shopping — Adventures Abroad

Here we are, with our epic trip on the homestretch. It’s been an amazing adventure-filled journey, and we are taking it all in with one more full week in our rooted town of Uluwatu before heading to Lembongan to close it out. We truly do feel like locals around here as we are recognized and waved to with a big smile by many of the locals along the main road. We have left our mark on this town and have been privileged to call it home for the past 2 months. Chantal and I spent a few days in Ubud when we were here in February, and we both agreed that we should revisit the food and yogi capital of Bali with a side of a monkey forest. For the movie lovers, Ubud is shown in “Eat, Pray, Love” and really does a great job showing the culture and arts of this hipster area.

On a whim, we booked a one-night stay in a villa walking distance from central Ubud, packed a small backpack, and zipped ourselves up there on the motor scooter. This was, by far, the longest journey we made on the scooter that composed of 34 miles of local roads, highways, tolls, and bridges over the beautiful Bali Sea. Mind you, this was a 2 hour trek through towns, cow-filled country lands, traffic areas that we weaved through, and uneven terrain, but we flew through like the locals we were.

We arrived in Ubud before check-in to get a head start to the day. We dropped our bag at the villa and hit the town running. Ubud gives off a strong energy that you can feel, with lifted cafés overlooking the streets, detailed and vibrant architecture, busy roads, and people walking in every direction. There was one “touristy” place that we had been before and had to go back to, and that was the Sacred Monkey Forest… dun dun dunnnn. I absolutely fell in love with the monkeys last time (as much as they fell in love with me) and I had to catch up with the homies to see how they’ve been.

Entering the forest, the monkeys were everywhere, and the tourists were holding bananas above their heads begging for a monkey to jump on them. If anything, the furry friends of mine would run up their backs, rip the banana out of their hands and scurry off before the tourist's friend could take a picture of the act. Little did they know, the “Monkey Whisperer” was in the building. I went up to the first group of monkeys I saw, calmly put my arm up to them, looked them dead in the eye, and gave a little wink. With no exaggeration, these guys ran up on me, sat on my shoulders and arms, and chilled while random tourists jealously took pictures. “This guy doesn’t need bananas? Who does he think he is?” “None of your business, ma’am. Have a nice day.”

I gently let my friends hop off, and walked away. It was one of those "drop the mic, and walk off stage" moments. Chantal and I enjoyed walking around the monkey forest, taking a bunch of action shots of each other with our furry friends.

We built up an appetite from walking around the streets of Ubud and running with the monkeys, and I almost forgot about the fried duck that I have craved since our last trip to Ubud. I had to have the Bebek Fried Duck. Chantal researched the best spots for it, and we enjoyed an amazing duck dinner with huge geckos crawling above our heads. “Excuse me sir, is that huge reptile-looking thing real up there?” “Oh, it's just gecko.” Good ol’ Indonesia for ya.

We did Ubud right for the 24 hours we had there, and had an awesome villa to sleep in with my favorite bug nets that surrounded the bed. The villa was called Kampoeng Joglo Abangan, and I definitely recommend it for only $40/night. We embarked on our journey back to Uluwatu the next morning and traveled safe and sound, with a pit stop at a local McDonalds. For some reason, the McDoubles and Fish Fillet just tasted so much better in Indonesia. What a great trip, yet again!

There was not enough fuel in the world for our next adventure. It seemed simple enough. A mile from our lunch is a famous Central Market with hundreds of vendors; the city is one of the most diverse I've seen, with a huge Indian and Chinese influence, Islamic architecture splashed against a New York-esque skyline, and Hindu colors lighting up the streets. We excitedly followed the path that maps.me set out for us.

Maps.me has been our navigational savior, as it doesn't require Internet connection but runs off of downloaded maps and GPS. That being said, it seems to work a bit better for driving routes than walking paths. When walking, the arrow will sometimes get confused and start turning in every direction. Jay and I call this maps.me being upset. We don't want to make her upset. We want to stay on the path.

Our path initially wound us up by the magnificent KL Tower. We learned our lesson and didn't do the touristy ride to the top, but we stopped to enjoy the air conditioning for a minute. Our first .3 miles of maps.me took us up a winding hill in the 90+ degree heat. And then maps.me got upset.

We couldn't figure out which way she wanted us to go; up by the iconic tower there were only a few paths, and she seemed to keep sending us down the backside of the mountain, through a sort of forest/park/jungle path. Signs warned us about dangerous bugs and reptiles. I told Jay I didn't feel like this path would lead us back to the streets and markets, but maps.me was insistent so that's the path we took.

We wound through trees and downhill through a beautiful natural park. I heard the large KL freeway getting louder, and told Jay we may have to climb some trees or hop some fences, but we'd eventually get back on track. Miraculously, an opening appeared at the bottom of the hill and we wound our way back to a main street. We were still .5 miles away. (I'm not sure maps.me is accurate in her distances when she is upset.)

Drenched in sweat, blistered feet, we made it to the Central Market. It was everything I hoped it would be: outdoors vendors slinging knock off designer purses and watches, inside vendors boasting treasures from around the world, jewelry, art, music, food, colors, eager shop keepers. There was so much life.

We took a cab back to our hotel (and it felt quite like New York city as the meter ran in stand-still traffic). Still, with the conversion, our taxi was only $5. (Note: Make sure you always get a taxi with a meter when in Malaysia or they will concoct much higher prices for your fare. You will pay them, because you will have blisters, dehydration from the heat and sweating, and exhaustion from the wonders that you just took in.) The Central Market is a must.

We capped off our first day in KL with a long nap and stop at our hotel rooftop before heading to dinner. The KL Tower lit up at night is magical. The colors change and the whole city seems to sparkle. Lights are strung across the streets and inside closed shops. Jay's peanut butter milkshake at funky eatery Gravy Baby (Bukit Bintang neighborhood) did not disappoint.

CB & J

CB & J

Adventures Abroad

CB & J

Monkey Whisperer

The Scenic Route to Central Market KL