Tag 79 - simply

07/18/19

Off to Ubud we go!

For the very first time since the beginning of our journey, we have breakfast included. We are so excited (not necessarily about the quality but about the fact that it exists, which gives us a feeling of luxury) that we plan on booking it more often now. We relax in our room until 12:00 pm (Check Out again) and order a taxi to take us to the Visa office, because today is the day we finally get our passports back, including the visa extension.

Relatively problem-free, we soon sit with the man in the vehicle and zoom back to the south of the island. Once we arrive, we get out, pay the man, and before we pick up our passports, we quickly grab an ice cream (since we're not supposed to be there for another half hour!). But then we go straight to the office, register ourselves, and fifteen minutes later we have our passports in hand - finally!

We order another taxi, this time to Ubud, a city inland where we plan to spend the next few days. Not even five minutes later, the taxi arrives and we head north.

The closer we get to our destination, the heavier the traffic becomes. The taxi driver takes a rather mysterious detour, on which we are constantly moving but still arrive 15 minutes later. Unfortunately, the first impression of Ubud is somewhat disappointing. Once again, we drive along a street that is bursting with mass tourism. Not as bad as in Kuta, but certainly not as we imagined it before.

Same procedure - get out, pay, thank you. We go up a narrow alley and then stand in front of the entrance to 'Ojeks Homestay'. We go to the reception, but no one is there. After five minutes, an older woman comes up to us, greets us, and checks us in. We receive the key and go to our room. The facility is very beautiful - extremely green, nicely decorated, and in the middle, there is a temple (which, by the way, is on every property). Our room includes two mattresses lying on the floor, a small wooden table, and...no, that's it. Mattresses and a table. The windows are half-open and cannot be closed, so we decide to use the mosquito net again. In addition, we don't have our own toilet (which we knew beforehand). All in all, it can be said that this is not our best accommodation, but we can manage with everything.

We want to get an impression of the city and just start walking, away from the main street, of course. Even though we can slowly sense the charm of the city that everyone talks about during our walk, we are still not completely convinced - we still have a few days left.

We buy some duct tape, which we use when we get back to the room to attach our mosquito net - with success!

Since we still have leftover spaghetti (from Lucy and Ian), we cook a bit in the communal kitchen (we got some vegetables beforehand) and thus end the first evening in Ubud.

- Alex