We saluted yesterday with only problems.

Well… We didn’t want to end it up like that and went out looking for food, fun, and things to do.

We ended up in the Laughing Buddha, a local restaurant/pub. Basically the only one who was still serving food after 11pm.

Beer for me, cocktail for Sara. And two plate of noodles.

No dinner is complete without a dessert. #amiright?

Two balls of tasteless pistachio ice cream, rolled into crushed pistachio, cashew nuts, and walnuts. Basically it was crunchy. Nothing else. Still enjoyed every single spoon.

Finally it was time to go home.

We walked back to our marvellous room, with musky smell and clogged toilet, and tried to get some sleep.

And sleep we got. Despite screaming roosters, and other jungle weird sounds.

Around 8am they woke us up for breakfast: one omelette with one slice of bread, a small piece of watermelon and a glass of orange juice. Everything was served on the patio next to our room.

We went back to our room to plan for the day.

We decided to rent a scooter for the next two days to visit places far from Ubud.

The first place we wanted to visit was the famous rice terrace of Tegallalang.

With the scooter it took us no more than 20 minutes to reach the landscape. Luckily for us it was still early in “touristic time” so we had the chance to witness the beauty of this place without the thousand of visitors who daily overcrowd the terrace.

Armed of drone we climbed halfway to the top and started recording the beauty of this place.

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We later climbed on a platform elevated over the jungle to take some pictures.

As the temperature was rising and tourist kept coming we decided it was time to move elsewhere.

We decided to go to the Elephant Safari Lodge, a safe Paradise for elephants rescued in the near island of Sumatra.

On the way there we stopped to visit the temple of Pura Tirta Empul, a Hindu Balinese temple with a bathing area containing holy spring water for ritual purification.

We were asked to wear a sarong during our visit as a form of respect.

We visited the temple admiring the beautiful statues, the huge pool with the water springs coming out from underground, and the bathing pool where such springs are redirected.

In the temple there was also a big pond of fish. The fishes were bigger than a cat. And soon we understood why. Every tourist was throwing food at them. Where are you Dr. Nowzaradan?

Next we decided to go to Sebatu, and so we rode following Google maps directions.

We later understood that Sebatu is the name of the region we are in rather than a city. This is the first time we don’t research much and just move around using Google Maps. It’s just fun! We went around with our scooter and decided where to stop guided just by the smell or the sights around us.

We found also a nice spot to use our drone.

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After chasing some chickens and waving back hello to the kids coming out from school on the back of some trucks we (Sara) wanted to touch the nature in another way. We found a nice elephant sanctuary close to where we were so we headed there.

The trip was more enjoyable than the destination this time! Following our fellow Google maps we passed by small villages, where kids were playing around with pieces of paper and seemed way happier that the kids with iPads we are used to see in Europe. Dogs sleeping on the streets, woodcarvers making some new masterpieces, women praying and putting offers on the streets, while following us EVERYWHERE was the smell of incense to harmonize all that we were seeing. No matter where you are in Bali, on the beach, in front of a shop or in the middle of the jungle in a street without pavement wondering why you ended up there… Incense will always find its way to your nostrils. It’s such a pleasant feeling, and we are definitely happy we finally choose to move around with a motorbike, since going with a care we would have missed all of this great feelings!

Back to us. Nature. Elephants. Sanctuary.

We somehow reached our destination by dodging hole after hole on the streets. We were greeted by some staff pointing us the tickets office.

The overall structure is quite nice but the monetization of those gentle creatures always gives me some goose bumps. There were different ticket options, from washing the elephants to ride them to bathe with them, but since this felt very wrong to us we went with the simple entrance ticket with which we could just see the park and eventually pet the animals.

We were given an introduction on the sanctuary and on how the elephants inside the park were rescued from Sumatra’s shrinking forests and moreover on how they teach the elephants in a kind way without hurting them. Each elephant from its birth or arrival is assigned a trainer and this person stays the same for as long as possible.

After the introduction we saw some of the pachyderms and Sara spent some time petting them taking pictures.

We then decided to have lunch there, as our stomachs weren’t happy of the small breakfast.

Antonio decided to test his luck and went with the worst thing he could possibly choose on the menu: a pizza margArita (as spelled in the menu) and a burger.

Let’s taste how the balinese people think the pizza should taste like! It looked like some Flatbread covered by layers and layers of cheese.

Sara wanted something more local and chose a nasi (rice) campur (??), basically a big portion of white rice surrounded by different meats/fishes.

Bintang beer and onion and lemongrass drinks are so far our best friends here, so we didn’t want to disappoint them either 😉

After this short break we drove back to the hotel with the motorbike, this time taking an easier path. Once there we collected our things, checked out, and rented a car to drive Sara to the new hotel while Antonio was following on the scooter.

In 20 minutes we were there.

The villa Sara found on bookings was gorgeous.

Together with other villas in this area built for the sole purpose of hosting tourists, it had a private garden with a swimming pool.

On the king size bed with canopy we found petals arranged to form a heart and all the towels folded to resemble swans.

The toilet was very nice all the stone with an open ceiling shower.

Exhausted we had a shower and fell asleep.

We woke up late, around 8pm, quite hungry and rode out to get some food.

We were so hungry we forgot to take pictures of our meals. But there is a picture of Sara’s aftermath…

Full, we went back home to get some more sleep.