So for the last 4 days of our adventures, we returned to Bali and headed to Ubud, aiming for a bit of relaxation time before the long journey home. Don’t think we’re ready to end our travels but we will make the most of our last few days!

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As a treat for both Martin’s birthday and to end our adventure with a bang, Kate booked a jungle bamboo house overlooking the Ayung river in Ubud.

We couldn’t believe it when we were being shown all the rooms and facilities by our host – the house was massive! There were enough beds for 8 people to sleep, and everything was so spacious and beautifully designed. The houses are made from 90% bamboo – just incredible.

We already knew we were having our first day here as a relax, unpack and unwind kind of day – so did nothing but that! The kids had a swim in the pool, and we ordered food for both lunch and supper. Martin and Kate planned out the next couple of days – both with adventuring things as well as massages and down time.

Everything can be done in-house here – you can order your food/massages/day trips all via WhatsApp, and whatever drinks or food you order is brought to your room by 2 or 3 members of staff. Housekeeping also arrive in the evening to “turn down the beds” and prepare everything for a good nights sleep. Such a treat for us after a long time on the road organising everything ourselves.

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Martin’s birthday began with a well-deserved slow morning, our body clocks woke us around 6:30am but we enjoyed just sitting and listening to the river in the valley below us. We had a complimentary breakfast booked as it was our first morning, which was up in the “warung” (small eatery) where we’d had tea when we first arrived. Scrambled eggs on toast, pancakes with honey, and piles of fresh fruit was very much welcomed – gobbled too quickly for a photo!

For the adventurous part of the day, we’d planned a route north of where we were staying and hired a driver for the day.

First stop: rice paddy viewing. This area of Bali is well known for its rice paddies and they can be seen from the side of any country roads. We saw a variety – some ready for harvesting, some freshly sown and some in between. All of them had little offering areas, which are filled with flowers and incense every morning as an offering to the rice gods, praying for a good harvest.

Next stop: Sangeh Monkey Temple. Here long tailed macaques roam free, enjoying peanuts and other delights from ‘wardens’ of the temple. Some local faith communities believe that the monkeys are a reincarnation of a Warrior Princess, so they are considered a blessing to the community and a sacred animal.

The temple is set amongst 13 hectares of forest, mostly made up of nutmeg trees. There are a number of stories around why the trees and monkeys are here. One legend says the daughter of a God from Mount Agung wanted to move to Mengwi. On her way there she was conveniently accompanied by a nutmeg forest. Suddenly someone spotted this phenomenon and the nutmeg forest stopped where it was. The area was later named Sangeh. Some Balinese believe the monkeys are the princess’s soldiers guarding the forest.

The monkeys are incredibly tame; used to humans due to the rather touristy way the wardens feed them and encourage some to jump onto people’s shoulders or laps. Martin got an unexpected birthday cuddle from one monkey before we’d even made our way inside!

We also enjoyed a wander through the forest, marvelling at how tall the trees were and enjoying the shade.

Third stop: Pengempu Waterfall. A quick 15 minutes further north from the monkey temple lies this gorgeous, little-known spot in the middle of the jungle. We chose this because it’s not as popular as some bigger waterfalls in this area, hoping to have the place to ourselves.

To get to it, we asked our driver to park on the side of the road, and walked from there. We followed a well-layed path down through the jungle, enjoying the views along the way…

When we got there we realised we had the place to ourselves, jackpot!!

The midday sun was hot and humid, but the water felt cool and refreshing and it didn’t take us long to get into our cozzies. We clambered over the rocks and sank into the water.

We did end up having to share our little spot with a few others, but not for long as they only stayed for around 20 minutes. The only other people we saw were three young lads who arrived just as we were drying off and changing back into our clothes – we think they may have got a flash of the birthday boy’s bum!

After we’d made our way back up the valley, we asked to stop for some lunch at one of the many roadside eateries. We found a gorgeous little spot called Titi Garden (Martin enjoyed the name far too much!) and had fun ordering a variety of food and drinks from their Balinese-Western menu. We had two or three dishes and two drinks each, and our bill came to less than £14! Some dishes were winners (Sylvie’s new favourite being bao buns) and some were less so (Elijah and Kate shared some incredibly spicy noodles!) but we enjoyed it all with a glorious view of the valley below us.

Our last stop of the day was to a local supermarket and fruit stall to get a few bits for our house – including dragon fruit, the new favourite!

