Hello again, Ubud!

Yesterday, we went onto www.agoda.com and booked a great hotel for Ubud. We were planning to stay on Nusa Lembongan for a couple more nights, but I got so excited about the 50% off deal that agoda was having on this particular hotel in Ubud that I booked it without making sure it was the dates we wanted!  Sadly, it's for tonight!  So, we slightly reluctantly left Lembongan...

... on the Sang Sugriwa speed boat this morning at 8:30am... 

...and arrived in Sanur at 9:00am....

...where we were met by a taxi driver who drove us 1 1/2 hours over to Ubud. (175,000 rupiah each - $17.50 total for the boat and taxi.)

We checked into $24 a night hotel, thanks to the 50% off discount from www.agoda.com...

.

..did a little swimming...

... and worked out a deal with a scooter rental place on Monkey Forest Road ($3.50 a day for 7 days) and scooted our happy little faces over to an overpriced lunch. (Sometimes we fall into the tourist trap because we're lazy and hot!)

After lunch, we decided it was a good day for the Monkey Forest, where for $2.00 each, we were free to roam with A LOT of wild monkeys!

Looks like even monkeys have to go to the gynecologist sometimes!

Thankfully these guides are around to help if the monkeys get too feisty or steal something.  One monkey stole a little boys sweater and went running up a tree!  It was hard not to laugh when the little guy was wailing because his sweater was taken, but it's pretty funny!  Another girl brought some bananas in and was trying to hand them out to each little monkey, but one of the granddaddy monkeys (which you DO NOT MESS WITH) started tugging at her skirt which was enough to send the bananas flying in the air and the girl running!

The thunder started to come as we were walking through the monkey forest and we knew we needed to find a good cafe to duck into where we could get a little wifi and fresh juice while it poured overhead!  Where else but Juice Ja Cafe?, one of our favorite cafe's from our last time in Ubud!  We stayed here for a while, and chose to sit on the front deck, the only spot where we could sit on the floor, with floor pillows under our butts!  Can you tell we've been influenced by our 4 years in Korea?!

As we were walking through town today, we had been handed about 15 massage pamphlets!  So, we sat and looked through all of them and decided we would have a little "spa day" with the rest of our afternoon!

We decided on Warsa Spa and spent the next 3 hours in pure indulgence mode!  I had a one hour Balinese massage, manicure, pedicure and facial for... get ready for it... $20 total!  The title of my blog is no coincidence!  I'm not the same since I've lived in Asia!  I'll never be able to pay for a $100 massage again in America, ever! 

Aaron decided he would channel his inner spa-man and came with me.  He chose one of their packages too and had a 1 hour massage with me, facial and chocolate body scrub (yum!!) and he only paid $20!  When they brought us into the room, they told us to take off all of our clothes but our undies, and the girl handed Aaron a pair of those 1 size fits all, cloth bikini briefs and told him to wear those!  I almost died laughing as he tried to change into them while the two girls kept peaking through the curtain at him!  Can a guy get a little privacy!?

For and extra $8, he tried ear candling (which, holy crap, was awesome... and disgusting!)

After spending 3 hours at the spa, we walked over to Three Monkeys, a fantastic restaurant overlooking rice paddies and a Koi pond.


 We ordered a Margherita pizza ($4.50) and spinach and pesto lasagna ($5.50).  It was the best $10 dollars we'd spent in a while!  YUM!

Then it was back over to Juice Ja Cafe for some after dinner carrot cake, beer and coffee! 

I couldn't be happier being back in Ubud, one of my favorite places on the earth!  Tomorrow we're planning to get out and find a couple temples.

Dolphins, Kitties, Secret Beaches and Spear Fishing!

We had such a great time fishing with Captain Bobo that we decided to go again this morning, only this time we didn't catch any. :(  We brought the boat back to the beach to pick up some snorkelers and I hopped off and rode the scooter into town to check e-mail and do some blogging while Aaron went back out with them.  Lucky guy actually got to swim with a school of dolphins!!  All I got to do was drive the scooter and stop here for some 50 cent gas in a water bottle!

I came back to Silisti and Captain Bobo's warung at 10am, when they said they would be returning from the snorkeling trip, but they didn't come back till 11am, so Silisti, her sister in law and I all hung out together... oh and my favorite little cuddy kitty!

The girls were busy making these palm frond baskets, which they use for their morning offerings to their god and ancestors.  They each make 50 of these things EVERY DAY... 50!!  It took me about 5 minutes just to make one, but they're fast because they make them everyday!  Aaron and I were talking about how we're gonna make these when we're in America and pour fried rice and veggies in there to serve for dinner.  Anyone care to come to our place for a little Asian themed dinner party in August of 2013? 

Aaron came back from the snorkeling trip...

... just as Silisti was serving me my $3 tuna grilled in banana leaf! mmmmmm  Her parents are fishermen and caught this particular tuna this morning.  Doesn't get more fresh than that! 

