Ubud – inland Bali at its finest

*The prices mentioned in this article were accurate as of December 2022. 

After spending a week exploring and remote working in Legian with a beach vibe, we travelled to the beautiful, luscious green rice fields of Ubud. When entering the surrounding areas leading into Ubud, you’ll find a lot of wood workshops and manufacturers. Furniture, arts and crafts and interior decorations can be seen outside the workshops and they look impressive. If only we could fit a table into our luggage, we would have. 

We were lucky enough to have found accommodation which was located within a family compound. Our private property was walled off, with a private swimming pool within a tropical garden. It had an equipped kitchen, beautiful bathroom and very comfortable living space. The workspace had a stable and reliable internet with a full size desk and office chair. The property was located about 200m into the family compound. We had to walk through the 7 or so family houses, plus two temples before getting to our property. Some families own cats, dogs and chickens which are also kept on the property. On the property itself were a lot of fruit trees, where the fruits are harvested on a daily basis for consumption. We were lucky enough to help Ketut, our host, catch two papayas from a tree. Be on the lookout for the butterflies in this area. These butterflies are huuuuuuge. I’m talking about the size of the palm of my hand. They come in the most beautiful colours too, blue, orange, yellow and purple. You can’t miss them. 

Living within the family compound was such an incredible experience as we got to interact with the local host, Ketut, and his wife, Wayan, on a daily basis. We learnt about their culture, about their daily lives, witnessed a cultural procession over the weekend, experienced a band practicing music and watched the local woman learn the dance for the procession. We also picked up that cock fighting is quite a big thing.

We stayed 15 minutes walk away from the centre of Ubud. It felt like living amongst the locals which was wonderful. It was here where we could see how they spend their daily lives and their activities. We saw elderly Balinese locals, young children and scholars. What was interesting was that children are required to go to school in school uniform on a Saturday which is when they do Life cultural, sport and religious studies.   

On our fourth day in Ubud, while working the afternoon we experienced a 5.2 strength earthquake, followed by 2 aftershocks within a timespan of 30 minutes. Confirmation of an earthquake: inexplicable rumble sound, shaking laptop screen, swaying lights and clapping wooden cupboards. If you’re lucky enough, you may be hosting an online meeting and have a little freak out session. We were a bit shaken (no pun intended). However, it’s a very common thing in this area and quickly moved on with our lives.

Places we visited: 

• Enjoy a half day Balinese 9 course cooking class at Subak Cooking Class. You get to taste while cooking, eat the food you make and take home the leftovers. This was the highlight of our Ubud stay – https://www.airbnb.com/experiences/354836
• Ubud Art Market – it’s a flea market buzzing with clothing, gifts, information centres, restaurants and cafes. A clothing item can be negotiated to 100 000 IDR. 
• Walk the Campuhan Ridge
• Tegallalang Rice Terrace – Entrance fee of 50 000 IDR per person. Once you enter, you will cross some private properties where you will be asked for a donation to walk through their rice fields (10 000 IDR per person). Common activities to do there are the big swing, enjoy a coconut at some of the shops. You can also just enjoy a walk or trek through the rice fields. You’ll find workers working the land and it is a spectacular view of the rice terraces and the irrigation channels between all the palm trees. 
• We also went to the Mt Batur viewing terrace. There’s an entrance fee of 50 000 IDR per person which is paid at the entrance of the road. There are two volcanoes in sight whereby the smallest one had last erupted in 1999. You’ll see the black aftermath still visible down the slopes. As impressive as the site is, there is really not much to do other than taking a photo with the volcano in the background. We would rather suggest that you rather hike the volcano. Sunrise hikes are quite common. However, due to time constraints, we were unable to do this during our trip. 
• Gunung Kawi temple located in Tampaksiring village. It’s a temple located underground which was built in the 11th century. We chose to visit this temple because it was something different. Entrance fee was 50 000 IDR per person too. Based on the attire, you may be required to wear a sarong. Your legs need to be covered 

Recommended restaurants to visit:

• Warung Ting Ting (located across a temple)
• Paddy Point 
• Lala & Lili Warung

For anybody that would like to stay in a local family compound, with a great host, be sure to book with Ketut (https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/38711797). Feel free to contact us and we’ll gladly share his details with you.