As our stay in Bali was coming to an end, we decided to do a small getaway to Ubud — the “jungle-y” city, just an hour drive away from Canggu. We initially wanted to get a driver from Canggu to Ubud, but then we realized that since we already have a moped, we can just drive there ourselves. This allowed us to be more spontaneous and do different activities when we were there.
This article will cover only the first two days of our four-day Ubud trip. Day 3 and 4 come in the next one. 😃
Day 1 — Drive to Ubud 🛵
We started our journey from Canggu around midday. And first thing first — fill up on some gas. I found the way you fill in gas in Bali hilarious. You tell the gas person how much you want to tank. They pump up (manually by rotating the handle) till the gas reaches the amount you told them. And they fill in until the container is empty. So old school! But hey! It does the job! 😃
We have planned our ride to Ubud by calculating traffic, especially the one in Canggu, as well as some small lunch break. Google was suggesting that the drive will take about an hour, so 30-ish minutes into our ride, we stopped by for lunch. We ate at a super local, Balinese warung, in the middle of nowhere, called Guling Samsam Merekak. The place was so local, that we were the only tourists there.
We had the restaurant’s specialty samsam, which is grilled pork belly, with some rice. This was probably the most delicious Balinese food that I had on the whole trip! To top it off, the service and the hospitality were amazing! The owner showed us around and explained to us how they prepare the food. Highly recommend this spot if you ever find yourself on the road here. Even if you don’t, totally worth doing a trip to it!
After our lunch, we continued our trip to Ubud. As we approach the city, we already got that jungle-y feeling, with tall trees and monkeys running around. We took the rest of the day easy, just chilling in our hotel, planning the next couple of days, and exploring the city of Ubud.
Day 2 — Waterfalls, Luwak coffee, and shopping 🛍
During our whole trip to Ubud, the weather forecast didn’t seem very promising, it was saying clouds and rain. After all, we were there at the beginning of the rainy season, what can we expect? 🤷♀ Something that we learned over the course of the 2 weeks that we have already spent in Bali, is that the mornings are sunny, warm, and dry and it’s the afternoons when the rain starts pouring. That’s why we decided to start this day super early. We might have even woken up at 6 am to have breakfast in the hotel and leave by 7 am to catch the day.
Tagenungan Waterfall 🌱
Our first stop of the day was Tagenungan Waterfall. There are a lot of tours and guides that can take you from Ubud to this (and other nearby) waterfalls, but since we had our moped, we wanted to just go for a joyful ride and go at our own pace. It took us around 40 minutes with traffic to get there.
There is a small entrance fee to enter the park, which also covered a parking fee for our moped. When you start walking to the waterfall, at the beginning there are some restaurants and shops where you can grab some food, snacks, water, coconut water, etc. As you continue walking there are a couple of viewpoints where you can stop by to take some photos. They also have these “bird nests”, in case you want to pose and take some Insta-worthy pictures too. 😂 There is also one resort, with a view over the waterfall, but we didn’t check that one.
When we got to the waterfall, I was expecting crystal clear water, but due to us being there in the rainy season, the water was a bit brown-ish. That didn’t stop us from enjoying it and jumping right into it. 😄 Swimming under a waterfall checked off my bucket list. ✅
Luwak coffee ☕️
After spending a couple of hours at the waterfall and a quick lunch, we headed to a local Luwak coffee plantation. To set the scene, I don’t drink coffee, at all! I’m a tea person. At the time, I knew that Luwak coffee is traditional and unique for Bali, and that’s why we went to this plantation. For those of you who don’t know, Luwak coffee is made of coffee cherries digested by cuvet (💩). Only after coming back to Europe, I found out that actually Luwak coffee is considered one of the most expensive coffees in the world. 😱
The plantation's name we went to is Celuk Swing and Luwak Coffee. When we got there we were welcomed by a lovely host. He showed us the animal and briefly explained the process of how the coffee is made.
We then continued to the cafe area, where they served us coffee and a round of tea-tasting. There were around 15 different teas and coffees for us to try.
To be honest, not all of them were my cup of tea, but my favorite ones were the Lemon grass tea, Rosella tea, and the Bali Cocoa. Oh, and the Luwak coffee? It wasn’t bad at all! This tea person approves it!
As we were enjoying our tea and coffee-tasting experience, the rain started pouring. It was raining so much that it was impossible for us to leave and go to the next stop. But we did get to play with this little puppy. 🐶
For reference, this is how it looked like, while we were chilling. 😅
They had a shop on site, where we got some coffee and tea to bring back home. We got Lemongrass tea, Avocado coffee and Tumeric tea.
Shopping 🛍
As the rain calmed down a little bit, we put on our raincoats and hopped on the moped. On our way home we planned to stop by some silver shops since Bali is known for its 95% silver.
I didn’t take any photos from inside the silver shop, but it definitely wasn’t what I expected. I thought it will be some small, local shop, but this was a huge one. At the entrance, you were able to see how the artisans craft the jewelleries.
We ended up buying 3 necklaces and a pair of earrings, so the employees there were super happy. 😄 Pro tip: don’t be shy to bargain, they expect that, so the prices are a bit higher at the beginning.
We went home after this, rest a little bit, and went out for dinner, where this cute little kitty stole my boyfriend. 😂 We named it — meow, meow because it was meowing unless it is pet or fed. 😺
We ended the night early because we already had planned the next day's activities that required us to wake up again at 6 am. 😱
Stay tuned for day 3 and 4! 👀
