Ubud Intro

Today we checked out of the resort and drove north for a final time, this time headed to the town of Ubud where we will be staying for our final two days in Bali.  In contrast to Club Med, our accommodation in Ubud is quite conservative.  The Three Brothers Guest House has been built in a traditional Balinese house compound, although our room is on the second floor, which most Balinese houses do not have.

During the drive north, the heavens opened… again  (they don’t call it the rainy season for nothing!).    No big deal except for the fact that the gardens of the guest house – which we needed to walk through in order to reach “reception” – had no effective drainage, so we had no choice but to take off our shoes, roll up our trousers and paddle through with our bags!

Ubud is an arts and crafts city.  More relaxed than Kuta and Depasar, with a population of about 500,000, many of whom are ex-pat Westerners.  The streets are narrow (and often one-way), and getting around on foot is a lot more practical than in the bigger cities.  There are a LOT of bars, coffee shops and restaurants, and although the prices aren’t exactly cheap by local standards, it’s easy to see why so many backpackers gravitate here.  £15 will gets you a big meal for two, and drinks are a couple of quid each.

The highlight of our first evening in Ubud was a traditional performance known as the Barong and Legong Dance.  With an orchestra of 40, 3 vocalists and 20+ dancers, it was an extravagant performance, and although we’d have been lost were it not for the write-up we were provided with, the mystery was a big part of the experience.