Today we had an exploration day on own. We started off with breakfast at Ely’s Kitchen, Ubud. The scooter ride to our breakfast place was amazing! We took a bunch of windy back roads. For breakfast I had a smoked salmon and scrambled eggs dish, along with some coffee.

After breakfast we rode the scooter to Goa Gajah. Goa Gajah, also known as the Elephant Cave, is a sanctuary near Ubud that was built in the 9th century. It consists of a cave, fountain and bathing pools. It’s believed that the cave was built for meditation purposes. The complex consists of Hindu and Buddhist imagery, as the cave contains lingam and yoni, symbol of Shiva, and the image of Ganesha, while by the river there are carved images of stupas and chattra, imagery of Buddhism. The cave was only discovered in 1923 by Dutch archaeologists. The pools and fountain were not discovered until a few decades later in 1954. During our visit an older man led us on a fairly long path down to another cave temple, that I think very few people get to see. I ended up tipping him a fair amount, but he seemed rather ungrateful, and wanted even more. I was still appreciative of him showing us though.

After exploring Goa Gajah we rode the scooter about 40 minutes to Tegallalang Rice Terrace. Tegallalang Rice Terrace is one of the most famous tourism destinations in Bali. Located in Tegalalang Village, north of Ubud, the beautiful rice terraces follow the flowing topography, and feature zip lines and jungle swings. This is a very famous Instragram spot. While we were there we went on a jungle swing, I flew the drone, and we ate some delicious food.

The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing by the pool. Julie had purchased me this foam ball prior to our trip, and it was pretty fun to throw back and forth.

In the evening we went to Cafe Wayan & Bakery. The cafe has been around since 1986! We had some delicious Balinese food, and for desert had a gluten free apple crumble, which was honestly the best I’ve ever had.