Tag Archives: earthquake

Slow day with a final shake

We slept.

Not too much, but enough to finally feel rested.

And we had breakfast. After so long with poor and not so yummy breakfast, we had the chance to eat for real.

No pictures, but trust me, we ate for real!

Sausages, bacon, waffles, fruit, bread. This was Antonio’s choice, while Sara went with “Experience”: poached snake fruit,curry rice, and some weird green pancake.

We went back to our room to fix some stuff before heading out.

Around 11:30 we called the reception and asked them to rent is a scooter for the day. In 10 minutes it was there.

Today’s destination was the “Bali Bird Park”.

In less than 30 minutes we were there and, after paying the 375k rupias, we got in.

The park is well structured, with birds living both free and in cages.

The cages are very big and allow them to fly around, while mimicking their habitat..

At the entrance there were big parrots ready to play with guest and take pictures with them.

Those two birds were scary, but friendly.

Walking around the park we found many areas where bird were coming spontaneously to sit on your hands.

This little guy came all the way to taste the tissue package

Like two twin sisters

The visit continued, and we tried to see as many birds as possible.

There was also a closed room with owls.

Around 3pm we ended our visit and went looking for a Warung. We found one not too far from the park.

On the way to the restaurant we found a 3 floor shop, something not so common here.

Sara went in shopping mode and I lost her for around 30 minutes.

Finally we got to the Warung.

This was probably the only authentic balinese food experience we had since landed. The place, Warung SS, despite being quite small, was packed, with people waiting to seat or take away.

The menu had no trace of whatsoever Occidental modifications, like all the place we went the past days.

What really makes this place an outsider among the other Warung we tried, was the complete absence of cutlery. We had to eat with our bare hands. For this reason just next to the entrance, there were two sinks.

We ordered two drinks, (fruit juices), grilled duck, rice, eggplants, and fried tofu.

Mango and Pineapple juices

Duck, rice, and sliced eggplants

Fried Tofu

The juices were so thick and dense that it was hard to drink them with a straw.

The duck was very good. The eggplants… Sara barely touched them. They were so spicy that you could use that sauce to send a rocket to the moon!

Finally the Tofu wasn’t so bad.

When we went to pay I could not believe to my own eyes. The bill was less than 60k rupies.

Usually in normal touristix Warung that’s the price of a single dish. We paid and moved on.

Back to the hotel we rested a bit untill 7:40pm when an earthquake hit Lombok, the big island on the east.

The quake was 6.9. as we felt it we run down the stairs, our room is on the third floor, and out into the hotel open court.

After another 10 minutes we went back to our room to get dressed and go get dinner.

As we reached the coast, another earthquake hit. This time stronger. In few minutes a tsunami alert was issued. So we rode back to the hotel.

Better safe than sorry.

As we were alredy there, we decided to have dinner at the hotel’s restaurant.this time I went with something easy and international, while Sara kept the Balinese culinary tradition alive.

Mie Gureng

Beef burger with fries.

We kept our phones always on to check on updates on the tsunami alert, but the alert was dismissed almost immediately.

Next we went back to our room to prepare the luggages for tomorrow’s flight.

Tomorrow will be a chill out day, we are heading to the private beach of our hotel, doing some final shopping and finally get some balinese massage before flying away.

Nighty!

Road to Ubud

Last morning in our splendid villa here in Jimbaran
Better make the best of it… After all, what’s better than breakfast?

Benedict Egg & Ham

Rice noodles and chicken

All the rest!

While eating we found out there had been an earthquake close to here, in the near island of Lombok. Despite being quite strong, no alerts for tsunami had been issued.

When everything was packed and ready we checked out and waited for the taxi.

To book it we used BlueBird application. BlueBird is the main taxi company and thanks to the mobile app you can check the fare for a certain ride before booking, and see the position of the cab in every instant.

BlueBird taxi companion app

The ride to Ubud took almost 1 hour and 30 minutes, for the traffic, the morphology of the territory, and the conditions of the roads. It puts everything into perspective realising that to cover only 17km it’ll take more than one hour.

On the way to Ubud the view changed from city traffic, to less and less buildings until only few some constructions could be seen, leaving space to rice fields and pieces of jungle. At least for a while. Then the urban environment came back with shorts buildings, max two stories, and traffic. We knew when we were about to reach Ubud, as the taxi started going at walking pace.

The room we rented was a couple of hundred meters north the main road of Ubud. Not very fancy as the one we had in Jimbaran, but ok for a couple of days.

View of the room bed from outside

After unpacking few things we went out to explore Ubud.

We walked south to the monkey forest, Ubud main attraction.

Statue of the monkey king

The entrance fee is 50 thousand per adult, quite high considering that monkeys are basically everywhere here in Ubud.

Inside we met (unfortunately for Antonio) many little pests.

Mama monkey with baby monkey in her lap

Huge three with lianas

The park is basically a fenced portion of forest where humans can interact with monkeys following few simple rules:

  1. Never look the monkeys in the eyes. This may trigger an aggressive reaction.
  2. Don’t wear loose items or the monkeys will take them.
  3. Don’t feed the monkeys, or they will follow you. For ever!

Another mama monkey with her baby

View from an elevated platform of the jungle

While walking around you can see monkeys grooming, playing, running, feeding and doing other monkey things…

Tail Massage?

I tried to follow the rules but a little fella was faster than I expected.

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Apart for this little happy accident everything went smoothly. Just be careful when you walk under the threes. You may have something falling on your head. And you may not like it. 💩

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Once out we walked to a small cafe suggested by Dario to have a drink. We also enjoyed a little dessert. Absolutely refreshing!

Carrot walnut cake and local beer

Chia Bowl and something with dragon fruit and bananas

Walking back to the hotel we stumbled into the Ubud art market. Sara went crazy and on a shopping spree berserk mode.
I must admit that is quite easy to fall for it when you can bargain on the price, already low, and bring it to almost nothing, for Western standards.

As Sara calmed down we went back exploring the city.

We found many statues, almost fell in holes on the sidewalk, watched inside private homes (their open gates were like an invitation), and met a little furry rascal.

That animal is used to create a special type of coffee beans… eating other coffee bean and then pooping them out.
Disgusting, I know. But some people likes it.

We also found an Italian restaurant. In Ubud. Serving Olive Ascolane among other stuff.

Yeah.

Sure.

You go man!

Quite tired we walked back to our room. Here we found the toilet clogged, an ant infestation, and found out that all the towels were dirty as hell.

Promptly Sara called to get the hell out of here, a refound, and looked for other hotels in the area.

Unfortunately looks like we have to spend the night here.

Let see what the night will bring.