One of the allegedly top things to do in Ubud is the Campuhan Ridge Walk.  It is a nature walk that one can access right from the middle of town.

Given that we have been huge slugs since arriving in Bali, this walk was our first order of business.  In fact, we were so serious about getting some exercise that we set our alarms for 6:30 so we could get the walk in before the heat and the sun really ramped up.  Let me say that again — we set our alarms for 6:30.  A.M.  Not sure what we were thinking….

In any event, the walk was a nice way to get some exercise.  There are a couple of steep bits, but nothing we couldn’t handle in flip-flops (especially because the path is paved).  The path starts on the edge of an interesting temple (closed to the public).

Then it goes through some trees and fields. (No, the path doesn’t actually go through the middle of a tree, but you know what I mean).

Eventually, we reached a small village with a variety of shops and cafes, where we turned around and went back.

We saw a really cool bird on the walk.  It isn’t the best photo, but the colors on this bird were unreal.  And, when it flew, the wings were blue.  Amazing.  Believe it or not, this is the first pretty bird we have seen since landing in Bali — there are tons of birds, but everything we have seen before today has been brown or white.

We also stumbled across a beautiful pond full of lotus flowers.  And fish.  But it is hard to take a good photo of a fish under the water.

All-in-all, it was a nice walk, but we are both pretty surprised that this is one of the top things to do in Ubud.  And, we are each apparently turning into a fuddy-duddy, because we were both annoyed with the tourists who were screaming on the trail about stale croutons (no, I’m not making this up) instead of enjoying nature.  We would summarize the walk as good exercise in a pleasant environment, but nothing too special.

After heading back to our guesthouse for breakfast, we decided it was time for more walking.  So, we walked down to the area around the Monkey Forest.  We didn’t actually go into the forest (got to work up our nerve because the monkeys apparently are not the best behaved monkeys in the world) but we did get to see monkeys hanging out on the street near the edge of the forest.

All told, we think we walked about 9 miles today.  Whew!  And, you know what?  We plan to do it again tomorrow.  Next stop the rice field walk!  At 6:30 in the morning….we are not fast learners….