Bali, Indonesia

The boat we took from the Gili Islands to Bali ran smoothly and was overall a comfortable experience. The shuttle bus from the harbour to Ubud was a slightly different story. When we bought our tickets, we were assured that the shuttle bus would drop us off at our hotel. Even our tickets displayed this information clearly in English so we were pretty confident that we wouldn't have any problems. Of course, it isn't always as easy as that in Southeast Asia. When we got off the boat, the shuttle bus driver announced that there would be only one stop in Ubud and that it would be right in the centre of the town. Several of the other passengers looked disgruntled at this news so I could tell we weren't the only ones who had expected a hotel drop-off. I kindly informed the gentleman that this what not what had been agreed when we purchased our tickets. 

Cue the argument. 

The guy didn't seem to care in the slightest what we had been told or what it said on our tickets and suggested that we take the boat back to Gili T if we wanted to sort it out. Nice one. 

We arrived in Ubud feeling fairly indignant about the whole thing (classic miserable Brits). We decided that we wouldn't spend any more money on transport for the time being and so ended up walking the 2km to our hotel with our bags in the roasting tropical sun. On top of that, Google Maps decided that this would be the perfect time to send us in wrong direction.

What an excellent start to our time in Bali! To be fair, things from here on in got a lot better. 

Tucked away behind an old temple was our wonderful little hotel. We loved it so much we ended up staying an extra night. 

After checking-in to our room, we made our way back into central Ubud to have a look around. Thankfully, the staff at our hotel very kindly offered to take us into town on the back of their mopeds for free! 

In the evening, we went to have a look around the Ubud Palace where we bought some tickets to watch some traditional Balinese dancing. 

The tickets were 100,000 rupiah (about £5) each which was pretty good for an hour and a half long show.

During the show, one thing in particular that stood out for me was the dancers' use of facial expressions. It was so different from anything I'd seen before.

The performance consisted of eight separate dances accompanied by traditional music.

The next day, we took a trip through Ubud Monkey Forest because apparently we can't get enough of the little dudes. Entry was 80,000 rupiah each which was double what Siwan had seen online. There were a number of large statues on display at the entrance to the forest. 

Wandering through the forest was fun. The monkeys were generally quite calm but occasionally one would get a little grabby. Seeing this a few times put Siwan on edge and so we didn't stay too long in any one area. 

The monkey in the centre-back of this photo might just be my spirit animal:

Afterwards, we popped into a nearby restaurant for some lunch. Siwan had preselected this place as it had lots of cute little rabbits roaming freely around the outdoor seating area. 

After lunch, we went back into town for a little wander. Here we got our first real taste of Indonesia's rainy season. Running for cover, we ended up taking shelter in a spa. The silver lining here was that we were presented with the perfect opportunity to have a Balinese massage.

Annoyingly, it was still thrashing it down when we wanted to leave the spa an hour and a half later. Ducking under the shop canopies, we made our way up the street and into a small cafe where we waited for the rain to subside.

We filled the rest of the afternoon looking around some of the temples which were dotted about the town centre. 

The following day, we had booked ourselves on a tour. First stop was Goa Gajah (Elephant Cave Temple). 

Next was Gunung Kawi (Rocky Temple).

Our third stop of the day was Pura Tirta Empul (Holy Spring Temple). The Balinese Hindu people come here to purify themselves in the holy spring water.

As I observed the ritual taking place, I wondered how many of the tourists in the spring actually believed they were being purified—or even understood the purpose of being in the water—and how many were just in there to show how 'cultured' they are on Instagram... 

In the main courtyard, a series of tradtional dances were taking place.

Our next destination was a small luwak coffee plantation. Similar to weasel coffee, luwak coffee beans pass through the animal's digestive system before being collected, washed and roasted. 

There is a fair amount of controversy surrounding the production of luwak coffee. I was relieved to find out that the luwaks at this plantation are all wild and not kept in cages or force-fed coffee beans or anything nasty like that. Instead, they are free to scurry about eating and pooping as they please.

Our tour guide showed us samples of said poop while talking us through the process of making luwak coffee:

As well as coffee, the plantation produces a variety of teas and chocolates which we were able to sample at the end of the tour. 

At our next stop, we were supposed to enjoy some breathtaking views of the majestic Mount Batur. Unfortunately, a thick blanket of cloud made sure that didn't happen.

Feeling a little disappointed, we moved on to Batur Temple. As soon as we stepped out of the minivan, we were surrounded by a group of women and young girls who were trying to sell us sarongs. Breaking away from them, we headed towards the temple entrance. They began calling out that we needed to buy tickets first (which made sense as we had to at every other temple we'd visited that day). They directed us over to a stand on the other side of the road. Immediately, I thought this looked fishy. Siwan and I, along with another girl on the tour, decided not to buy tickets and instead just had a look at the temple from the outside. 

We made the right choice as the whole ticket thing turned out to be a scam; the temple was free to enter.

Last stop of the day was the rice terrace. The view from the top was pretty cool despite the weather making everything look a little gloomier than usual. 

There were a couple of swings and baskets that hung out over the edge of the terrace. We didn't really have time to queue for the swing so we settled for a basket. 

After that, the tour was over. We had the driver drop us off in the centre of Ubud near to the market so that we could have a look around before heading back to the hotel. 

The next day, we left Ubud and journeyed south to Seminyak. We were only there for one night so we didn't have time to do much except look around the main street and check out the beach.

And that was it for our time in Indonesia!