Paddies & Gili's of Indonesia - Part 2

One of our favorite towns on Bali was called Ubud. Besides having great shopping & food, it was surrounded by rice paddies, volcanoes, coffee farms and a monkey-filled forest. We reunited with our now 'old' friend Julie (recall trekking in Nepal) and her British friend Ciya to explore the area surrounding Ubud. We saw amazing views of the beautifully terraced rice paddies at Tegallalang village, fought off the never-ending string of pushy ladies selling tapestries (well, Julie was a bit of a sucker!), and had lunch overlooking the Batur volcano and lake. On the way back to Ubud we stopped at a very interesting "Elephant Cave" and temple nestled in the jungle.

in the sacred monkey forest

overlooking some rice paddies from Tegallalang village

Mt Batur in the distance

salt water pools at the Elephant Cave

Another must-do in Ubud is to sample the world's most expensive coffee at a local plantation. "Luwak" coffee is harvested from the excrement of a civet (see below photo), lightly roasted and crushed into grinds. It was pretty good once you got past the idea of how it was created...

Jody holding a cute little civet

Another popular evening activity in Ubud is attending a "fire and dance trance" show at one of the many temples in town. The show was a highly entertaining mix of chanting, dancing, interpretive acting and finally, coal walking. 

We spent our last afternoon with Julie & Ciya at a little organic restaurant nestled deep in the rice paddies just outside of town. We tried mango cocktails, pineapple beer, and delicious organic meals fresh from the neighboring farm.

We planned to spend our last 2.5 weeks on the three "gilis" (small islands) off the coast of Lombok island; Gili Trawangan ("Gili T"), Gili Meno and Gili Air. Gili T is the most lively of the bunch and seems to be becoming overrun with backpackers so after a couple days we moved on to the next Gili, Meno.

view of Lombok from Gili T

The only two means of transportation on the Gili's

parking lot on Gili T

Gili Meno is the "honeymooners" island i.e. the most quiet of the three, which aligned nicely with our intentions of doing absolutely nothing and disconnecting from the world. Over the course of a few days we walked around the island a few times (which takes about an hour and a half), were able to snorkel right off the beach out our front door and did a lot of reading & eating.

Gili Air in the distance

our bungalow on Gili Meno

view from the bungalow

an incredible fish we spotted snorkeling at Gili Meno

Gili Air was our favorite of the three; it offered the perfect mix of liveliness and peacefulness. We found an awesome 'resort' where for $30/night we had a brand new air-conditioned bungalow, buffet Indonesian + Western-style breakfast and a refreshing fresh-water pool right next to the ocean (fresh water was a luxury on the gili's, including showers). It was pure bliss and we soaked it up.

our nightly dinner spot on Gili Air

view from the breakfast hut

sunset over Lombok

We spent our last few days in Indonesia back in Ubud at one of our favorite hostels of the trip. We picked up some last minute gifts, visited the market and got to know some new friends over delicious evening meals.

our balcony in Ubud

leaving Indonesia

We took a sunrise flight out of Bali to Singapore where we were in for a LONG journey by land back to Bangkok for Christmas...