Savages Asia Adventure: Ubud - The Cultural Hub of Indonesia

25th October to 2nd November - Ubud & East Java (Mt Bromo)

The ferry back to the island Bali was a good time to sit back and reflect on Indonesia so far, we were on top of the boat in the baking sun with a chilled beer in hand. I’d so far loved this beautiful country with the friendliest people, they were always up for a laugh and a conversation, the fact everybody smiles always puts you in an optimistic mindset. sometimes on this trip this can be rare to find, often you’re seen simply as another person in the crowd or a tourist willing to part with some money. Ubud was a place i had never really considered visiting until my previous house mate Shauna talked to me about it, convincing me one day we should visit. I felt it a shame she wasn’t with us but i already knew i would happily revisit this part of the world without a moments hesitation. Ubud is known for being the cultural hub on Bali, filled with scenic landscapes and a laid back attitude.

Our hotel was fairly incredible for the cost, comfortable beds and very spacious. The shower had a pebble flooring to exfoliate your feet, what more can you ask for? We ventured out shortly after arriving to grab some food, little did we know when we walked into a small restaurant five minutes from our accommodation that we would taste some of the best food we’ve had out here. I’ve never had spring rolls that delicious and the variety of mains we had over the next few days were incredibly well crafted. Gordon Ramsey would struggle faulting their culinary expertise. They asked with confidence after each meal “How was your dinner Sir?”, they knew full well that a compliment was to follow. The next morning we grabbed ourselves some scooters after struggling to find someone with six and after a few minor navigation problems we arrived at the monkey forest, within seconds of being inside we were quite literally surrounded by monkeys scanning us from top to bottom, trying to locate any kind of fruits we had on us. With some crafty hiding skills several of us had grapes, bananas etc which we threw out into the crowds or passed them out, it was quite fun to see the monkeys trying to climb peoples legs and even sitting on their shoulders. There was one that actually went into Ben’s pocket and stole his water bottle, managed to open it as well! We wondered around this forest for a few hours watching the monkeys running about and kept our distance from the bigger ones, clearly the dominant males which looked untrustworthy. The location itself was very serine with huge vine trees and old looking stone work that nature had taken back.

Our next stop was a rush to the rice fields attempting to capture sunset however we didn’t realise the distance and arrived when the sun had almost completely gone behind the horizon line. With our short 20 minutes of daylight left we ventured through the valley taking some snap shots and taking in the scenery. It was the first one we could actually walk around and see close up how they were created so it was worth doing. I kept promising myself i would return during our stay in Ubud to capture a sunrise however it never quite came around as we were too busy. We awoke early the next morning and all had breakfast on our veranda, the service was great and more importantly included in the room price!

We had been told about the worlds most expensive coffee, kopi luwak, and that one of the plantations was right here in Ubud so with my new fondness to the drink we agreed we couldn’t miss it. The coffee beans are actually fed to civets, cat like ferrets, then when the beans pass through the animal they’re recollected! Sounds horrendous i know… We jumped off our bikes at the plantations and instantly began a tour with a friendly guy, we expected to pay, or at least a tip, however he showed us around then within a moments notice pass us onto a colleague of his and wondered off! We were shown how the beans were roasted and prepared then asked to take a seat. Couple of minutes pass and the lady reappears with 12 different taster sized coffees and teas and to our surprise completely free. They were all absolutely incredible, if i was a rich man, i’d of bought boxes of the stuff. She then offered us the kopi luwak, typically its $50 a cup anywhere else in the world, however, right here it was the equivalent of $5 if i remember correctly so we bought a cup each. Awful. I actually couldn’t stand the taste! A few others in the group liked it but it was just far too bitter, even attempting to put palm sugar in fixed nothing. The poor lady seemed almost offended by the fact i couldn’t finish it but none the less on leaving i bought myself a favourite from the tasting set, a coffee made mainly from the root of the plant. The name escapes me currently.

