Bali Day 4 – Ubud, Sanur, and Kota – Emma and Pete’s Asian Adventure

Thursday 8th December 2022

We spent the morning exploring Ubud. First we headed to the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary, which is quite near the centre of town.

The Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia — The Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary in Ubud

The monkeys also venture out to the roads immediately surrounding the monkey forest. They particularly seem to enjoy climbing the overhead wires!

Ubud is quite a pleasant town, despite the very heavy traffic. There are a lot of small arts and craft markets off the Main Street, and also several temples and interesting looking buildings.

We also came across an interesting looking roundabout, the Patung Dewa Indra.

There are also quite a few woodcarving places. A large rhinoceros caught my eye, it was incredibly impressive!

I loved this wood carved rhinoceros. If only it’d fit in our carry on luggage!

Before setting off on our drive, we stopped into Omiiku (Hongalia) for a quick snack. We shared a portion of shrimp dumplings and a pork gyoza and they were excellent – piping hot, crisp pastry, juicy filling and great flavour.

Our tasty dumplings at Omiiku (Hongalia)

We collected the car from the hotel, then drove to Sanur. The beach is idyllic, absolutely beautiful.

The idyllic beach at Sanur, Bali, Indonesia — The idyllic beach at Sanur

We walked along the beach before enjoying a late leisurely lunch at Pizzaria. The restaurant overlooks the beach, so has an amazing ambiance. We ordered a couple of drinks, some prawns in garlic butter, and some wood fired oven roasted mushrooms. The food was exquisite and it was so nice being right on the beach. We then ordered a small pizza to share, which was also very nice though not the best pizza we’ve ever had.

Lunch with a view at Pizzaria in Sanur, Bali — Lunch with a view at Pizzaria, Sanur

After eating, we drove the relatively short distance to the Arnaya Homestay in Kuta, where we were staying. We’d pick this hotel due to its proximity to the airport (we’ve got an early flight tomorrow), but it’s also quite close to the beach. We checked in, dropped off our luggage, and left the car keys with the hotel (they’d kindly agreed to give them to the car hire guy and get our deposit back), then headed out to the beach.

To be honest, I wasn’t particularly impressed with the beach. It was much dirtier than the one at Sanur, with lots of litter. We went to the area of beach nearest to the airport, so perhaps the other section to the north is nicer.