A True Adventure

We arrived in Ubud on the 17th March and stayed till the 20th. We really liked Ubud and would definatley reccommend anyone coming to Bali, to spend a few days here. We stayed in Teba House, near the center of Ubud. The gardens here were beautiful and the staff were very friendly and helpful, they did not hassle us at all! Breakfast was included, and was brought to our porch every morning. We would definatley stay here again.

Teba House Hotel

Whislt in Ubud we went to the monkey forest. This costs 20,000 IDR each, which is $2. Locals will try and tell you that you need a guide, but this is not true. It was a lot of fun going to the monkey forest. Their ae loads of monkeys just running free around the forest. They look like they were having a lot of fun:)

Paul in the Monkey Forest

We also went to watch an amazing performance. This was a traditional dance in Bali, called the Kecak and firedance. You can watch these performances daily around Ubud and it costs around 75,000 IDR each. It is well worth seeing. Click here to view our video’s.

Kecak Performance

There were so many music shops in Ubud, I bought a couple of small indonesian instruments, I would of liked to buy more, however I can’t carry them all the way around the world with us! My ukulele is still with me and I practice most days, but miss my guitar, it is not the same! I may buy a cheap guitar once we get to Thailand.

That’s all for now

Ruth and Paul

Hindu New year, otherwise known as Nyepi Day, was a relaxing and peaceful day. The whole of Bali goes silent for this day, and this is taken very seriousy! The police patrol the streets, making sure no one goes out. Everyone must stay in their homes, and tourists must stay in their hotels. We were able to go and sit down by our pool, so we chatted with the other guests in the hotel. I was prepared to have a day of silence, even though I would struggle, however all the guests were talking to eachother. So we swam and talked all day. It was weird looking out onto the street and not seeing a single person in sight.

In the evening the sky looked amazing, as there were no street lights disturbing the night sky! It was nice seeing everyone follow in this tradition!

The night before New Year locals make these Ogoh Ogoh statues and parade them around the streets. The streets were packed with tourists, who came to visit  to see this event.

Check out our youtube video’s to see the Ogoh Ogoh on Parade .

http://www.youtube.com/atrueadventure

Ruth and Paul

We arrived in Bali on Saturday 13th March, 8.00pm local time. When we got off the plane, and went through to passport control, we realised that we had to pay 25 US$ each to get a visa on arrival for Bali. We planned on getting our local currency out at the airport, from an ATM. We asked for an ATM, but they were after security, so we had to leave our passports, and go through to the ATM. I went to draw out money from my card, but the machine was saying card restricted! Paul then tried his card, but he was also unable to take money out.

We decided to try and find a phone, to try and ring our banks, as our cards may of been blocked. We found a phone box, but the only way of paying for the call, was with a Credit Card, but our cards weren’t working! So we went to ask for help. We explained the situation, and told them we needed to phone our banks at home, as our cards weren’t working. They kept directing us to a phone box, that takes card! Finally they understood and took us to the office. We were told that the phones can’t call internationally, so they had to get someone from our airline, Air Asia, to come and help us. There was nothing they could do either, they had no way of us calling outside of the country.

I decided after several attempts to take money out, to try one more time. Luckily this time it worked! Otherwise, maybe we would be in the airport still!:)

We got a Pre-Paid taxi from the airport, to our hotel in Sanur. This is about a 20 Minute journey, and cost 95,000 IDR (7 Euros). 1 Euro is 12,000 IDR. We had to take 1.5 Million IDR out, which  I guess makes us Millionaires! Shame it’s only here!

We are staying in a place called Prima Cottage in Sanur. It is a lovely cottage, with a beautiful garden and a swimming pool. We are fairly close to Sanur beach, about a 10 minute walk.

Yesterday we went for a walk along Sanur beach. We walked North East along the beach. The beaches are black sand beaches, due to it being a volcanic area. The first part of our journey had nice paths, but the further we got from Sanur, these disappeared, so we had to walk on the sands, and cross the numerous small rivers, by wading knee-deep. It was a nice walk, I would just recommend you leaving yourself plenty time to get back before sunset!

