Ubud, Bali: Get the monkey off my back

Last Tuesday we flew from Bangkok to Denpasar, Bali and made our way on to Ubud, a lovely little town that is the centre of Bali's artistic community. After a long night at the airport and a very uncomfortable flight (seats even I was too tall to be comfortable in...) we were relieved to arrive and easily find a nice place to stay. Our accommodation budget stretches a lot further here in Indonesia, so we found ourselves in a nice place comprised of a network of intricately carved stone buildings resembling temples, in a big room with breakfast included for the grand sum of about seven pounds a night.

Ubud attracts a slightly more upmarket crowd than some parts of Bali, so we were spoilt for choice in terms of nice restaurants and bars, although most of them were totally empty, as it's rainy season in Bali now and sensible holiday-maker types are waiting for the better weather. We've only got soaked a couple of times though, and low season means low prices...

We started our Ubud adventure with a visit to the sacred monkey forest, which is a sacred forest full of monkeys, unsurprisingly. It was amazing to see the monkeys so close, and we were even able to feed them some bananas, though this turned into a rather nerve-wracking experience as they're feisty little kleptomaniacs. I made the mistake of hiding the bananas in my bag, and as I opened it to get something else, one monkey leaped on to me out of nowhere and tried to steal them. Needless to say I entertained the locals with my high-pitched reaction, and the monkey scarpered.

We also paid a visit to a couple of galleries, in keeping with the arty nature of the town, the best of which was the former home and studio of an eccentric (read: totally bonkers) Spanish artist called Antonio Blanco. The gallery is outside the centre of Ubud, and during the long uphill walk there in the rain we were both tempted to give up and go home, but we would have missed out if we had. As we entered the beautiful gardens surrounding the house we were greeted by a welcome drink, an ornate fountain and a friendly parrot. The house itself is an incredible construction of marble and primary-coloured walls, ornate sweeping staircases and some of the strangest art you could ever hope to see. Blanco described himself as an erotic artist and some pieces were certainly on the risque side. Most of it was just insane. Very impressive though, and Chris had a go holding the parrot on the way out. We both braved holding a rather terrifying looking bird we couldn't even identify - the fear is etched on my face in the photos.

To further our cultural pursuits, we spent our last evening in Ubud at a performance of traditional Balinese music and dance. Entertaining, but slightly bonkers.

In the interests of not appearing too smug, in light of the somewhat inclement weather back home: on our second night in Ubud we followed a poster advertising live music by a 'Jakarta guitar genius' in a cool-sounding bar. After walking for an hour or so (about five times as far as the poster suggested), in a monsoon, we arrived cold, soaked and miserable to find a totally empty bar. All that awaited us were over-priced drinks and soggy peanuts. The 'guitar genius' did not exist.