Our next stop was at the Ubud Palace. One attitudinal adjustment to make when visiting Bali is to downscale your expectations for manmade attractions, while upsizing your natural beauty expectations. There are a few special temples, usually in the water, but by and large the sheer number of temples, thousands and thousands of them, means they're bound to disappoint in size and grandeur. And the palaces are particularly depressing, especially because many of them are still lived in by royal descendants, but seem like little more than slums. Ubud Palace is thankfully well maintained and I don't think anyone is still living there, but it's small size is startling. The complex was built toward the end of the nineteenth century for the Sukawati royal family. It seems like a middle class house around a small garden, although the art and tropical surroundings are very nice. Every night they have a classical dance exhibition, but during the day you're free to pop in and take a quick spin around the courtyard.