3/4 of a day in Ubud
I went to Ubud for most of a day with A from Romania who I met at the hostel, and met up with N from Denmark who I met at the airport when I arrived. It wasn't a crazy jam-packed day, but we managed to get a few things in.
The taxi drive was about an hour. We ate breakfast at Atman; the 'famous' raw, grain-free porridge was pretty good, and the coconut oil latte was super interesting and creamy.
A and I went to the Monkey Forest (entrance 50k IDR) and spent about an hour there. Lots of curious baby monkeys. Bigger monkeys fighting over bananas and sharpening rocks. Old monkeys lounging around looking wise.
We stopped by the Ubud Palace, but it was mostly closed for renovations. Wandered through the market, then stopped for juice. It was hot (though perhaps cooler than Canggu) and none of us were feeling particularly energetic. I found a trail on the map and we walked along it a little way, and saw a waterfall and some nice views.
N had found a driver willing to take us back for 220k, which was a really good deal between 3 of us. On the way, he stopped at a coffee farm, and we tried many different flavoured coffees and luwak coffee. The luwak coffee was 50k for a cup which we shared, and the others were free. The luwak coffee is the one that is made from beans pooped out by a civet. It was really sweet. We had to get them to promise this was naturally its flavour and they hadn't added sugar. Apparently most people find it sour, but because the three of us don't each much sugar are tastes were different from the average tourist. All of the flavoured coffee samples also had sugar added, and coconut creamer (or honey in the teas). They managed to make six of them without sugar for us, but they were all pre-mixed with creamer. Not what we really wanted in a coffee tasting... We couldn't really taste any coffee. So if you go to one of these places and are a sugar-free kinda person, ask in advance for no-sugar versions of the samples. The only ones they sold were the pre-mixed instant versions too, which was disappointed, so we didn't buy anything.
Ubud is full of nice cafes, yoga studios, and shops selling yoga gear, as you might expect. I suppose I didn't really wander far, but it didn't feel much different from Canggu, minus the surfer part. Mostly tourists; perhaps you have to go deeper to find local culture.