On Monday we packed up in Legian, and after an early lunch at our favourite Warung, Warung Tujuh, we got in a car for the trip to Ubud. I ordered a car through Gojek, and the one and a half hour trip only cost IDR210,000.

We are staying at a hotel called Ubud Tropical Garden. It has an adjacent restaurant called Ubud Tropical View. The hotel consists of four second floor street facing rooms (Berwyn is in one of these) and eight suites on two floors adjacent to the pool. We are staying in one of these ground level suites, meaning that the pool is less than 10 metres from our door. We also have a semi-outdoor bathroom in the rear.

I had forgotten how hilly Ubud was, and the paths immediately surrounding the hotel are not great for our stroller. We haven’t wandered too far, but we haven’t needed to, either. The hotel is immediately adjacent to the Ubud Monkey Forest, which we visited on Tuesday. The monkeys reciprocate by visiting the hotel too. Yesterday they were having a squabble in the tree next to our door, and on Tuesday one tried to steal my icecream as I walked from the road to the hotel. A knee to its stomach from me and yells from The staff encouraged it to reconsider. The staff at the restaurant are equipped with slingshots to keep the monkeys at bay.

The close proximity of the pool is a blessing and a curse. Samuel loves spending time at the pool and it’s sometimes difficult to walk past it without him attempting to run for it. We have been spending plenty of time there.

The hotel also has a rice field (or sawah, as I learned yesterday) a couple of metres from the pool. Unfortunately, it’s between plantings at the moment, so we’re looking at a giant smelly puddle rather than beautiful green rice. However, watching the preparations for planting have been very interesting, and if I understood the farmer right, he will be planting the rice tomorrow. We’re looking forward to seeing that.

Yesterday, Berwyn and I did a cycling tour from Kintamani to Ubud, and later today we’re hoping to go white water rafting. Stay tuned!