Ubud, Bali

After Jodie and I met up in Kuala Lumpur, we spent a few days in the city whilst Jodie recovered from her virus. We didn't do a huge amount, just explored more of KL. We were meant to go to North Malaysia to a jungle area however since the day we wanted to go coincided with the end of eid, the bus station was completely packed of people going back home. This meant we missee our bus north and sadly couldnt get a refund on all the travel/accomodation arrangements we had made. This meant sone more time in KL which we tried ti make the most of! Went bouldering, lots of great food ad I also took the down time to sit one of my exams (passed it!). I also decided to buzz my hair off! Jodie recovered fully in KL and is now doing well.

After KL, our next stop was Bali, Indonesia which is where we are currently. We have been staying in Ubud which is where Jodie did her Yoga Teacher Training. Amazing place with lots of lush green nature everywhere and super cheap tasty food. Very easy to get a full meal here for ~£1.50. The people here are also very smiley and friendly!

The day after we arrived, we were up at 1.30am to go on a sunrise hike of Mt Batur, an active volcano in Ubud. The hike itself wasn't too hard but was in the dark so had to use torches and be careful where we stepped. Took around 2 hours to get up and we did it with a big group of people as well as a guide. At the top, there are some great views of Ubud and surrounding volcanoes. Sadly when we got to the top eome clouds came just as the sunrise was starting so we missed pretty much all of it! Apparently it's quite common for this to happen. After the clouds cleared, the sun had already risen but still some really nice views (see pics).

Next day we spent relaxing in an outdoor luxury gym/pool/sauna complex which had loads of facilities and really good food. Nice way to unwind after Batur hike. Also did a breathwork class which was very intense, I was especially surprised at the physical affects. I couldn't move my arms at all for a while as my hands were cramping so much from the increased oxygen flow. Was told this was normal however. Was a really good experience.

Then we did some waterfall chasing and tea/coffee tasting. There is a coffee plantation where you can get 15 small cups of various flavours of tea/coffee as well as two large cups of Luwak coffee (apparently the best coffee in the world, the bean is eaten by a Luwak and then pooped out to make the coffee...) all for £5 (for both of us)! We sampled all the flavours and learned about all the health benefits which was really interesting. My favourite flavours were vanilla coffee and the 1st tea we tried (forgot the fruit name as I type this but you can see it in the pic of all the flavours, it's number 1). We bought some more of both of these to take home.

We have one more day in Ubud and then catching a 10 hour bus to East Java to do two more volcano hikes.

Really loving Ubud and Indonesia so far!Read more