Bebek Bengil Dirty Duck Diner Ubud 15 Nov 2016

After sometime we walked up Jalan Hanoman, we came across to the famous Bebek Bengil Restaurant just at the road side.

I was toying the idea of when shall we come to have a meal as it is highly recommended when I surfed the internet before our trip to Bali.

Then, Daddy just suggested we just walked in have a light meal because there is still long street to go. I was thinking like… ok, because it was just 10.30am and the restaurant looked really quite with no guests inside.

We were greeted by the waitress and usher us in to one of the dining huts.

We were sitting at the dining place which is nice, as it overlooks the courtyard garden, with the beautiful lotus pond in the middle.

The rest of the dining tables too, were scattered around.

Bebek Bengil or Dirty Duck Diner is Ubud's best known duck restaurant for decades. The restaurant is named after a group of muddy footed ducks that ran across the floor when the restaurant was just about to open, and these flock of ducks were their 1st customers, hence the name bebek bengil, or dirty ducks! Well, that’s how the story goes…

We sat down and ordered the famous Bebek Bengil, which is Crispy Duck, the restaurant signature dish. This is half a duck, steamed with spices and deep fried to a crispy finish. The skin is crispy but yet the meat inside is still juicy. It come with sautéed potatoes and side salad or rice and Balinese vegetables which is boiled long beans with bean sprouts. We choose the later.

We ordered another dish, Grilled Duck with Sweet Chili Sauce. This is duck grilled with Balinese sauce, and served with steamed rice. The duck meat is tender, moist and juicy! And, the chili sauce we love it! We really enjoyed this dish.

The duck here is rather small, a whole duck here is about half a roast duck back home, and both of us have no problem finishing it off easily! The duck here are very small in size, so I guess that makes the meat more tender. I think the ducks here are free range village duck raised in the farms nearby.

This is a big huge restaurant, and the best dining area is at the back section, at the pavilions that overlooks the rice field. We did not realized that until we have finished our food, and we went to the back section. The dining area at the back section overlooks the rice field.

Well, since we are already here, we can not miss the dish the opportunity to take some photographs, right? I took as many photos as I can with the children too.

As this is the most famous duck restaurant in Ubud, even the prices are on the high side by local standard. The cost for the Bebek Bengil set is Rp.125,000 and the Grilled Duck with Chili Sauce is Rp.122,000.

However I still find it is really pricy for given the quality of food and the restaurant upmarket feel. Overall the duck dishes here in Bebek Bengil is very good. I guess that is why they are still around today since 1990.

We felt quite satisfied with the meal and we left the restaurant and continue on our walking tour around Ubud.

Ubud Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary 15 Nov 2016

Another lovely morning and this is our first morning in Ubud.  We had a pleasant sleep and awoke to another lovely new place.

We took our bath and changed to our outing suits and ready to go. The sunrise here in Bali is around 5.30am, it is approximately an hour earlier than back in Kuala Lumpur.

We went out from our room and see the sky and the nicely done garden really made us smile!

We had our breakfast on our favourite gazebo served by the hotel staff. It was about 7.30am, we had a great and pleasant breakfast.

After last 2 days tours, today we would just explore Ubud especially along Jalan Monkey Forest by ourselves.

Our plans today consisted of walking, eating, sightseeing, maybe a bit of shopping.

On our way to our first destination, we passed our dirty clothes to laundry and we were told that we could take it by the next day.

Our first and main destination of the day was Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary, which is just 5 minutes away walking distance from our hotel.

It is named Mandala Suci Wenara Wana in Bahasa Indonesia, which is Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary.

Entrance fee for Adult Rp.40,000 and Children Rp.30,000. It open daily from 8.30am – 6.00pm. We were there since 8.30am.

We had been advised that do not a few things: such as do not hide any food; do not look the monkeys in the eyes; do not run, do not bring any kinds of plastic/paper bag including holding the mineral waters; do not ever touch, grab or disturb the monkeys; and it is prohibited to feed monkeys peanuts, cookies, candy, bread or any kind of snacks and drinks; and do not panic, when the monkeys jumped over you and ask for the staff to help.

We quickly finished up our mineral waters before we went in to the park. It have actually 3 entrance – Gate 1, Gate 2 and Gate 3.

We entered through the Gate 2. At first, there was nothing but silence.

We walked into a “jungle” of towering trees, statues and signs warning against doing things that the monkeys might perceive as an “act of aggression.”

Waiting on pins and needles for the monkeys to show themselves, we passed an old lady was setting up stand to sell bananas which you can buy to feed the monkeys. We just shook our heads and walked further down.

