Monkeying Around in Ubud

After checking into our Airbnb on our first day in Bali,  we headed out to the main street in Ubud for some dinner and drinks. I was able to get a few snapshots of a beautiful temple before it started to downpour.

This temple was located just off one of the main streets right by the Starbucks. So pretty!

The rain wasn’t letting up much, so we decided to head back to our villa after taking a quick stroll through the marketplace. Before calling it a night, we played a few rounds of Crazy 8’s and sipped on some Bintang, a great way to end our first evening in Bali.

The next morning, we woke up to more rain. We were not about to let the weather get in the way of our activities, so we continued our schedule as planned. Our first stop was the Sacred Monkey Forest in Ubud.

There are approximately 600 Balinese long-tailed monkeys in the Sacred Monkey Forest. Aren’t they cute?

We saw several baby monkeys while we were there. Many of the mommy monkeys were very protective and would scoop up their babies and walk away from us.

The forest is 12.5 hectares and has approximately 115 different species of trees.

We enjoyed exploring all of the different trails throughout the forest, especially this one by the water. So relaxing. 🙂

The entrance fee to get into the forest was under $5 USD, a very cheap price for all of the photos we were able to capture. ❤

This is probably one of my favorite photos.

See no evil?

They were EVERYWHERE!

I’m not sure if a massage is happening here or if they are taking turns picking bugs out of each others’ fur. Either way, they both look very into the moment.

We came across these three amigos right before leaving. In this photo, I believe they were taking a vote about what part of me they were going to attack. One ran up and started biting my hat, one pulled my earring and one was smashing banana into my sweater while gnawing at my elbow. While most were pretty tame, I think these three had it in for me. We knew right then that it was probably time to go, so we said goodbye to our new, furry friends (and furry enemies) and headed to our next stop, Tirta Empul.

Tirta Empul, which means ‘holy water spring’ is located in Tampaksiring, about a 40 minute drive north of Ubud. The temple is a Hindu Balinese water temple that was founded around 962 A.D.

The holy water is believed to be healing and have magical properties. Many Balinese people as well as tourists come to Tirta Empul to bathe each year.

We decided to pass on the bathing. Shortly after we arrived there was a downpour and we didn’t want our backpacks and belongings to get soaked. It was definitely an interesting place to see though, even without participating.

We were getting a tad bit chilly after getting our clothes wet in the rain so we decided our next stop would be Satria Luwak Coffee.

We tried a variety of coffee and tea, all delicious. The specialty of this coffee plantation however, is the Luwak coffee (pictured below).

Luwak coffee, also known as poop coffee, is supposedly the most expensive coffee in the world. Coffee cherries are eaten by a civet (cat-like animal) and then pooped out and turned into coffee.

The beans are picked out of the civet poop, broke open and then roasted (if I remember correctly).

I don’t think Adam ever imagined he would be roasting poop on a fire in Bali…and then drinking it. Haha. 🙂

After getting a caffeine fix, we grabbed some lunch and then went back to our villa to relax. Later that night, we ventured into Ubud for an early dinner. We ended up asleep by 7:30pm that night so we could be ready for our 2am pickup for the Mt. Batur sunrise volcano hike.

I hope you enjoyed reading about our first full day in Bali! Check back soon to see how our volcano hike went!

-E