Afterwards we jumped back onto our trusted scooters and headed North to see sunset over the volcano at lake Batur, it was a long, zig-zagged journey of around two hours before we came over the horizon and feasted our eyes upon the low laying valley where just one volcano stood, it looked superb, surrounded by flat land and the lake. We drove down to the waterfront where a local man suggested we checked out a small fishing village further down the lake side so we followed up and down this hilly dirt track. I decided to pull over at some point to get a quick picture, the group continued onwards. After the photograph i jumped back on the bike and set off down this dirt hill, the back breaks on this bike hardly worked as it was and within seconds i was going to quick thanks to gravity, i began having to tap the front break and before long the back wheel slid from underneath me. Straight over the handle bars, quick front roll and boom i’d come to a halt. Just typical it would happen to me, luckily no serious injuries just a couple of bruises and a scrape down my left arm. The worst injury was my pride when the guys found out, i’d been the most sensible and then this happens! They will never let this slide now. The village was ok but not much to see so after that me and Ronchetti headed back towards a spot i’d seen earlier for sunset, the others set sail for a drive to the other side of the lake. The sunset was beautiful with an amber glow in the clouds and Mt Batur along my horizon line.

The next morning we moved hotel as they were fully booked and decided on two more days in Ubud. This was our final day with the bikes and even with being tired from loads of driving we set sail North-West to the three lakes, i wanted to mainly see Lake Buyan as i’d researched them prior to arranging the trip, there was great vantage spots from hills nearby so that was the target. We weren’t disappointed with the views, as we came closer a gigantic mountain became visible, it was shrouded in clouds and towered over other, close by mountains. We pulled up at several places to take in the view but i finally chose a spot overlooking the lake with mountains in the background, as previously, some of the group fled to drive around the great roads whilst me and Ronchetti waited for sunset. Bali has been the best place so far for landscapes, in other countries i’d struggled to actually get out to specific locations, it had been more about the people and culture.

We didn’t want to leave Ubud but unfortunately our final day had arrived, we had booked white water rafting for myself, Dan, Ben and Ronchetti, the other two didn’t quite feel up to it so with an early start we arrived at the starting point and jumped into our boat after being informed we must travel 18km to the finish line! The river took us through a superb valley riddled with waterfalls, exposed rock faces and foliage, at the times we weren’t battling to keep the right way up in the water it was actually peaceful and tranquil. The rapids at times were forceful and great fun, but as expected half of it was quieter and too easy. At one point the front of our raft smashed into this huge boulder which almost sent me head first straight out! So i can’t complain at the difficulty too much. We got to do a five meter straight drop which was definitely nerve racking, we had to lay down and brace for what was definitely an impact at the bottom. After missing the water rafting in Pai, Thailand, i was very glad to have done it, hopefully there will be another chance again during our travels.

Drying our eyes we left the place we began to love knowing soon we will be hiking Mt Bromo in East Java. The journey started just as any other, a long haul bus expecting to take a short 11 hours including the ferry ride however with just a few hours until we reached the town we planned on staying all six of us had fallen asleep and awoke in worry that we were now actually a further 3 hours down the route! Luckily i’d known about Malang and we opted to jump off and set up camp at the first hotel we found. We desperately needed showers and some real sleep so we booked the cheapest rooms and headed upstairs only to find the rooms don’t have showers, not even communal ones! I’d never heard of such ludicrous rooms so unfortunately we marched back downstairs and had to book the most expensive rooms! If you ask me, its done on purpose. We finally got outside to explore where we had landed to find the place had absolutely zero tourists, which is perfectly fine, if anything i usually prefer it, however everybody kept staring at us. We got use to it after a while but still there was absolutely nothing to do in the area until Mt Bromo the next day. We got what we imagined at the time to be a decent deal from our hotel, a taxi would take us all the way to the walking point of Mt Bromo then we could explore on our own. The five hour journey by car took us through some amazing scenery surrounded by flush mountains until all of a sudden our driver pulls over near a couple of small shacks and loads of locals. He told us we must pay the entrance fee and hire a jeep from here! This was an absolute tourist trap and we knew it, they attempted to charge us near £15 per entry and a further £30 for the jeep hire. We had read online loads of travel blogs explaining how you can do this journey without any of this however our driver who spoke very little English anyway was adamant we paid only to get here and refused to drive us any further. Even if we wanted to pay the extortionate prices, we couldn’t, it was our last day in Indonesia and we lacked the funds. Reluctantly and with our now grumpy driver we demanded to be taken back to the hotel. It was a huge disappointment to have travelled so far just to see this volcano and we failed at the absolute last hurdle. East Java had been very uneventful and we were glad to be leaving the following morning, but it absolutely hasn’t tainted my love for Indonesia.