We had organised transport to take us from Lovina to Ubud today. This will be our move inland and somewhat of a highland at 600m. The driver Putu turned up a little ahead of the agreed time of 1030. He had worked in New Zealand three times as a seasonal worker on kiwifruit farms.
The journey of around 2h30 took us through the central highlands including Bedugul where strawberries were grown. There was also two large lakes nearby.
Further along, there were lots of many good local eateries lining the intercity road. It has been a disappointing eating experience in Bali. Too much food in touristy towns are adjusted for western tastes. And these authentic places are just too hard to find or get too, and when we do stumble across them it isn’t meal time.
Our hotel, the Ubud Tropical Garden is near the Monkey Forest. Its pool is next to a small padi field making it very scenic. Sadly, our cheaper room was next to the road instead.
There wasn’t much around that attracted us when it came for lunch. There were plenty of nice places where we’d probably get over-westernised Indonesian food. We’ve already had too much of that. Luckily we found a place that did Vietnamese food including baguettes. `Unlike many of the overpriced meals (by local standards), the baguettes turned out delicious.
We relaxed for most of the afternoon before taking a walk around the urban area. There is a large rectangular block where things are very happening. I couldn’t understand why the block was so big … what is inside all that area? I realised later that the frontage is backed up by plenty of greenery in the form of bush and padi fields.
Dinner was another so-so disappointing pretend Indonesian meal.