Day 4 : Ubud

Well it's the beginning of day 5 so I am just skipping day 3 for now :)

This whole vacation has been so relaxing. Despite the slight sickness (from lots of air travel... I was on a plane Friday, Monday, and then Thursday) and jetlag, I have felt more relaxed than I can remember. It's like "oooohhhh.... that's what people mean when they say to relax"

Today we went to Ubud, which is supposedly the art capital of Bali (and is a bit less touristy). The population here was actually mostly Balinese, so it actually looked like Bali! It was inland and very rainforesty. Unfortunately it was a lot more humid than the coasts.

So we got up this morning and decided to head out to ubud. Loooong taxi ride, with the driver asking a bit often if we wanted to go shopping at this place or to a spa at another place. The ride up to the city was pretty though, lots of old buildings and wilderness around. And as we got closer to the city it seemed like half the shops were selling architectural/decorative items or paintings.

First we went to the monkey forest. It's basically a forest/preserve with lots of temples dedicated to monkeys. So cute! I have never seen so many monkeys in my entire life, and they're all in a forest eating bananas! Little baby monkeys, lots of big lazy ones, a few reminded me of oberon, just sitting there on a wall or laying in the sun with their bellies up. Most of the temples had the normal pretty sculptures of monkeys or spirits or lizards.... but one had a monkey masturbating. Seriously, an old stone sculpture of it. So weird

Then was a Botanical Gardens. Wow. Huuuuge orchid section, so many that were so beautiful! Darrin found some sort of flower with the same color of my hair :) Lots of birds of paradise were hanging around there as well.

Spa Hati was all right - it's a spa whose profits go towards an elementary school. Like the other spa we went to yesterday it was a semi-outdoors building - it didn't have complete walls and there is a big gap between the roof and side walls. The doors had large billowing curtains.

Yummy lunch! vegetarian tempeh and tofu galore at an indonesian place. It's funny how Italian food seems to be the most popular cuisine here.

Then of course, a bit more shopping! I got a few more sarong's (fancier silk this time!) and a "gucci" watch. I'm not into brands but I needed a watch, and it was only $4 (after darrin bargained him down of course).

Seriously though, pictures are going to be coming soon ;)