Bali - Ubud Central Market

Everything gets a bit rushed when you got one day to explore Ubud, so our visit around the city center was minimal. 

Ubud is the place where artisans who inherited their skills from their parents still produce beautiful wood and stone carvings, printed clothing and a million other things you might be interested on bringing back home (such as carved buffalo heads, which look amazing in an industrial living room or restaurant, also very popular in South Africa). We didn't have time for much, so we were dropped for one hour and then picked up around this pretty temple.

3 rules if you are going to shop:

1. Spend some time around the market, familiarizing yourself with the offering.

2. Buy in bulk whenever you can (so you can press more on the price)

3. Remember to bargain (always) - I personally HATE the bargaining game, but it's really needed in these countries

Actually, I bought a lot of things in Seminyak (the posh neighborhood where many Australian stores like Seafolly - which is not cheap but offers awesome bikinis - and For the love and lemons - amazing lingerie - are located) and Kuta (at the main mall, there is a TOPSHOP store, where I got some cool summer looks, CONVERSE store, where Enrique got some leather sneakers, plus all mainstream and local surf clothing brands, combined with lots of Ralph Lauren). Hippy clothing and balinese prints are not really my thing - just brought a robe -  hence, for fashion shopping I would suggest to save your pennies and wait for Seminyak, which won't be super cheap, but well worth it.