Eat Pray Love: Bali Edition

I sort of forced myself to watch “Eat Pray Love” last year to understand “art of healing” and “self discovery”. To be honest with you all, the movie didn’t quite speak to me — however the places Elizabeth spent her time did. One in particular — Ubud, Bali. Although the concept of “reel” vs “real” can be a hard reality, I can confidently say that the movie really did capture the essence of Ubud. From people to temples to sculptures to culture to cuisine to cafes, OAO and I truly enjoyed every bit of Balinese culture. Here is a glimpse of our stay in Ubud, Bali…

Just a quick note on where we travelled from — we spent a week in India with family and flew from there (easier route than traveling from west coast) and were beat by the time we arrived in Ubud. We were there from Monday January 2nd to Friday January 6th and we mostly caught up on our sleep, walked around, and indulged in scrumptious food! Details of our stay and places we visited will be mentioned throughout the blog. I will also add places/restaurants/cafes/shopping details where we didn’t end up going to at the end! :)

Sunrise in Thailand before landing in Indonesia

Day 1 and checked into the most peaceful resort — Kayumanis Ubud Private Villa and Spa

We were welcomed by afternoon tea and snacks with a blissful view from our villa

“I like the view”

Ended up ordering room service for lunch/dinner and slept like adult babies for 15 hours…

Oh hi OAO!

We had daily breakfast at the villa and oh man every dish was made to perfection! I am drooling right now looking at the shrimp porridge/congee…

After breakfast, Day 2 was walking around the resort

… followed by afternoon tea and snacks with another splendid view!

We decided to explore Ubud market which was only about 40 minutes walk from the resort

Please go with someone who knows how to bargain…I was not so useful during this…

Walked around 45 minutes to go to this restaurant — Bebek Tepi Sawah — recommended by our driver! The seafood platter is a must try….as you can see, OAO is in food heaven…

Day 3 started with a dip in our pool…

Day 3 breakfast…I kept ordering different types of congee…

In our sarong also known as “sarung” in Indonesia to explore Ubud…

I do love BALI!

First stop was Tegallalang Rice Terrace — did the ever so famous Bali Swing. This is definitely worth it!! They were also giving the “flowy skirts” that we could wear for aesthetic influencer photos. I personally was a bit skeptical about the cleanliness, so we opted out of it. However, as you can see from our faces we definitely didn’t need the skirt to enjoy this moment!

Beautiful view of the rice fields…

Smiling and sweating bullets at this point…

Sculptures everywhere…

Do it for the gram…

Cooling down and experiencing brain freeze after all the walk…

Clearly Bali is a popular destination for couples…there were heart signs everywhere😄

Next stop — Tegunungan Waterfall. And this is our lovely driver — Wayan. He is the sweetest person. If you are visiting Ubud, we highly recommend Wayan. He kept telling us to make a heart sign because that’s what couples do and we clearly failed since we kept laughing to take cheesy photos! We had to walk a bit to get to this waterfall but the tricky part is coming back up— had to climb 167 steps!! Wayan clearly practiced all his life since it felt like he was running and I was crawling to get to the top…

Then we went to visit a temple. When I was researching, I was inundated with so many suggestions. For us, we didn’t care too much about a particular temple so we had Wayan bring us to his family temple — Pura Puseh Desa Batuan. This was great because he was able to guide us and provide historical information.

:) At this point, we had readjusted our sarongs around 22 times…

Before heading back to the resort, Wayan took us to Satria — for coffee and tea tasting. This turned out to be a pleasant surprise for both of us! Not to mention this was free😉

They gave us about 13 different coffee/tea for taste testing…

Having tea/coffee with a hint of monsoon in the air…pure bliss I tell you!

We also tried Luwak Coffee also known as catPOOchino. OAO being the coffee connoisseur out of the two of us really enjoyed it. I was indifferent…

Headed back and finished the day off with room service! We tried Balinese Pizza which has “sambal” as the base — not bad at all! Of course Balinese cuisine on the right is just *chef’s kiss*.

Day 4 started with an early morning visit to Local Farmer’s Market. We booked a cooking class with the resort Chef — Chef Made. Initially we were planning to go outside the resort for a cooking class experience. However, after indulging in all the delicious food at the resort, why not learn from the man himself! It was a wonderful experience learning how to cook some Balinese dishes from Chef Made. Please check out his Instagram handle: chef.made!

All the fresh ingredients and Chef Made!😊

We ended up making: fish steamed in banana leaves, chicken skewers, sautéed vegetables, sautéed beans, chicken melon soup, and rice dumplings for dessert! All these dishes were accompanied by freshly made sambal…I cannot wait to try making this at home!

We also got our daily dose of afternoon tea and snacks because why not…hehehe (that’s my I am so stuffed laugh)!

OAO showing off his skills with International Driver’s License…

Trying not to fall off…

Taman Dedari also known as “Angel Park”! This was on my list — I stumbled upon this location on Instagram while searching for our trip and this was a must visit for me. It was only a 20 minute scooter drive and it definitely was worth the visit. This is also café/restaurant as well as a painting gallery.

Look at this breathtaking view!! We were just in awe of how stunning these sculptures looked.

Got some coffee with the view

Entryway to Taman Dedari!

Day 5 (final day) included having our breakfast and a dip in the pool before heading to airport

En route to the airport and one last look at the sculptures…

This trip was something…words cannot describe the tranquil moments I experienced. Maybe I didn’t go to Ubud to redefine “art of healing” and “self discovery”, but I definitely enjoyed being in the moment…it felt peaceful!

Places we didn’t go, but would definitely love to see next time

• Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary
• Pura Penataran Agung Lempuyang — famous reflection temple. When you search in Google, you will see stunning images. However, the wait in line is too long and I really didn’t want to spend half a day for a photo (at least for this trip😋)
• Campuhan Ridge Walk
• Lembah Spa — apparently the best spa in Ubud. We got one free 15 minute massage at the resort so we didn’t spend more money outside.
• Bali Pulina Coffee Roastery — luckily our driver took us to Satria Luwak Coffee. I would suggest Satria for taste testing.
• Bali Farm Cooking — like I mentioned earlier, we wanted to try a cooking class. However, the resort we stayed at also offered cooking lessons. After trying the food, we were sold on Chef Made teaching us Balinese dishes!

Restaurants

The resort we stayed at had complimentary breakfast and afternoon tea with snacks, so we didn’t eat out much. Here are some of the “Warungs” also known as restaurants/café we wanted to try but didn’t end up going to.

• Cafe Pomegranate
• Cretaya Ubud
• Dragonfly Cafe
• Joglo Organik
• Warung Bintangbali — Indonesian dishes with rice field views
• Alchemy cafe — best raw and vegan food
• Bebek Bingil — best duck dish — a little bit on the pricier side
• Warang Pondok Mandu — best pork ribs in Bali

Shopping

We only went to Ubud Market. It’s really good — lots of stores. Definitely need to bargain to get a good deal. Here are some other shopping areas to explore.

• Central Market — Jalan Raya
• Confiture de Bali — Goutama Street — delicious jams
• Balinese Coffee Beans — Seniman Coffee Studio

Travel

• Driver — Highly recommend Wayan. If you need his contact details, please connect with me.
• Renting a scooter — We asked the resort staff to book us a scooter. We weren’t sure which company is a good one. These are some examples of scooter rentals: Safetywing, and True Traveller. It’s always a good idea to read the Google reviews before booking the rental scooter!

I hope you enjoyed reading this post. OAO and I definitely have Bali in our list of places to visit again…

Eat Pray Love,

Ben, A