6.4.2026 – Day 4 – The Girls International Whirlwind Restaurant Tour. Jan. 2026:Off to Ubud.

Showery and raining overnight quite heavy when I awoke, it waxes and wanes.

Off for breaky at 7:30, then back to meet Wayan for our day trip to Ubud.

Trip to Ubud put paid to a few hours. Lots to see through the streets of various areas of Bali.

Wayan suggested a dance show in the morning – so we stopped and watched “Barong Tanah Kilap – a cheesy show – about a fight between good and evil – a bit hard to follow as it was in Indonesian. Some of the costumes were intricate and amazing – there was some showmanship there too. The orchestra was fascinating to watch as well, with drums, gongs, little cymbals and Balinese type xylophones of varying sizes. There were a pair of traditional dancers who were really quite beautiful in their dance moves and hand and eye movements too. Their dresses were Balinese and the makeup was immaculate. All in all it went a bit too long at an hour.

Back on the road towards Ubud, we finally got to some greenery and rice fields, and the Tengenungan Waterfall, targeting tourists we had a look, got the shots and rejected the idea of walking down to the base, mores the point we weren’t keen to walk back up in the heat and humidity.

Wayan has a small Toyota Avanza van and boy can he negotiate the traffic. It’s fascinating and heart stopping to watch cars, trucks and thousands of bikes do the dance to merge and move together, with seemingly no rules.

We glimpsed an ornate decorated horse down a side street – Wayan shared that’s its prepared for a cremation. Also many ever present temples – they take up so much real estate everywhere we go. Some were holding a ceremony for the God today and had a great array of Penjor swinging around in the wind looking fabulous – couldn’t get a pic though so pinched one from the web.

Also spotted a wedding car.

Wayan suggested lunch at Semar Kuning Restaurant which was located alongside rice fields which were good to see up close.

We dropped Suzie and Bron off for a massage at Yes Spa in Legian and Wayan dropped Hayls and I off at Bintang Supermarket- we purchased the obligatory chips to accompany our pre-dinner drinks.

Back to the Villa to chill for a bit.

The massagees returned.

Pre-dinner drinks followed.

We finished off with dinner at Nau Waroeng, a local restaurant serving local and other dishes.

A nice casual meal, simple and a good size. We were done by 8:30 and home again.

Broke out the Five Crowns and played a game – teaching Hayley and Susie as we went. A fun game.