My first day in Ubud

We didn't plan much for the first day — after an endless flight, the idea was simply to arrive, settle in and start to get a feel for where we were, without forcing anything. And yet that afternoon with no fixed plan ended up being one of the best ways to enter Bali we could have come up with.

After dropping our bags at the hotel, we walked to Ubud Palace, right in the center — no rush to see it all, just calmly wandering its courtyards and taking in the Balinese architecture: carved stone, ornate doors, sculptures and gardens tended down to the last detail. From there, a few minutes on foot to Pura Taman Saraswati, a small temple dedicated to the goddess of knowledge, recognizable by its lotus flower pond.

We continued on to the Ubud Art Market, with stalls of crafts, textiles and jewelry — not buying anything yet, knowing we had two weeks ahead of us for that and with no desire to weigh down our suitcase on day one.

The name Ubud itself comes from "ubad," related to the Balinese word for medicine — the area has been linked to medicinal plants, spirituality and wellbeing for centuries.

With the little energy we had left, we did a short stretch of the Campuhan Ridge Walk right at sunset — suddenly the buildings disappear and vegetation, palm trees and open fields take over as far as the eye can see. We had something simple for dinner near the hotel and went to sleep without having "done" absolutely anything significant by any tourist checklist.

And that was exactly the charm of that first day.