I have a confession to make….I like a nice hotel. I mean I’ve always liked a nice hotel, but my joy definitely increases these days with in room trinkets, a pool with a view, a general bougee atmosphere and a set of dumbbells in a hotel gym. No prizes for guessing this is Lucy writing this blog. John is still happy with a hammock under the stars and a towel on the beach; although let’s be clear – he also appears to take significant enjoyment from tofu scramble for breakfast!

When planning a holiday, John seems to take the lead in the itinerary and I love, love, love finding the accommodation. I remember 10 years ago we paid £11 a night for a bright baby friendly room, outdoor cute bathroom and shared pool in central Ubud. This is really similar to the one we just stayed in, in Nusa Lembongan (about £40 a night these days it seems). And it was nice…but not as nice as the one I booked for Ubud 🤩🤩🤩. Ubud is a crazy, busy town which has long outgrown its road network. Even 10 years ago it was too popular for its own good and today that’s definitely true.

So a bougee tranquil hotel was essential you see…somewhere to escape the noise and traffic.

It’s hard to explain Ubud. A town that these days seems visibly still connected to the capital Denpasar. At first glance it is two frantically busy roads, with eye watering pollution and insufficient pavements meaning that at any moment you can be clipped by a car or worse still fall into a drainage ditch. Sounds tempting right?

Look again and just off the main drag you find yourself in an urban rice-paddy flanked by uber cute cafes serving awesome food and coffee. Dare to go further and you can find yourself in heavenly jungle and countryside with only the semi constant passing of motorbikes on infeasibly small paths reminding you that you are close to town.

On each visit to Ubud I am overwhelmed by and slightly recoil against the craziness and by the end of each visit I am its biggest fan 😻.

Returning to Ubud was essential but also risky. 10 years ago we loved it and stumbled upon an evening walk, baby in sling, across a rice paddy searching out somewhere that sounded too good to be true – Sweet Orange Warung. A beautiful cafe, with delicious food, off the beaten track and an owner that took off with our baby whilst we enjoyed the tranquility and amazing dinner.

Deciding to retrace our steps to Sweet Orange left us wondering whether is would still be as beautiful. Plus, it’s a traditional Warung, serving Indonesian food and we know already how much James loves such a thing. This had disaster written all over it!!

Thankfully Sweet Orange knows how to roll with the times. The place still exists, food just as exquisite, a small extension to the grounds with massages now on offer. The food remains unmistakably Indonesian but with enough variety to offer sweetcorn fritters and rice for James and the winning formula…a cake fridge!!!

We happily ate our meal, looking out over the rice paddy and thanked our lucky stars that the universe had been so relatively kind to us over the past decade.

It is fair to say the rest of Bali and frankly Indonesia has a lot to live up to!

We continued north through Bali, John in particular wanted to visit the highlands and so we settled on staying a few nights in Munduk. 2 hours north of Ubud, Munduk sits on a mountainous ridge; land falling steeply away on either side into valleys of rice paddies and spice plantations. I won’t lie – the journey up here gave me the ick. I was prepared for hairpin turns and heights but hadn’t expected mild vertigo feeling from driving along with the valley on both sides.

Munduk is noticeably cooler, mainly in the evenings and so much more quiet than Ubud. The real attraction of the place is not the dawn chorus of cockerels, dogs and motorbikes(!!), it is the dozens of waterfalls, one of Bali’s most sacred temples (less interesting to us), plus spice and coffee plantations.

We arrived hoping to have a small break from the beach / pool life for a few days, enjoy some cooler weather and annoy James greatly with a few of ‘those walks’.

Given the above it was surprising that James was surprised that less than an hour after arrival we had found and departed for an afternoon waterfall hike. Since we are good parents this had been paired with a packet of mentos and a promise of some screen-time if all went well.

All did not go well. The walk was amazing, and believe me we’ve see a lot of waterfalls in our time. To be fair to James, we were walking for a few hours, it was incredibly steep and he’s not yet match fit for such hikes. Happily the boys got a cool off in a natural pool under one of the waterfalls and we made it back before sundown to have a nice feed in one of the local Warungs.

We are making progress with James eating Indonesian food. We’re pretending there are no western restaurants and James eats some version of local food whilst moaning heavily. I know some people will feel we are tough on him, but we know that he is actually ok with this food and we really want him to be confident when he travels later in life by himself to try and enjoy local food.

To make the most of Munduk we wanted to hire motorbikes and I was persuaded to give it a go when I saw a 10 year old local kid competently navigating the steep hills. Regular readers will know this is not our first experience of motorbikes – with mixed previous success!

To be continued…