November 11th, 2009 
Sheila Simkin ex-Marine and I were actually walking a big square. Straight from the Puri Dalem Cottages to Monkey Forest Road and make a right. Continue past the Monkey Forest Sanctuary and football field, until reaching a corner occupied by the Royal Palace on one corner, Central Market on the other and small Tourist Office on the diagonal. Make another right on Jl Raya Ubud and walk for blocks (a much quieter street) until you reach Jl Hanoman. Make one last right turn on Jl Hanoman (runs exactly parallel to Jl Monkey Forest) and there is Puri Dalem Cottages on your right. Very easy to find but a much longer walk than you’d think from reading this. By the time dinner was over, we were hot, sweaty and exhausted.
Ubud is famous for it’s nightly traditional dance performances. Kecak Fire, Trance, Legong, and shadow puppets arranged for tourists on a regular schedule. Each takes place on different nights and at different locations. The Tourist office…View image… has a schedule of all performances. Almost everyone in the group was heading for one of the dances (the majority don’t begin until 7:30 p.m.), but we were just too tired. “Maybe next time,” a common refrain of mine.
We spent quite a bit of time walking about Puri Sarem…View image, the Ubud Palace compound. It is quite beautiful from the entrance gate, through lush gardens…View image, traditional…View image, ornate individual buildings and exquisite carvings…View image. The compound was primarily built after the 1917 earthquake, and the local royal family still lives here. A peaceful respite from all the street noise outside before braving the Central Market.
There are markets, and there are markets…Ubud’s Central Market was overflowing with t-shirts, souvenirs, all kinds of “kitsch”, sarongs…and is where we bought our sarongs in preparation for Batur Balinese Temple. Again, you must wear a sarong and temple scarf, both men and women, to enter any Balinese temple. I happened to have a scarf with and didn’t have to buy one. Cheapie, cheapie sarongs cost 25,000 Rupiah – $2.50 (good enough for our purposes) and range on up to 100,000 Rupiah for good ones. Nothing looks more ridiculous than two overweight Americans (us) with sarongs on…not a pretty sight… (Currency rates 10/09…$1 U.S. = 9,450 Rupiah)
Haggle fast and furiously and then walk if you don’t get it for the price offered. The moment you show interest in anything, the shop person immediately says, “For you a small discount,” and the small discount can be more than 50% off. Hang tight and don’t blink. Bali is a major tourist destination and everyone speaks English. July and August are the super busy months when Bali is loaded with Europeans on holiday.
Counterfeit DVD’s are a big item here. If you buy 20 DVD’s at $1 each, the store will usually throw in an additional eight for free. Some will not work, some will not. Don’t listen to the seller if they say they all will work. Won’t!
It’s not easy to pick a restaurant when you have just one night but we chose Cinta Grill for dinner. Just had to have some American/international food instead of Indonesian since we’ll be eating Indonesian again over the next five days. Wonderful grilled boneless chicken and vegetables, with french fries (yes, call us shallow Americans) and a big surprise was the Bali white wine. We asked to taste it first after getting burned one time with a bottle of truly awful Thai wine, and it was nice, crisp and fruity. Cinta…View image… also has three other restaurants around Ubud to choose from. You’ve been in Asia too long when ex-Marine and complained that a $5.40 complete per person dinner was too expensive, and the glass of Bali wine cost almost as much as dinner! FYI: This $5.40 cost also included 22% tax and service.
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