That was it for the adventuring side of the day… we got back to the house and didn’t have long to wait for the relaxation side… a Balinese massage!

Fully oiled and zen, we had a delicious birthday dinner then read books in the fading light of the day.

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Day 3 dawned and Martin headed off for his Bali run, the last one for this adventure. Unfortunately due to some stray dogs barking and chasing him he cut it short! He did find a picturesque bridge across the river we overlook from the house though.

We’d decided to spend the morning chilling and enjoying the house, so that meant mostly reading books and splashing about in the pool (oh, and gobbling dragonfruit!).

At midday we hopped into a car (again driven by our new pal Lala!) and set off for our afternoon. We’d planned out a route that would take us up north again, with different things to see.

Our first point of interest was Kayu Putih – also known as Bayan ancient tree (Bayan is the name of the local area). This giant tree found in central Bali is believed to be one of the countries oldest. The name Kayu Putih means ‘white wood’, so named after the colour of its enormous trunk. It is thought to be over 700 years old, but the exact age is unknown.

Not sure any of us were expecting such an incredible sight. Nestled in a tiny village, next to a temple, this ancient tree is considered sacred… and you can see why. It’s just enormous and standing under it, near it, you can almost feel it’s energy. A very special tree.

Our next destination was a cocoa plantation and organic chocolate farm/factory called Desi Coklat. We had a rather interesting journey there. It turned out that the road leading to the small chocolate factory was under construction. After a few stops, starts and checking with locals, Lala parked up and we decided to do the final 10 mins on foot. We are sure we caused much amusement with everyone that passed us, but after a dusty hot walk we did indeed find the right place!

We weren’t really able to see the cocoa plantation, as it extended far beyond the cafe and chocolate preparation areas that we did see. We enjoyed a delicious lunch (resisted the chocolate pizza!) and paid for the children to do a “chocolate mould experience”, hoping it would be really hands on. In reality, it was nothing more than three lolly sticks, some melted chocolate in a bag and a Christmas tree mould! But the kids enjoyed eating the fruits of their labour and we all enjoyed a few tasters in the chocolate selling area too. Thankfully Lala had managed to find an alternative route there by going the long way round, so arrived with a smile ready to take us onwards.

The chocolate place took a lot longer than we’d planned and as our last stop was something we were keen not to miss, we hurried on, hoping we hadn’t missed our chance.

Lazy river Penarungan: we couldn’t find much information about it in English online, but it looked like fun and thankfully they were still operating when we arrived! Local children were playing in the water as we navigated our way down to a little ticket booth and paid for our tickets. The lady didn’t speak any English but with hand gestures and smiles we decided we’d paid correctly and could just take a dingy and go….

It turned out we needed to jump into the back of a truck and drive to the start. What proceeded was a hairy zoom through town in an open top truck. The kids were squealing with delight and nervousness. After a rapid reverse downhill manoeuvre from the driver we quickly disembarked, had the inflatables blown up for us and started the floaty ride.

We were completely unprepared clothing wise, had no cozzies with us to change into but that didn’t matter. We just hadn’t expected the rafts to fill quite so high with river water. That they did. But who cares! We had a wonderful meandering ride through rice fields and overhanging foliage. It was a super way to end the day, even if a little damp!

There was just time to stop at a street-side grocer on the way back for some fruit and we were done for the day.

That evening we enjoyed another round in the pool, made noodles and fruit salad for supper and tried to start packing, hardly able to believe we only had one day left.

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Our last day in Bali, our last adventure day really, came around far too quickly. Sylvie had her hair braided and we enjoyed trying more of the fruit we’d bought the night before. We also spent several hours retrieving various items that had spread themselves around our extensive house.

And then all of a sudden it was a last minute scramble to squish of things into bags and a sad farewell to our bamboo home. Our flight to Singapore wasn’t until late afternoon so we enjoyed a leisurely lunch in the ‘warung’ before hopping in the car again to make our way to the airport.

We said goodbye to Lala as he dropped us at the departure gates and headed inside ready to begin our long journey home.

Our first (and hopefully only!) hiccup came while we were in the queue for check in when Sylvie realised she didn’t have her phone. It was still in Lala’s car, probably all the way back in Green Village by now. Cue frantic phone calls, much grovelling and an about turn before security… and Lala kindly turning around and coming back to meet us at the drop off zone.

“Second time lucky” we hoped as we turned around and headed into Denpasar airport again.