Day 10: Back to Ubud

Today's the day we leave Gili T, which we've really enjoyed. It's so nice having a quiet, relaxed place with no cars beeping and motorbikes zooming past. The horses rumble a bit and the mosque makes a bit of noise but who can't live with that!

Down to the marina to board our 11:30 boat which (as with the original boat here) actually left at 12pm! Not much to report from the crossing, we sat downstairs this time as I still wasn't feeling great and just listened to music. Thankfully no stops on the other islands this time, straight back to Padang Bai.

Our shuttle back to Ubud took another couple of hours so we didn't arrive until nearly 4pm. The trip was shared with a young British couple on holidays here for a month between the end of uni and starting work. We definitely weren't the oldest people on Gili T but we would've been in the oldest 20% pretty easily I think! They were quite nice and worldly though, so we had a good chat. To their horror they realised that their Airbnb for the night was actually 20 *kilometers* from Ubud, not 20 *minutes walk*. Not sure how you make that mistake but alas!

Settled into our home for the evening which was on the northern side of Ubud this time, not far from where we'd seen the rice paddies. We were on the third floor of the building so we had modest "district views" I guess, along with quite a nice pool downstairs. We had a brief dip before booking a hotel on the north coast for tomorrow night and heading into town for dinner.

Took a recommendation from Foursquare to visit Casa Luna which turned out to be a hidden gem! Great food and very cheap prices, along with a lot of atmosphere too. I had a duck rendang curry while Shandos had braised pork in sweet soy sauce. We liked it so much we stuck around for dessert (the pastries were highly rated!) and I even ended up having a vegan coffee - iced matcha with coconut milk and salted caramel.

Did a bit of housekeeping for the trip tomorrow but unfortunately my cold caught up with me and I had to crash pretty early.Read more