This is my first trip to Bali. Bali has long been famous for its beach and all those resorts. The first day we choose “Ubud” as our destination. The traffic was really bad when we arrived and it took us almost two hours to arrive at Ubud – the middle of the Bali island.

The village was not what I’ve expected… but in a better way. I thought it would be another resort but surprisingly, this place is full of art and history! The historical sites and temples are well-preserved, and almost all buildings are very local. A lot of stores are full of interesting art piecework. This is the first time that I enjoyed shopping so much in a trip!!

The below place is called Puri Saren Agung. It’s the previous palace in Bali and it’s now changed to a hotel.

Ubud Pasar is the traditional market of Ubud. It has a lot of souvenirs but every shop has different prices, so need to be careful and bargain for a good price.

We spent the morning shopping in the main street. For lunch, we tried one of the famous restaurant called Laka Leke. The most famous dishes is their fried duck and it was quite good.

We rent a motorbike in Ubud so that we could go to any places easily. I found out that there were a lot of tall Banyan trees on the side of the road with a small shrine. Later when I came home I read the book I bought in Bali airport called “My life in Bali” and realized that people think the tall Banyan trees are sacred so they like to build small shirine nearby. They usually cover the base with black and white checkered fabric to remind them the opposition between good and evil.

At the entrance of every temple, they will build a tall construction with two pieces which is called candi bentars and they believe that if the demon try to pass through this construction, the two pieces will meet and squash the demon!!

People in Bali are really nice. The place we stayed for a night is called Capung Sakti. It was a really natural place and close to the nature. I was actually woke up by the nearby rooster in the morning. The breakfast was great and the juice was really tasty. When we arrived at the place, it was quite late and the staff was about to leave, so we asked a lot of questions before he left. In the end, he just said: “I think you will be just fine here, because after all.. this is Bali!” Oh yeah. We are in Bali!!! I really love the way he said this. It truly shows the optimistic and the personalities of Bali people.