Ubud (Central Bali)

travel time: September / October 2023

Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary

The Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary is a nature reserve and a temple complex. There are some stations where the monkeys are fed and at feeding time that’s the place to find a lot of the monkeys. Otherwise, they are roaming around the whole area. The temples are closed and only accessible for local people to pray but you can look at them from the outside.

Alex had the pleasure to have one monkey climbing on him as he was kneeling on the floor and taking pictures. They don´t hurt you and if you keep on walking, they will eventually jump off. There are guards around to help you, in case monkeys jump on you and you get scared.

We visited the forest at about 9:30 AM and there were already many people. As you are always walking around and the monkeys don´t have a specific place to be it never got very crowded. In the sanctuary there live about 1260 monkeys, so you will definitely find some for your pictures.

Taman Festival Bali

It´s an abandoned theme park that is not in use anymore and slowly nature is taking over. You find a lot of old buildings and it´s a really cool place. The area is huge and there is a lot to explore. At the entrance you pass old ticket booths and some local guys charge you a small amount to enter the area.

Batuyang Kite Festival

From the area of the abandoned theme park we saw a lot of kites in the air. We walked about 10 minutes on the beach to find out what was happening. As we got closer, we saw that there was a Kite Festival where they had these massive kites surfing in the air. We were in awe and watched about an hour. With the strong wind coming from the sea, it took no effort to start the kites. About 15 – 20 men where needed to get the kites back down.

Coffee Plantation

We were looking for a place to try Kopi Luwak and found this amazing Coffee Plantation "Mas Plantation". As soon as we entered, we felt welcomed. The owner showed us around and explained us the different coffee plants and showed us cinnamon trees, vanilla plants, cocoa trees and nutmeg trees. After an explanation how all the different coffees and teas are prepared we got an entire tray of drinks with different flavors – all for free. As we really wanted to try Luwak Coffee we had a cup of that, which costed 60K IDR (around 4€). If you are in the area, that´s definitely a place to check out.

Tegallalang Rice Terraces

The famous rice terraces are just a short drive away from town. From the one side where you can enter the rice terraces is full of restaurants and hotels. You need to buy an entrance ticket to get past all the buildings that are blocking the view. As you enter new sections in the rice fields you are obligated to give a small donation to the farmers. But the money you pay is totally worth it.

Around Bali you find a lot of rice fields but the way the terraces are arranged is something totally different. Probably depending on the time of the year that you visit the rice fields, you find lush green fields and blooming nature that leaves you speechless. Rice grows all year round so at some times the fields turn yellow or are even empty before they are planted again. There are fixed paths where you can wander around. We did kind of a round trip and spent about two hours in the rice terraces.

Ghost Hotel (Hotel Pondok Indah Bedugul)

If you are interested in lost places where you can find nature reclaiming old buildings, then this hotel is just right for you. When we´ve read about this place, we knew that we had to visit it. The hotel is private property and not open to the public. But there is a security guard at the entrance that happily takes your money and let you enter the property. We paid 70K IDR (around 4,50€) for the two of us and he gave us the permission to enter the property.

This time we had the perfect weather for this kind of experience as it was quite foggy and rainy. The hotel never opened its doors but as soon as you enter the building you can imagine where everything was supposed to be. It is a large complex and there is a lot to discover. We were fascinated by the layout of the hotel and wandered around the rooms, imagining what the hotel could have looked like.