. It hadn’t even rained there.
Since we were drying out and no longer worried about the rain, we went into the center of Ubud to see some of the temples there.

We were also interested in seeing a traditional Balinese dance show, so we asked about that. The fire dance sounded like a winner, and $6 for it is a great price! The show started at 7:30, and they said that they stop selling tickets at 7, but we had the problem of 3 people (the Australian girl wanted to join) and only 1 scooter, but it was too far to walk. I drove the Austrian girl to the scooter shop, dropped her off to rent another scooter & go back for the Australian girl, then went to the venue to buy tickets and wait for the girls. They seriously arrived at 7:29.
The show was SUPER interesting, and I’m really glad I saw it. The performance told the Hindu story of Rama & Laksamana killing the giant and commanding their army of monkeys. It was really interesting. Taking pictures with an iPhone in the weird lighting was tough, so they’re not that great.
The morning of day 3, the Australian girl left for some yoga retreat, and I wasn’t sad for the end of her telling me about how much more drugs would open my mind & I should give them a try, etc. I went on a walk with the Austrian girl, and we saw lots of farms, which was nice.
We still had time before returning the scooter, so poked around in the center of the city for a bit…
…and then decided to drive about 40min out to the holy water temple, which is still in use and sacred to Hindus.
We wanted to bathe in the sacred pool, but you have to be wearing the right clothes (no shorts for men, no tank tops + no shorts for women) to even enter the temple, which meant renting sarongs. There was a nasty sign saying that we’d have to buy the sarongs, if we went in the pools with them, so we didn’t get in. The rental sarongs are BRIGHT ORANGE, so they can easily spot offenders.
The temple itself was really nice, though, and there were some ceremonies going on while we were there. That always makes it more interesting.

I really got a kick out of this large group of people piling into the back of a pick-up truck when leaving the temple.

We headed back into town to return the scooter and decided to try the nearby Casa Taco for dinner. I was really craving some Mexican food, and, after examining the menu, this place seemed like it was legitimate. Probably run by an American, it’s TexMex, and it felt like a slice of home / almost like heaven.

The next morning, I took the bus down to the airport to fly to Cambodia. The buses only run in the mornings, but I had an overnight flight, so I checked in, dropped my bag, and then went into Kuta to check out the beaches and get some gifts for my parents. I didn’t change any monkeys at this place, but the sign is hilarious. I also stumbled on this vegetarian restaurant, which was AMAZING, then walked back to the airport (which confused all security / taxi employees I passed) for my flight to Kuala Lumpur then onto Siem Reap.

Ubud was amazing. I really loved it a lot, and it totally saved Bali, in my opinion. The southern area is everything I hate in a trip, but Ubud had so many things that I love: traditional ways of life, beautiful nature, more locals than tourists, great food, great prices, friendly people, etc.
Thanks for the amazing memories.
Next post: Siem Reap & Angkor temple complex in Cambodia.
This entry was posted in asia, bali, indonesia, ubud

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About Author The Wandering Vegan ryan@wanderingvegan.net

My name is Ryan.

I caught the travel bug at a young age, and here are the tales of my wanderlust, surprise vegan food finds, and adventures across the planet.

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