indonesia

I am still in Ubud and the day started with a rather short but spectacular hike up and along a ridge. The start was a bit creepy but once you where on the ridge you walked along small rice fields and a fabulous surrounding which I unsuccessfully tried to capture with my camera. The weather is a bit cloudy and during my breakfast it was actually raining (yes, its rain season now). The cloud made the hike more comfortable though, the hike is really exposed to the sun and it gets really hot once the sun is shining on you. At the end of the hike we had blue sky again and by the look of my t-shirt, it looked like I hade been swimming in the ocean.

I spent the afternoon at Ubud Palace and to be fair, I think I should hired a guide because I did not understand anything but yea, I guess it some ruins, some statues and the scent of incense was heavy, but thats not just for Ubud Palace, the scent is all over Ubud. Since I didn’t understood anything I decided to skip being cultural and headed to the market instead. Not that easy to find since they had moved the market because renovation but I found it and it was street after street with all you can think off. Shawls and t-shirts to ashtrays, masks or knifes and even swords. Everything is mixed with tiny tiny restaurants and everybody, from shops to restaurants and even the taxi drivers has people trying to catch your interest but kudos to them, they accept a no thank you without any hassle.

I also noticed that we share room, it is Oggy the cockroach who lives in our bathroom together with this friend Thox, the lizard. They respect us and are staying at their side so I respect them however my anonymous travel company is not that happy about it. Nothing has been stated yet but I believe I am suppose to evict them at any time.

Todays goal was to visit waterfalls. Munduk is kind a famous for their multiple waterfalls and to not have to walk along the larger roads where an guide was hired who could take us through the rice fields and forest to a few different falls and what a hit it was.

First of all, he spoke really good english so he could both explain things for us but also, we could ask questions. This might be common sense for you guys but I had for example no idea that you may harvest rice two times per year, each rice field/terrace has its own owner and they use palm trees to mark the borders and the most dangerous animal on Bali is dogs.

Once we left the rice fields and entered the forest it was for sure that we would have been lost without our guide but not only that. Our guide had a background as biologist and could and did explain a lot about the eco system right here and while walking along a tiny path he pointed out both fruits, nuts, spices and large crickets. I have probably missed something but we saw and tasted/smelled at wild ginger, turmeric, nutmeg, papaya, pepper, avocados, bananas and something I never seen or heard about before, snake fruit (salak). It is called snake fruit because if its skin but it tastes a bit like mango.

But what about the waterfalls? Yes we did find three of four in Munduk Valley. Red Coral Waterfall which was the first we visited was elegant, almost as controlled water flow lite from a shower. Labuan, our second was much smaller in height but still more brutal since it was wider and the last, Melanting water was the biggest, 75m high and when you are standing there, at the bottom and doesnt here anything else than the wild roar and feel the wind from the water, then you really feel small.