I woke up at 5:30am and made a jasmine tea to drink as I sat on our balcony. Jive woke up not long after and we had a coffee together. We headed down to breakfast around 8am, which was included in our stay. Breakfast was at a restaurant attached to our hotel called “Look Bee”. I had the Look Bee set with a sticky rice and coconut dish, papaya, watermelon juice, coffee and a rice porridge with cumin, nuts, a boiled egg and beans. The dish was very savoury and delightful. Jive had the American breakfast with watermelon, toast, an omelette and papaya juice. After breakfast we set out on a walk into town.

The walk was beautiful and so interesting, there were so many little things to see. We walked by a weird space orb and some little stone figures. We stopped at a convenience store along the way to sit and have a coffee in their front seating area. Next we crossed the big bridge into Ubud city and saw a huge ravine underneath the bridge. We decided to take a sharp left after crossing the bridge to explore the ravine area. The pathway down into the ravine was lush and green, covered in moss and plant life and lined with many stone carved statues with bizarre expressions.

The pathway took us down into the river valley. The river was beautiful and we had it all to ourselves. We crossed a bamboo bridge and climbed back out of the valley on the opposite side. After climbing quite a few steps we found ourselves at Pura Gunungh Lebah, a beautiful temple with the traditional step towers.

We then followed the river and came upon the entrance to the “Ridge walk” so we decided to do that hike. The Ridge Walk is a beautiful little walk along a mountain pathway with a beautiful view of the villages on either side. The walk took about 30 minutes and we emerged in a little area full of cute cafes.

We kept walking even further and ended up in a village called “ Bangkang Sidem” where a temple ceremony was going on in the middle of the road, blocking the way. We watched the ceremony for a while. There were men playing what looked like xylophones with little metal hammers, but they sounded more like bells.

After a while we turned back the way we had come and found a side street that led around the ceremony. We then walked back towards our hotel, a huge loop of a hike, down and up hills, leaving us out of breath but the scenery was amazing! We arrived back at our hotel and took a swim in the beautiful hotel pool before having a beer on our balcony and some snacks.