Location: Ubud, Bali, Indonesia

Sav: We were supposed to leave Ubud today, but since Max needs another rabies shot soon we extended our stay at Puri Garden for a little longer. Elise and Ray grabbed a breakfast table for the four of us, and despite the rabies stories they had decided to spend the morning at the monkey forest. ALSO despite the whole rabies thing, Max wanted to go for round two. I had some catch up to do with friends back home so I put on a bathing suit, tanned by the pool and made a few phone calls.

Max: Although I was excited to go back, I was definitely more on edge and careful this time around. My job today was to be a guide and to convince Elise and Ray that having a monkey climb all over them was totally worth it. Turns out they have their own monkey sanctuary back home with rabies free monkeys, so they were content to watch them climb all over other tourists and occasionally me (don’t tell Sav). Elise is actually a huge plant enthusiast and I’m pretty sure she was more interested in the tall trees that grew in the forest all around. Ray and I got a botany lesson on the function of aerial roots that I had no idea existed at all. It was a good way to spend round two!

No one got bit this time and we didn’t want to test our luck any longer. I insisted we stop for some Luwak coffee on the way home, and we got to hang out with the chef (read: Civet) once again. They didn’t seem fazed about the fact that they were drinking poo coffee even slightly. (S: These two are chill!) It was a good way to get the morning started, but we had been gone a while and we had more things on the to do list today, so we went back to take advantage of happy hour and a little pool time before heading out again.

Sav: When they all got back we hired a ‘taksi’ to show us a few local spots we’d heard about through the grapevine and through the hostel. We started off at Bali Swing, which turned out to be a swing out over a cliff that was super commercialized. There was a bunch of touristy fake photo ops and people selling trinkets. We decided this wasn’t what we were looking for and moved on to the next thing we’d planned. Elise and I had both done a bit of research on the Tagalalong Rice Terraces, but nowhere in that research did it say it was just the same as the swing! All fake photo ops with ticket booths and expensive touristy traps everywhere. Instead of walking down into the ‘Instagram garden’ we found a little corner and ordered a coffee and tea tasting flight (We ended up getting an okay view of the terraces with minimal photo op stuff on the balcony and it was quite pretty). We ended up chatting with these two Italian guys who seemed like they’d been pulled straight out of a novel or someone’s imagination. Characters is the only word I can use to describe them, but we had a great time chatting nonetheless.

Our last stop was a waterfall – no way that’s been commercialized right? It’s a waterfall.

Wrong.

There was a ticket booth and infrastructure built up all the way around it with built in showers. Like actual faucets. We were all a little disappointed but laughing at the absurdity of it all. We decided to take pictures with the ridiculous signs, grab a beer on the street and call it a day. Enough of that! It sounded like a better idea to just hang out all together back at Puri Garden over some drinks and forgo the sightseeing.

On the way home Max ran into a barber shop and on a whim decided to get a fade. A fade! On a whim! I’ve known Max for fourteen years and he’s had the same haircut pretty much the entire time. Look at how fancy this guy is!

We stayed up again the four of us playing in the pool, closing out the hostel bar over some beer pong and general shenanigans late into the night. It was a great way to spend Elise and Rays last evening in Bali, and we’re hoping to meet up with them again next week somewhere else.

Fingers crossed!

Sav