Ubud

This weekend I made it to Bali. Ubud, specifically, which is very different from the beachy part of Bali. Ubud is a very cultural part of the island, located close to the center. It has rice paddies, Hindu temples everywhere you look, delicious food, beautiful sights, and fantastic animals.

After an eventful morning trying to make our flight, we arrived in Denpasar and made our way North. First we visited a local spice garden, where we were able to sample a variety of teas and coffees - including Luwak coffee (more on that later). Then we went to Pod Chocolate - a farm to table chocolate center located in the Elephant Forest. Wow! We got to sample chocolate at every stage of the process, make our own, and take in the sights as elephants wandered around. Later we went to the Monkey Temple, where the first monkey we saw stole 3 of the 4 bananas we bought! They're sneaky!

We then made our way back to Ladera Villa, where we sipped on mint juice and floated around in our private pool. For dinner we ate at Cafe Lotus, and were lucky enough that there happened to be a Balinese performance taking place at the temple adjacent to the restaurant. From the deck we watched the colorful costumes and listened to the traditional music across a pond of lotus flowers. Is this luxury, or what?