We decided to check out Coconut Beach, a tiny beach just west of our hotel, so we said goodbye to the mangroves and headed west.  We knew we couldn't get to Coconut Beach by scooter, so we followed the path through the gorgeous woods...

... and loved when the trees would thin out just enough for us to get a glimpse of the surfers down below...

...past the abandoned house...

...to here, lovely Coconut Beach!

Sadly, it wasn't a great swimming beach because of today's windy/stormy weather, so we continued our hike over to the next westward beach, Tamarind.

I was ready to get in the water, but just to the left of this picture was a dark grey sky, filled with rain and lightning, so we enjoyed the beach for a sec and headed right back through the woods to our hotel!

 

We may or may not have stopped along the path for a delicious slice of carrot cake!

We spent a little bit of time at the hotel while the storm passed over... then drove back over to Silisti and Captain Bobo's.  We're such animal lovers... yep, even cats.

We're leaving Lembongan tomorrow morning, so this was our last night with Silisti and Captain Bobo... :(

 Bobo goes spear fishing almost every night and invited Aaron to try his hand at night spear fishing!

Aaron was soooo excited for this! 

Sadly, it was a bit of a train wreck.  It was really windy, so the waves were big and crashing over their snorkels, (which let's water in and causes you to breath in gulps of saltwater!!!), the fish were at least 6 meters down below the surface, Aaron was struggling with holding a giant flashlight in one hand, a spear gun in the other and attempting to swim with no arms at the same time, while trying not to get run over by the boat (which did happen once!  He said he thought it was the end for him.)  Thankfully, he made it back onto the boat in one piece with only a nasty scrap on his foot from the coral, a sore head from getting run over, a heart beating out of his chest and a lot of nightmares in his future!  On the bright side, Captain Bobo speared a jacket fish, which Silisti prepared for A for dinner!     

I'm so glad A made it home tonight.  It would be an understatement to say I was worried about him out there in the dark ocean, trying to swim with a spear gun in his hand!  Sometimes you just have to let your man do what he wants to do though and hope for the best!  Thankfully he doesn't ever wanna do it again! lol

Just another day in paradise!

In order to get to the main road from our hotel, we scoot down this little alleyway and say hello to the cutest kids who live just to the left.  Sometimes their shy, but other times they'll wave and smile and even let you take their picture!

It's another beautiful day on the island today!

We scooted over to Dream Beach for a swim, but the waves were HUGE and we weren't all that interested in getting tossed around, so we went out to a lookout point and watched for dolphins, which we didn't see... but, we did spot a gigantic sea turtle and a ginormous waves that were crashing on the cliffs.  Being the awesomely compliant wife that I am, I stood right where they crash just so Aaron could get a photo!  2 seconds later, I was drenched!  

We decided to try out this new local warung (small restaurant) overlooking Nusa Cennigan Island for lunch.   It's run by a young Lembongan local who also doubles as the head cook!  Last time we were in Lembongan (3 years ago), the foundation of this place was being laid and it's only been open now for a couple months... Goes to show just how long it takes things to get up and running in these parts!  The $2.50 Nasi Goreng was fantastic...

but the $2.00 fried bananas with chocolate ice cream stole the show!

Here's a little bit of Korean silliness for you, in case you're missing Korea, like me!  I bought this little change purse at DAISO for $1 because I loved what it says!  It became my money holder for this trip!

We decided to take the road less traveled and give ourselves a back-road tour of the island.

We were missing Dino, Bobo and Silisti, so we took the narrow and very bumpy road leading to the mangroves...

... and through the seaweed farming area to hang with the three of them for a bit.

FYI: The best snorkeling in Lembongan is actually right out in front of their warung (small restaurant), but most people pay a boat $20 to take them out there.  Today, Aaron and I put our big boy pants on and swam (FOR FREE) the 200 meters out to the corals and back, spotting sea urchins, dinner plate sized giant starfish, huge clam shells, stunning coral reefs, and tons of bright, colorful, and fancy looking fish along the way!

We came in, patted ourselves on the backs for swimming about 500+ meters without resting and went to dinner!  Maria's Warung is one of the best hidden gems on the island when it comes to cheap food and great atmosphere!  

A husband and wife team do all of the cooking here while the kids bring the menus and play around on the beach below, until their mom calls them in to help with something.  Yep, no pants, no problem.

Their $1.20 Nasi Goreng is GREAT and their $2.40 Margarita pizzas, which are made with their own homemade bread, were delicious and a must try!  If you're in Lembongan, take your scooter out here for a cheap and delicious meal!

 After dinner, we took a walk up and down the beach as the sun was setting!

The tides here are REALLY extreme.  During the day, the water crashes up against the restaurant... then at night, there's a beach full of sand to walk on!

This is about the time of day when all of the seaweed farmers wade out into the water to collect the seaweed from their farms in the water!  Look, I helped!

 We went back to the hotel after this and hung out with Darshan and Lilia on our balcony and had a few mixed drinks before calling it a night and heading to dream land!