Lunch at Ibu Oka
After a morning of yoga and the flower bath, we needed pork. The Udaya runs a free shuttle into Ubud centre, so we took it into town for lunch.
Lunch was babi guling at Warung Ibu Oka, Ubud’s most famous suckling pig, across the road from the Ubud Palace we’d seen on day one. You get slices of roast pork, crackling, blood sausage, lawar and sambal over rice, with a bowl of soup on the side.
The crackling goes first. It always goes first.
Ubud Water Palace
A short walk down Jalan Raya Ubud, past the stalls selling sarongs, bags and every souvenir you didn’t know you needed, is Ubud Water Palace.
Its real name is Pura Taman Saraswati, a temple to Saraswati, the goddess of learning. You go in with a sarong on, so we came out of the entrance in matching purple, then walked the long path through the lotus pond.
The walkway leads straight to the temple gate. Someone had set up two golden thrones in front of it as a photo spot, so obviously we sat in them.
There was a second pair in front of the red brick gate. We sat in those too. Once royalty, always royalty.
The temple walls are lined with stone guardians, some dressed in cloth and flowers.
Then a Grab north to Bali Pulina for coffee.
Postcard from Ubud, Bali
Pura Taman Saraswati, a temple to Saraswati, the goddess of learning, at the end of a long walkway through a lotus pond in the middle of Ubud. Sarongs at the entrance; Balinese dance shows most evenings.