November 8: Bali - Day 3

Today Charlotte arranged for a tour guide/driver to take us to explore Ubud. Putu Yuniadha picked us up at around 8:30 in the morning and drove us up to Ubud, which is about an hour and a half drive from Nusa Dua. The first thing we did was stop at an art cooperative that Putu suggested to look at some of the Balinese art. Mom and Dad were ready to leave after about ten minutes, but both Stacy and Char ended up finding some paintings that they liked. It was kinda fun because every time any of us looked at a painting for more than a second the artist/salesman with us would say, "The price is negotiable, anything is possible," and eventually Stacy and Charlotte took that to heart. They ended up buying three things between the two of them.

After the art gallery we went to the Mandala Wisata Wenara Wana Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary. The place was filled with monkeys and some of them got a little bit aggressive. We bought some bananas at the entrance and luckily Putu told us to just hold one at a time so that the monkeys wouldn't take them all at once.

We followed the path through the forest to a bathing temple, feeding the monkeys all along the way. It was amazing how sneaky some of the monkeys could be when they really wanted bananas. They would come up and grab onto your clothing and start pulling on you if they thought you might have food. We were at the bathing temple getting ready to head back when, much to the delight of Charlotte and Stacy, a bigger monkey mounted a smaller monkey and started some relations out of the blue. After that the rest of the monkeys seemed pretty tame no matter how aggressively they came after the bananas.

After the monkey forest it was time for lunch. I had researched a little bit and found a place called Ibu Oka that specialized in babi guling or roast suckling pig so I went and got a to-go order to eat at the restaurant everyone else was going to eat at.

The order included some sliced pork, some of the crispy skin, a salad made with sliced long beans, rice, a sauce made from the spices they rub inside the pig and the juices from the pig, and a really, really spicy sambal of sliced chilies, shallots and coconut oil I think. The pork was really juicy and flavorful and Dad ended up liking it better than the roast pork from Spain. I think the two things that put it over the top was the sauce, which we spooned over it, and the price. The whole thing cost about $2.50! 

Since not everyone was in the mood for pork we went to a restaurant close by called Café Lotus. The restaurant was surrounded by a large lotus pond with a walkway through it leading to a temple. It was a beautiful setting for lunch.

Even though Dad is supposed to be vegan he ended up ordering the bebek betutu or smoked duck. We also had some vegetarian samosas for the table. Stacy got shrimp in a tomato red curry sauce, Charlotte got tom yum soup, Mom got a lentil soup and Putu got some nasi goreng or fried rice.

After lunch we walked through the local market where we found some souvenirs to take home. I also ended up buying some mangosteen and rambutan to take back to the hotel to eat later.

Once we were finished at the market we headed up the road to a place where we could view the terraced rice paddies. The entire landscape was incredible, even with the overcast skies. It was an amazing site that I certainly won't forget anytime soon. We spent a few minutes there and then drove on toward the Elephant Safari Park.

The Elephant Safari park was pretty neat. When we got there they took us to feed and pet some elephants. Then we walked around the park for about fifteen to twenty minutes until the Elephant Show started. In the show the elephants performed a few tricks like dunking a basketball, scoring a soccer goal, doing math, and spraying the crowd with water. 

Once the ten-minute show was over we finally got to ride the elephants. My elephant's name was Buspah and the driver's name was Aman who was from Sumatra. The park has a total of 27 elephants and they all have their own individual handler who they end up forming a bond with and become comfortable with. 

The ride lasted about thirty-five minutes and in the middle of it the skies opened up and it started raining cats and dogs. The ride was bumpy and fun and it was pretty funny watching Charlotte and Stacy's elephant, Ramen, because throughout the whole ride he would stop periodically and grab something from off the trail to eat. One time he even uprooted a small banana tree and spent about five minutes walking and eating the tree. Once the ride was done we took some pictures with the elephants and then went into the gift shop.

By the time the women were done in the gift shop we were ready for dinner, so we went to a restaurant called Bebek Bengil or the Dirty Duck Diner. The restaurant was very large and it had multiple platforms where the tables were located. Our table was at the very back of the compound on the second story and it overlooked some rice paddies with coconut palms lining the back of the paddies.

Most of us ordered the house specialty crispy duck, which was steamed in Indonesian spices and then fried crispy. Dad ordered grilled fish with a sweet and sour sauce and gado-gado or steamed mixed vegetables and tofu with a peanut sauce, and Charlotte ordered the ayam goreng or fried chicken. All the dishes were good, the chicken was very crispy and the fish was grilled perfectly so that it was still plenty moist. The duck was excellent and the Indonesian spices they use to season it really made the dish. Included with the meal were a couple of sambals. One was similar to the sambal olek that we buy in the States, but it had more chili flavor and more garlic and was addicting to eat, but I think they tempered the spiciness of it for our western tongues. The other was made from sliced shallots, chilies, garlic and coconut oil and I think they kept the spice level fairly authentic because it burned my mouth for a few minutes after consuming, but it tasted so good that I kept having more. For dessert Dad ordered the coconut cream pie (of course), Charlotte and Stacy got the carrot cake and Putu got some chocolate ice cream. The coconut cream pie was different than what I'm used to, but still very good. It was a fairly dense version and the crust had a lot of coconut in it.

Once dinner was finished we drove back to the Westin. After I started writing today's blog entry I decided to try the mangosteen (which I hadn't had before) and the rambutan. Rambutan is a lot like lychee, but not quite as sweet or aromatic. It does look a cooler than lychee though. The mangosteen was a little bit hard to peel, especially since I just cut my fingernails. As for the flavor, I think I'll have to get back to you on that. It's very sweet and juicy, but there is nothing I can compare it to off the top of my head.