Today is the Eve of the Hindu New Year. The Bhuta Yajna Ritual is performed on this day in order to vanquish the negative elements and create balance with God, Mankind, and Nature. Devout Hindu Balinese villages usually make ogoh-ogoh, demonic statues made of bamboo and paper symbolizing negative elements or malevolent spirits. After the ogoh-ogoh have been paraded around the village, the Ngrupuk ritual takes place, which involves burning the ogoh-ogoh. 

Ogoh-Ogoh

 On New Years Day (16th March 2010) all of Bali, including tourists observe a Day Of Silence! This includes:

We thought we would be able to at least leave the hotel, however this is not allowed. Poilce Patrol the streets, to enforce this. It should be an interesting day, and certainly a challenge for me!

We will post more about the cellerbrations of today, later.

Ruth and Paul

Botanic Gardens

We went to visit the Botanic Gardens  yesterday. It is free to get in and there is lot’s to see. I would definatley reccomend going! There is an Orchird Garden, within the Botanic Gardens, which costs $5 spd to get in. That is also well worth visiting. The park is open from 5.00am till Midnight, and the Orchird garden is open from 7.00am till 7.00pm. It was nice to get out of the city for the day. It is a very popular park for jogging and cycling. We saw some people doing meditation and also Yoga.

Yoga in the park

We took quite a few photos, to have a look at them just go to the gallery. 

We leave Singapore tommorow afternoon, to fly to Bali. We plan on staying in Bali for 2 weeks, then we fly to Bangkok. We have enjoyed being in Singapore, however after a few days here, we are ready to move on. Things are very expensive, compared to the rest of Asia, and there are so many shops, but as a backpacker this is not what you want!

There are a few things that I would definatley reccomend, when coming to Singapore.

• Science Center- Costs $6 each. You should spend a whole day there, as there is too much to fit in, in just a couple of hours.
• Sentosa Island- Costs $3 to get the Sentosa Express. That also gives you addmission to the Island. There are lot’s of things for you to do on the Island, like, rides, 4D Cinema, Cable cars, Luge ride, rollercoasters, beaches ect. We went on the Cable car and Luge Ride, which I was unsure about doing at first, but really enjoyed it! This costs $11 spd each, for the cable car and Luge. There is also a bridge you can cross which takes you to the most southern point of continental Asia.
• Shopping Centers- There are many shopping centers, mostly centered around Orchard Road. Even if you are not wanting to buy anything, it is worth visiting to see the designs of each building.
• Botanic Gardens- of which I’ve already mentioned. This is a good day away from the city, and doesn’t cost a penny!
• Marina Bay- This is where the famous Merlion is. There is also a new theatre there, called Esplande where you can see performances daily.
• China Town

Speak soon

Ruth and Paul

Singapore is such a modern city. Everything is in such order and everyone seems to follow rules with no question. This is the complete opposite to India! It is taking us some time to adjust oursleves, and to realise that we no longer have to push and shove when getting onto public transport. The people are so polite. It’s like everyone has gone through some kind of training that they have to conform to!

It is a great city. There seems to be a lot going on for young people! There is a lot going on for young arists. We watched some local people performing today in a Theatre. Also regular performances on open air stages seem to be happening every night this week. It is nice seeing people express themselves. Sometimes it’s just about giving peeople the opportunity! This week in Singapore there are going to be regular performances from a company called ‘Noise Singapore’. I love to see unsigned bands and musicians performing. There is something very raw about it.

Today we looked around the city. There are so many shopping centers. Every 5 minutes you walk and there is a new shopping center. Shame we don’t have loads of money and space in our bags, to go shopping! The shopping centers are quite impressive! There is a lot of thought gone into the layouts and design of each building:) There are also millions of places to eat too! There is a wide variety of food, from sushi, thai, indian, fast food, chinese ect! It’s hard when you don’t eat fish though, as every meal seems to have fish in! Paul is very happy that McDonals have beef burgers here! He missed them in India! Although he has promised me that he won’t eat McDonalds every day!

Here’s some pictures from today!

Paul in China Town, Singapore