Day 50 - Sate and Spice

I can't believe we're already at day 50 and in less than a week will be in Australia on the final leg. We're a little concerned that our planned route takes us to Cyclone Debbie's main destruction zone so might need to rethink depending on how things are there

Anyway back to the present. We're in Ubud in Bali in a gorgeous AirBNB villa. We were welcomed with watermelon juice but as we arrived so early sadly our room wasn't ready yet. Cue the next few hours feeling slightly grumpy and sleep deprived. We took the shuttle service into town and had breakfast at the first place we found which took Mastercard. Yesterday was a public holiday here in Bali where everything shuts down and people are banned from leaving their home so none of ATMs were yet working from that and we had no cash. Luckily it was a nice place. I had a Nasi Goreng which is a traditional Indonesian dish of rice, veg, chicken, prawns and egg. So good! Plus a coconut. Matt is finally back on the coffee and eating so he had a big plate of meat, potatoes and eggs. And a couple of lattes.

We attempted a short walk around Ubud and had a look at the palace and some of the temples. It's a very beautiful place, I loved all the statues. Especially those that had been dressed up. We were probably a bit too over tired to fully appreciate it and were grateful when the shuttle came back at 1pm to collect us. Our little villa is gorgeous. Four poster bed, a bath, nice pool we share with the villa next door. We appreciated it for all of 10 minutes before pretty much passing out asleep for a couple of hours. We had a bit of a swim and sit outside before heading into Ubud for dinner. We went to a place called Arang which specialises in Indonesian Sate - beautifully grilled skewers of food with lots of options to choose between. I had the meat tasting selection and Matt the poultry. The food was so good. One of the best meals I've ever had. You even got a little hot stone to continue grilling with. And they had cocktails 😍 Highlights were the chicken liver, steak and lamb/blue cheese meatballs. We even ordered extra afterwards like the greedy pigs we are. I could have ordered a whole other tasting plate but managed to rein it in. The customer service was also second to none, though I forgot how little I missed people being able to smoke in restaurants.

After that we walked around town for a bit. Well until 9 cause that's when the happy hours start. We went to a place called Spice where the cocktails are based on Balinese ingredients. Again really good and excellent customer service. The manager came and chatted with us about the concept and whenever anyone arrived or left all the staff shouted out a greeting in unison. My favourite cocktail was a sparkling lemongrass and apple drink. Yum.

We caught the last shuttle home and once we'd managed to figure out the mosquito net again promptly passed out. Good night.Read more