Reply To: Indonesia trip report

[Cat]

I mean, if you’re planning to go mainly to Bali and Lombok, I’d read the Bali & Lombok thread. However, if you’re hoping to spend time around Ubud…

1) go to Petulu village for one sunset (if you have any interest in nature, don’t worry if not), purely to see the madness of all of the herons of Bali coming to roost in the trees of Petulu. It’s an incredible sight!
2) for food in Ubud, I recommend I Love Bali for a cheap and cheerful substantial meal, Bebek Bengil Crispy Duck for said crispy duck, or Hujan Locale if you want a fancy meal. I also had the crispy duck there. It was incredible.
3) For a massage, I *highly* recommend Sang Spa Ubud. I’m a bit of a massage afficionado, and I have no time for bad massages. Tini was fantastic, and from the reviews I read, the rest of the staff are wonderfully skilled at sorting out aches and pains. Also the prices are fair.
4) for anyone who wants to avoid the hellish traffic around Ubud, stay outside of the city centre, ideally to the North where there are some incredible accommodation options (either with jungle/gorge views, or rice field views) , and do one of two things
– plan a trip in first thing (after an early breakfast) or last thing (to enjoy dinner in Ubud), the traffic seems to be at its worst between check out time and mid afternoon
– if you have reasonable mobility, get a grab to one of the trailheads for the walks into town (you won’t encounter traffic that’s too awful until you get closer to Ubud), then enjoy the views of rice fields while strolling the rest of the way. Do the same on the way back, in reverse. This worked brilliantly for avoiding the stress of the traffic repeatedly.

Two obvious routes are:

https://strava.app.link/hT1F0eK5ALb

and

https://strava.app.link/j8RgfhN5ALb

It helps if you’re on one of the roads that connects easily to those trailheads, rather than across one of the larger gorges.

The only reason they took so long is that I kept stopping to take photos!

For the second trail, I recommend you continue along the section where I completely missed the turn for the bridge and had to backtrack (unless you have the surefootedness of a mountain goat) – the path is narrow and bordered by a steep drop into a gorge for the last section between the bridge and Ubud. Continue down my wrong path onto the road into Ubud.

There’s also a Sari organic walk, and various other trails on Google maps.

I hope this is useful to someone!