Bali Trip Nov 2013 - DAY 5

Hey you.... Hi... Thanks for stopping by... So this is my 5th day of my 6 day Bali trip.... :) 

4 Nov 2013 - Pura Saraswati, Monkey Forest, Tegal Sari

So in the early morning of our second day in Ubud we planned to just ride around Ubud town with our rented motorcycle before checking out of Ani's Villas to transfer to another hotel. We first had our lovely breakfast which was inclusive of the rental of our villa. And I was able to do some snooping around too at the other villa beside ours since the door was unlocked and nobody was in there. Hehe. It was more or less the same as ours. A little dusty though. Perhaps they would only do cleaning when the villa is going to be occupied.

This was the view from the balcony of the other villa I checked out at Ani's Villas. Very calming view indeed.

Healthy ending to our lovely breakfast at Ani's Villas...

So after breakfast we rode our motorbikes along Jl. Raya Ubud towards town and we stopped by Pura Saraswati on the left just before the main intersection of Ubud Market. This temple was small but very beautiful indeed with their water feature and the water lilies filling up both sides of the walkway. And I understand that some nights, there are dance performances staged here and various other venues in Ubud so if your are interested you may check the schedules of the dances around Ubud at the Tourist Information Center nearby Ubud Market. Please ask around where it is as I did not go there thus I could not tell where hehe. :P

Very nice Pura Saraswati. But this is just about it. :) To me still worth stopping by for some photo ops...

Another view of Pura Saraswati...

Closer...

Very Balinese Starbucks just at the entrance of Pura Saraswati. Your landmark if you want to look for P. Saraswati...

So after a few snapshots at Pura Saraswati.... well actually more than a few haha... we rode our motorbike to Monkey Forest. There is a temple in Monkey Forest but closed for public when I was there but the area is still worth going to. Entrance is only Rp20.000. And they didn't name this place just for nothing. There were hundreds of monkeys....errr more like baboons in this small forest! And can be quite intimidating too when they are hungry. 

Note To All: Please be very careful of your loose belongings here such as caps, sunglasses, cameras, bags etc...the monkeys here are so used to humans they are not afraid to approach you and take a look inside your bags looking for some food. Just stay calm and cool if they do approach you and walk away veerrry slowly...when you're safely a distance away, run for your lives! :P

Errrr cute?

Nice looking temple. Closed to public though but you can just go close to the walls and just peek inside.

A good place to have a walk. In less than 1 hour you can cover the whole area. It's not that big.

They are everywhere! Look at how this guy is holding his iPad close...yes you must do that too if you don't want your iPad to become the property of those monkeys. Or maybe he was just terrified haha. :)

That looks a little painful hehe. Oh yeah and check out the pose of that goddess statue.

She looks  bored...

So after exploring around the area of the Monkey Forest, we went to Jl Hanoman to look for a cafe to hangout for some drinks. Jl Hanoman does have quite a few nice looking cafes. It's a must to walk along this stretch of street. There will definitely be something for everyone. :)

The starting point of Jl. Hanoman...

After a few drinks and some relaxing at Jl. Hanoman...we checked out of our hotel and waited for the shuttle from our next hotel, Tegal Sari Accommodation, to pick us up. Yes Tegal Sari provides free shuttle to all its customers anywhere around Ubud town area. Tegal Sari is a very beautiful villa type accommodation built on a paddy field to ensure you experience the true Ubud culture. I really felt like not going anywhere at all after arriving at the hotel. Especially that our balcony had a very comfy day bed facing the lush paddy fields. Complete with a family of ducks out and about in the paddy field. Anyway...Tegal Sari is actually just nearby Monkey Forest. So it only took around 10 mins for the shuttle to reach Tegal Sari from our previous hotel.

Path going to the reception...

The reception...

The cafe area....where we had our refreshing welcome drink.

Going to our room...

Tegal Sari's own gym! Cool...

Tegal Sari's massage area...

The beautiful pool by the paddy fields! 

Our room facing the paddy fields. We took the Wooden Room that cost Rp550.000. The extra bed was Rp150.000.

Very clean & comfy bed with traditional Balinese ceiling.

Very huge balcony area complete with day bed...

Lovely...

Loving the balcony area....

Aahhhhhh.... Don't wanna go anywhere else...

Tegal Sari surrounded by paddy fields.

I seriously...seriously recommend all of you to try Tegal Sari Accommodation as well. But please book very early in advanced if you do decide to since this place is always fully booked throughout the year. I booked my room in March...for my trip in November! And even then some rooms were already booked for the same dates as mine. This place is seriously getting rave reviews in TripAdvisor especially on the inexpensiveness combined with their great service...which explains why its always full. But I know for a fact that Tegal Sari does have 1 or 2 rooms that they reserve for walk in customers only so if your are not able to book through their online website, then you can try your luck by walking in. :) Coz there were one couple who walked in and got a room when I was there at the reception checking in. I asked the reception about it and they said yes the room is only for walk in customers.

After checking in we had some fun in the pool...then we went out walking looking for a place for late lunch at one of the cafes at Jl. Hanoman... We found a vegetarian cafe and since we were a bit far away from the Halal restaurant we went the day before, we decided to try vegetarian food instead. I was in love with their fried noodles! Simple fried noodles with sunny side up on top served with spicy sauce. Just the way I like it. Yummy! :))

The very tasty vegetarian fried noodles...

The vegetarian cafe. Atman Cafe at Jl. Hanoman...

Later that night we went again to the same cafe we went the night before. Kafe. Again had their banana milkshake. :D There are lots of other cafes that you could try in Ubud. All seems cozy and looks cool. Some offer live bands too. You definitely should consider to stay a night or two in Ubud. I recommend you to stay over towards the end of your trip to Bali just to relax and wind down after your few days in busy Kuta. Till the next entry. See ya. :)