Bali on a Budget

Recovery time from post-Gili depression was fairly quick. It would be pretty pathetic if Bali couldn't rid me of my sadness. Once stepping off of the ferry and through the crowd of persistent women selling sarongs, bananas, fans, quilts, etc, we hopped in a bus and made our way to Ubud, the cultural center of Bali. As we drove through rice paddies and by Balinese temples, I was super anxious to get off of the bus and explore. The place was teeming with culture and I wanted to be part of it. Also, I was starving. 

We found ourselves a cute little hostel and then made our way around Ubud, searching for a delicious meal and getting easily distracted by the array of stores. Seriously, I could have spent a lot of money in this place. BUT, alas, I was poor. Sarah and I realized that we were ripping through our limited baht a lot quicker than expected and would have to institute some sort of budget in our final days in Indonesia if we wanted to make it to Malaysia. Every time one of us was tempted by some beautiful decor or clothing, the other would yell out "Budget!!!" and then we would put it back down... breaking our hearts one souvenir at a time. However, our idea of smart budgeting was kind of skewed because this is basically what it came down to:


 In the Budget:
-Dinner at more bumping and social places
-An "I Heart Bali" tote, a sarong and a batik.
-Accomodation (a little off the beaten road, but, hey, we had beds)
-A 2 hour peppermint massage and body scrub. (Whoops! We almost spent even more of the chocolate option, but came to our senses.)
-Cornetto ice cream (they had new flavors!)


 Not in the budget:
-Lunch
-A trek up Mount Batur at sunrise (upsetting but it was raining that night, anyways).
-A social life
-Entrance fees to various temples and sights. 


Barely in the budget:
-Taxi fare to the airport
-Departure tax


Things got a little scary. We thought the fare to the airport was about half of the actual price and we were clueless about the departure tax until the day before leaving. We literally spent every last rupiah and had very little baht to get us through Malaysia. However, we were still able to see a fair amount of Ubud. We wandered around, saw a couple of gorgeous temples, saw the famous tiered rice paddies, frolicked through another rice paddy (very Eat, Pray, Love), went to a coffee farm and tried DELICIOUS blends, and hired a driver for the day to bring us to some of the more popular attractions. Unfortunately, the rain came...it came hard...and cut our day of tourist attractions short. It was definitely a buzzkill but it gives me a great excuse to come back to Bali. Which, by the way, I WILL. 

Rice paddies!

View of the mountain. Thank you, rain.

Jolly jaunt around the paddies