HONEYMOON DAY 3 CONTINUED…
After a bit of a drive, our taxi dropped us off at the next resort, Pramana Watu Kurung Resort, amidst a jungle of trees above the Ayung River valley, . Upon checking in, they gave us beautiful flower leis and poured us two cups of iced tea to enjoy on their resort restaurant overlooking the mountains. They then took us into our Royal Ayung Villa and our jaws dropped at the view from our villa’s private infinite pool. You could see the river and neighboring river valley nestled into the back to back mountains covered in lush trees. Lush trees = plentiful bugs though, so we layered on the bug repellant Alila Villas daily here. They also drew us a bath decorated with flower petals arranged into the shape of a huge flower. Outside on our balcony, they also gifted us some complimentary sparkling wine and a cheese platter as a welcome gift. They also provided us with complimentary tea time (with snacks) at 3:30pm daily. So we decided to order that as well! Tea time that day came with panna cotta, green sweet potato, and sweet black rice along with the tea. We chowed down and unpacked our room!
As dinnertime neared, we decided to attend a traditional Indonesian dinner and cultural dance show that our resort was hosting. It started off with dancers dressed up in traditional costumes moving to the beats of drums. One of the dances reminded me of a Chinese dragon dance performance, only more life-like in that the costume was covered with brown hair rather than the colorful colors of a dragon dance performance. Dinner was freshly barbecued right in front of us behind the dancers and the options were plentiful. Because we had told some of the resort workers that we were on our honeymoon, they surprised us at the end of dinner with a beautiful heart shaped chocolate cake with the words “Happy Honeymoon” written in white frosting at the top. It was a sweet and personal touch that really won us over!
Day 4
We again woke up earlier than the sun did, so we watched the sunrise turn into heavy rain. The sound of rain falling onto the pool water was so relaxing that I sat there and listened to it on the balcony swing listening to some music. We were planning on heading out into the city center of Ubud this day, but beforehand, Harry decided we should order in some complimentary room service breakfast! The menu included different themed breakfasts and so we ordered an “Experience Breakfast” which came with fresh local fruit, Bubuh Bali (rice porridge with chicken curry), topot sayur (rice cake and soy bean cake with satay), and Jaje Bali (a Balinese rice cake with palm sugar sauce and grate coconut) and left for the city center of Ubud with happy bellies!
We took the shuttle our resort provided to Ubud city center. We stopped by a couple temples we had walked by, walked through some local street markets, and ran into a coffee shop selling kopi luwak (the coffee beans consisting of partially digested coffee cherries eaten and pooped out by the Asian palm civet, a curry little animal. Harry could not resist and bought a couple bags as gifts. As we walked around, we noticed that a lot of people placed colorful offering coconut leaf baskets filled with flowers and topped with a stick of incense, scattered all over from store fronts to bridges.
Upon our research, we found recommendations everywhere to dine at Locavore when visiting Ubud. The restaurant boasts of a providing an exhilarating fine dining experience that incorporates some European influence, all while sourced with local produce — hence their restaurant name. The dining experience was quite dynamic. We had to make a reservation ahead of time to grab a table, and were provided with the option of either ordering from a fixed “Locavore” menu (comes with animal protein) or a “Herbivore” menu (vegetarian-friendly). We both elected to go with the Locavore menu. We have never been taken through a food adventure quite like this one. I will let the photos/videos speak for themselves. We were technically served more courses than was listed on the menu - so I sadly did not have a full list of the names/descriptions of what we ate! But to the best of my knowledge (and what was provided on the menu), here is a list of what we ate at Locavore, Bali.
In walking off the who-knows-how-many-courses we had just finished, we decided to walk it off at the famous Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary. It was a small fee of about 80,000 Indonesian Rupiahs which is about $5-6 in the US. There were so many monkeys, both infants and adults who range from docile and uninterested to quite excitable. We saw one tourist teasing a monkey with something he took out of his pocket and the monkey jumped on his arm to try and grab it. Others are just munching happily on their food. The amount of monkeys in the forest was crazy plentiful and we rarely walked by without spotting one.
We ended the night with a sunset dip overlooking the vast jungle in our infinite pool. We ordered a couple cocktails to our room, waded in the waters, and watched the beautiful colorful sky. We ended the night ordering in some crispy duck, chicken stew, red rice & assorted toppings for dinner through room service. We went to sleep happy and full!
Day 5
We started off the morning a bit slower with some tea while enjoying the outdoor view. We had ordered the special floating breakfast this day. We threw on our swim suits as the hotel staff brought in this massive heart shaped floating basket and filled it with an assortment of sweet and savory dishes, coffee, juices, and tea. We sat ate while sitting on the ledge of the pool, munching happily away. We took this day easy and enjoyed the resort’s complimentary afternoon tea. As the night neared, the staff set up a super special complimentary dinner for us on our own villa’s balcony! They came in and decked the floor out with flower petals arranged into a heart shape, candles, and brought every dish from their kitchen to our balcony table. I had never felt so waited on and spoiled in my entire life!
Day 6
For our last morning in Pramana Watu Kurung, we headed out to their resort restaurant and had breakfast, and then it was time to say goodbye to Bali!
We spent most of our time in Bali relaxing, enjoying the resort life, and it really accomplished our goal of de-stressing from the wedding craziness. We did realize though that we did not get to TRULY explore Bali, doing the more adventurous things and getting to know the culture and the people more. So while we planned this leg of the trip to be more of a relaxed vacation, we will definitely need to return to Bali to truly see it for everything it has to offer.
Then it was time to take off to the airport in anticipation of our next honeymoon destination — Tokyo, Japan!!
