Touring Around Ubud, Bali 2020

During our stay in Candi Dasa, we did several day trips up to Ubud to do different tourist attractions, waterfall hikes and tour around the streets. Monkey Forest is a big tourist attraction in Ubud, I am personally not a monkey person. They are cute, at a distance. Ryan had done Monkey Forest on his trip prior to us coming a few years back and did not desire to do it again and he knew I would hate every second of the monkey's jump on me, touching me or trying to steal our belongings. So we did not go, I am not heart broken in the slightest about missing this tourist attraction.

That being said, we did do other awesome tourist attractions in and around Ubud. We went for a ride one day with full intentions of hiking Tukad Cepung Waterfalls. Everywhere I read online raved about how stunning these waterfalls were, how nice the hike was and how if you were in the area you should take the time to do this hike. We looked online and it said even with covid they were open to the public, so we packed our backpack, got on the scooter and started our ride to Tuked Cepung Waterfalls. When we arrived I found they were closed, rope across, no access into the hike. This was disappointing but we knew this was something we would face throughout Bali during covid, it was not the first time we ran into online saying it was open and in person it was closed.

We started our ride back towards Candi Dasa, taking our time looking around at different sights on our way back, when we came across Krisik Waterfalls AND it said OPEN. We followed the signs down the little dirt path to the parking area, paid our small entry fee ($1 CAD for both of us) and started our hike down towards the waterfalls.

Photo Credit: V.Gray

As we started down the trail we instantly surrounded big lush plants with vibrant full colours and we could hear the water crashing below. When we reached the bottom, we were met by a pool of water with no trail left to follow it, cliff faces on either side and the water. We put our sandals in our backpack and started following the sound of the water crashing over the ledges.

Photo Credit: V.Gray

As we walked through ankle deep crystal clear warm water, we came between two rock faces and rounded the corner into a small enclosed pool with a smaller stream of water coming down into it, because it was enclosed by the rocks it

sounded so much louder and bigger than what it actually was.

This hike is made of multiple little waterfalls from what we found, this may have to do with it being dry season when we were here, it was still beautiful and a great way to pass the time.

Photo Credit: V.Gray

We followed the stream and hiked for close to 3 hours, seeing many different smaller waterfalls, climbing the cliff walls (sometimes the water was too deep to walk through and there were no dry spots to walk, we had to climb the walls) and just taking in the different scenery we came across.

Towards the end it started to get more difficult and being later in the day by the time we reached this point, we decided to turn around and head for home. This started my want to chase Photo Credit: Ryan C. waterfalls, throughout Bali.

Another day trip one weekend with Josie and Ruben was the Campuhan Ridge walk and Kanto Lampo Waterfalls. This was Josie, Ruben and Ryan's second time in Bali, my first but everyone was kind enough to redo some of the attractions with me and make sure the second time that we did them properly (sometimes you learn things on your first trip and make a mental note on how to do it better or differently if you were to come back).

We started our morning off doing the Campuhan Ridge walk before it got super hot in the afternoon. Honestly there is not much to see on this walk, it is an open path looking over a small river and rice fields leading into another small section of Ubud, which all 3 of them warned me about but I needed to do this for myself.

The real highlight of this day trip was going to Kanto Lampo Waterfalls, which is one of the most popular waterfalls in the area, everyone has pictures of it on Instagram or Facebook. Photo Credit: V.Gray

We arrived after lunch, fully expecting long lines and having to wait to gain access to the waterfalls or take pictures. Josie and Ruben had been there before and warned us this might be the scenario. We could not have gotten a better experience at these waterfalls, it was EMPTY. There were maybe two other couples there while we were there, which resulted in us getting some outstanding pictures.

Photo Credit: V.Gray

Because no one else was there, we got more time to get pictures as couples, individuals, group shots and just of the scenery as well, without having to edit any strangers out or asking anyone to move.

Photo Credit: Ruben

This was a great afternoon activity for us to just hang out in the cool water pools and climb around the falls and rocks.

Photo Credit: Ruben

Our last day trip to Ubud was a solo trip just Ryan and I, it was within the last week of us staying in Bali. We were staying in Canggu by the beach, taking in our last week when the

Elephant Cave popped up on my TripAdvisor. It was not that far from where we were staying so we took a morning to go and do this little walk through the temple.

Photo Credit: V. Gray

Elephants are one of my favourite animals, so this temple/cave really interested me. As we walked down into this temple, you can see a beautiful courtyard with a pool and fotuniates. You carry on into a small cave with a small elephant shrine inside.

Photo Credit: V. Gray

This temple had a garden area to walk through which was really beautiful. We spent a total of an hour and half walking around before heading back to Canggu for the night.

Cheers!

Photo Credit: V. Gray

A map of Bali and places we have travelled.

**Please note that all opinions and views expressed in this post are my own, from my own experiences. If you would like to see more pictures follow me on Instagram vikki.gray **