We went on a walk today that we found in a lonely planet book. The directions were rough at best, we came across a few t-junctions that were not mentioned at all …that made things interesting.
Luckily a British couple were coming the other way on the walk and were able to direct us (and us them). The country side is amazing, it was about 9km all up, and took us through the main street of Ubud at the end. We stopped halfway and had a few refreshing Bintangs at a nice bar.
We continued down the road and came across a bridge over a deep river valley. We went down and jumped the river, which led up to a temple. We got to the top and were told by a monk of the temple that we had done something frowned upon normally … there were a lot of offerings at the river that we jumped, so it must be a special place of some sort (it was the meeting point of a few rivers).
We apologised and ran away while they tried to convince us to tour the temple. We got to the top and were back exactly where we started. We were just starting to talk about what to do next when a freelance taksi driver came over and asked us if we wanted a ride back to the Furama (our hotel in Ubud). Apparently he had seen us arrive and recognised us, we (by which I mean our chief haggler Andrew) negotiated a 60000rp (about $6) ride back to the Furama in Ubud … about a half hour ride. It seemed like we were the only fare he had all day which gives you an idea of the margins these guys must be working on. Every driver we have had has offered us all day taksi service, the best price so far has been 400000rp, but of course that is the special price for friends ;)
We are currently at the pool bar back at the Furama having long island iced teas, they ran out of bacardi (!!!!) so no Pina Coladas :( Tonight we’ll probably head into Ubud for dinner, we have two more nights left in Ubud before we go into the Conrad hotel in Nusa Dua.
