The spiritual heart of Bali. The last destination of our break and probably my favourite place.

Spoiling ourselves for the last few nights we rented a Dutch Javanese Joglo located in the middle of the Sok Wayah rice fields. What a place to finish off our trip. We had full access to the garden picking fresh herbs and fruit to create an array of blended juices and health drinks. For breakfast we collected eggs from family of ducks outside our room. We were really living the organic life style. The gardner, Manny, was probably the most tentative man in Ubud, helping us with juice, taking us into town and providing us with endless amounts of exotics fruits. The walk into town was picturesque which came alive at night with fireflies scampering across the top of the fields, the first I have ever seen.

During our stay we indulged in massages, long hikes and organic cuisine, all the things you are suppose to do whilst in Ubud. However, ashamedly, we didn’t get round to doing any Yoga (sorry Nisha).

The Sacred Monkey Forest was literally like walking through an Indian Jones set. Huge trees towering above with their roots engulfing the surrounding ruins of the 2,500BC temples. As the name suggests, there are lots of monkeys! Long-Tailed Macaques to be precise. They seem to be very comfortable around the temples and with the tourists. Personally I kept I respectful distance from them, but there are always tourists who insist on feeding or touching them. Unsurprisingly these were the ones that got mugged or attacked by the monkeys.

On our last day whilst waiting for a taxi, we lounged on a raised platform in the open air kitchen over looking the rice fields. Reluctant to fly home and return to our 9 - 5 lives, we reminisced on our trip. We also discussed how the owners of this house live half the year here and half in Australia. Some people have the right idea! This got us thinking… wouldn’t it be great to live like this for a while. So then and there we decided to travel South America for at least 6 months and see where the wind takes us after that. A decision we surely wont regret. So thank you Bali for inspiring us!

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