It’s been nearly 2 weeks since we left Soc Trang and already it feels like a lifetime ago. Since we left we’ve had more farewell dinners in HCMC, visited the orang-utans, lions and crocodiles at Singapore zoo, gotten lost and frustrated in the traffic jams of Jakarta, chilled at the beach in Pangandaran and marvelled at the 1000 year-old Buddhist and Hindu temples near Yogyakarta. Now we are in Bali, in Ubud to be precise, on the final leg of our meandering journey back to Australia.
We came to Ubud via Kuta, the main tourist beach drag of Bali. The last time I was in Bali I was about 11 years old, I don’t remember too much of that holiday except for watermelon juice and apple pancakes for breakfast, street sellers with dodgy watches and silver rings, women wanting to touch my (then very blonde) hair and endless market-type shops selling cheap t-shirts, paintings and wooden carvings. Well, things have changed in the last 15-16 years. The streets of Kuta are now lined with endless surf stores (Rip Curl and Billabong must own nearly half of Kuta by now) and trendy bars offering happy hour cocktails and ear-shatteringly-loud techno music. It’s like the Gold Coast but louder, cheaper and much hotter. (There’s probably less silicone and bleach here too, though that will probably change as more and more tourists arrive.)
Which is why we abandoned Kuta quite quickly and made our way to Ubud. I’m sitting in a café now, waiting for Dan to come back from his attempts to find us some accommodation. Ubud seems a lot more relaxed than Kuta and the surrounding countryside is very beautiful. I’m looking forward to exploring this area a bit more, although, if my dodgy memory serves me correctly (there is a reason why Dan calls me the Travelling Goldfish), the last time I was in Ubud I was bitten by a sacred monkey. My plans for the next few days are to catch up on some sleep, sample some Indonesian delicacies and visit the local sites – as long as I don’t have to go anywhere near Monkey Forest that is!