Upon reaching the Central Point, we can see suddenly so many monkeys turn up and resting or wondering around the area.

Without our realize, there was 2 monkeys clinging on Daddy’s backpack and Daddy was trying to get rid of it.

It was happened due to there was still 1 small pack of peanut placing at the side of his backpack.

The staff with green uniform was kind enough to help us and told us the peanut is not allow to bring in. Lucky for Daddy, there was no scratching or any injury.

After that, Annabelle was teasing Daddy that, she told him earlier about the peanut but he wouldn’t want to listen. We were all laughing.

There is a signboard at the Central Point which indicated briefly about the types of monkeys which live in the area of The Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary (Monkey Forest Ubud), known as the Balinese long-tailed monkey, in scientific called Macaca fascicularis. In English called macaque.

There are about 600 monkeys living in this area. They are divided into 5 groups: in front of the Main temple, Michelin, Eastern, Central, and Cemeteries. Each group consist of 100 – 120 monkeys which: infants (0 – 1 year), juvenile 1 (1 – 2 years), juvenile 2 (2 – 4 years), sub adult male (4 – 6 years), adult female (> 4 years), and adult male (> 6 years).

The long tailed monkeys are omnivores. In the Monkey Forest Ubud, the main food of the monkeys is sweet potato, given 3 times a day and combine in daily with: banana, papaya leaf, corn, cucumber, coconut, and other local fruit.

From there, we walked further down to the Main Temple. There are 3 temples in the area of the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary.

The Main Temple – Pura Dalem Agung, located in the southwest area. In this temple, people worship to the God (Hyang Widhi) in personification as Shiva, “The Recycler” or “The Transformer”.

This forest area is sanctified by the local people community. There are some parts of the area that prohibited for the public to see or visit.

The Temples area is only accessible for whom willing to pray and wear proper Balinese praying dress. Thus, we were not allow to go in and we can only see from the outside.

Based on the analysis of the Pura Purana (a holy book made from palm tree leaves as a historical document of the temple), temples in The Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary (Monkey Forest Ubud) area are built around the middle of the fourteen century.

When the kingdoms in Bali were ruled by Dynasty of Pejeng or can also be said about the beginning of Gelgel Dynasty.

After the Main Temple, we continued to have a look at the Public Hall/Gallery and the Open Stage.

We took the wooden path which is just along the river. We love this place, the fresh air in the forest made one feel so energetic and refresh. This path lead us to the Holy Spring Temple.

The Holy Spring Temple or Pura Beji (Beji Temple) is located at the northwest area. In this temple people worship to the God (Hyang Widhi) in personification as the goddess Gangga.

This temple is a place of purification before conducting the ceremony (piodalan). Pura Beji is often used for ”melukat” as spiritual and physical cleansing.

It had a dramatic entrance with the gigantic statues guarding the temple, with the dragon stair bridge connecting to the other side of the river, and the hundreds old Banyan Trees as the backdrop of the area, made this Holy Spring Temple beautiful and mysterious.

We did stroll down the small lane just next to the river. It was exciting. After which, we were back to the Central Point and we walked through the Funeral Place and the Cemetery area in the forest.

The third temple is Pura Prajapati (Prajapati Temple). This temple is located in the northeast area. This temple is adjacent to the cemetery.

In this temple Hindus worship to the God (Hyang Widhi) in personification as Prajapati.

The cemetery is used temporarily, while waiting for the day of the mass cremation which is held every 5 years. Thus, this too help the poor villagers whom with insufficient financial aids.

After the Cremation Temple, we left the Monkey Forest by Gate 1, another entrance also at the other side of the Jalan Monkey Forest.

We took our family photo at this entrance. It was about 10.00am when we came out from the Monkey Forest.

We walked further up towards the Jalan Hanoman, the weather was so hot that we walked in to a local café.

I had forgotten the name of the café but we knew that it is actually a guesthouse or hotel by itself too.

Actually there are a lot like this type of cafes or restaurants exist along Jalan Monkey Forest and Jalan Hanoman. In front is cafe or restaurant, then behind of the premise is a guesthouse or hotel with or without swimming pool.

Annabelle was mumbling about still hungry, then we ordered a Sapo Tofo Ayam, and  a mango juice and Coca-Cola.

It was a good snacks and cooling time for all of us. Children were playing their gadgets after some snacks and drinks, while I was busy  scrolling  and surfing my phone for the local map.

After our eating and a bit of relaxing, we continue on our exploration…