Tag 329: Ubud

I'm sweating. Yellow sun rays are fighting their way through the dirty windows. A big fan is swirling the humid air in the room. We are sitting in the waiting area of the airport in Denpasar. It's 3:40 PM, our flight to Singapore is tomorrow morning at 7:30 AM. But there is a reason why we are already sitting at the airport so early. Bali's highest volcano, Mount Agung, erupted a few days ago and has been causing flights to be canceled one after another. Hopefully, ours will be spared.

After three days of snorkeling in Amed, we drove to Ubud. The city in the highlands of Bali is a popular destination for travelers of all kinds. We have settled in a beautiful homestay in the middle of the city and from here we have explored, lived, eaten, and rested for the past eleven days. We visited the monkey forest, walked through rice terraces, drank the most expensive coffee in the world, visited temples, looked at waterfalls, Sabrina did yoga, I drew. We thoroughly enjoyed our time. Ubud itself is relatively manageable and consists mainly of various accommodations, bars, restaurants, art shops, a large market, and many yoga schools. You have to get used to the people. There are some very nice and helpful locals, but most are loud, pushy, and see a tourist mostly as a potential customer. A nice walk through the colorful streets usually ends in an exhausting 'Thank you' marathon. Every ten meters, loud words like 'Taxi! Taxi!' are thrown at you by an unfriendly man like tennis balls. Even a visit to the market usually ends with heated discussions and shattered nerves. 'Good price, cheap, cheap'. The locals would sell you anything. Loud, pushy, and unfriendly. If you politely decline, they ask why. In their opinion, something is never too big or too small. If you try to explain that you simply don't like it, you are asked to at least buy the overpriced items for 'Good luck'. If you decline again, you will be ignored, let alone bid farewell to. It's tough for the people, especially with the influx of tourists due to the erupted volcano, but we are backpackers on a very low budget, who don't feel like stuffing their already heavy backpacks with overpriced and bulky souvenirs. It's hard to distinguish who you can trust and who is trying to rip you off. I guess that's the dirty flip side of the beautiful coin called 'traveling'. But you get used to everything. We understood how the people here function and how to deal with them. After that, everything else was super relaxed. We really liked Ubud and enjoyed our time here very much.

We are slowly getting tired. The airport hall is getting quieter. I have secured a place for us to sleep on a small couch in front of a restaurant. Four more hours until check-in. Hopefully, our flight to Singapore will go tomorrow.