A holiday gift.... Bali 2018

Bali November 2018

Tanna was working overseas when she sent me the text...

 " mum when I get home I'm shouting you and me a trip to Bali" 

And so began one of the best Bali holidays I've ever had!

Flew over with Virgin

Ubud

We spent our first 4 nights at 

B&B Home Stay Griya Jungutan

We had originally booked a cheaper twin bed room at about $27 for two with breakfast

but when we got there changed it to a room with air con,kettle, fridge etc 

still only $40 aud for us both, and worth the extra.

This little homestay was in a perfect position for what we wanted. 

What we wanted was to shop, eat , rest... repeat.

Beautiful outlook, private and peaceful 

Crazy how close you are to everything yet it is so green and quite.

relaxing around the cute little pool

 One night we had one of the biggest tropical storms I've ever been in, and the roof leaked. 

The bathroom floor was wet, the bedroom floor was wet, there were little puddles here and there as well as the occasional drip on the bed, lucky we didn't want to cuddle up as it was right in the middle of the bed.

We thought it was hilarious, but I'm sure other wouldn't .

On the night of the storm I had a restless sleep

I love storms but this one was huge, the noise and light made it hard to sleep.

One roll of thunder was so loud I woke listening to it grow, then I could feel it.

 I looked over my shoulder at Tanna propped up on her elbow looking sleepily out the window.

I said " that's an earthquake, can you feel it?", half asleep she replied "it sounds like a train"

"It does, that's your first earthquake, I hope everyone's ok" 

We drifted back to sleep and everyone was ok

Chilling on the veranda 

Looking from breakfast pavilion over the pool

to our room window on the top floor

breakfast was more than enough for us

Cafe Lotus

We stopped here for lunch simply because it was hot and we were hungry when we walked past, not somewhere I go out of my way to eat, unless the lotus flowers are blooming, when the flowers are in bloom it's magical!

I reminisce to Tanna about staying in Ubud as a young broke backpacker seeing all the beautiful flowers and wishing I could afford to eat here, it was then one of the fanciest cafes in Ubud.

When I think of lotus flowers it's these palace ponds covered in Lotus flowers in full bloom that comes to mind.

While we ate people clambered all over taking selfies and
 photos of each other over and over again.
They were trying for that perfect photo, with a pond full of dead flowers.  

    Lunch at Mingle Cafe 

Fun listening to the very loud table of Aussie expats talking about their Bali lives,

while we ate the most delicious chicken satay and margarita pizza! lol

     Ubud Markets

  Still one of my favourite places to shop,

early in the morning there is hardly anyone around. Then 

as the day wears on you can hardly move.

love this glazed pottery and have a few bowls at home

Rumah Batu have a few shops in Ubud and one on Gili ,
 they quickly became our favourite jewelry shop
and we both bought many pieces from here.
 I love my lotus disk and haven't taken it off since I bought it.

Okay I just took it off to take a photo :)

Lunch at 'Oops' in Ubud yum!!!

 Our big day out at Wanna jungle pool and bar

I wanted to take Tanna somewhere special and found

 ‘Wanna Jungle Pool and Bar’

We arrived around 1pm and were the last day trippers to leave at 7pm.

 I would say if you’re already staying in an amazing resort, don’t bother making a special trip here.  It’s basically just an incredibly beautiful pool, at a gorgeous resort with stunning views. 

But we were just staying in a little homestay 

so spending the day here was a surreal experience for us. 

When we arrived the couple in front were being told “no pool sorry, only seats inside left” from what we over heard you could eat at the restaurant but not go swimming,

That couple were very rude and abrupt to the staff, they walked off in a huff.

 When our turn came I explained how I'd found the resort on Instagram, that coming here was a gift for my daughter and gave them a huge amount of (genuine) flattery about their beautiful resort. Lots of big smiles went back and forth, the young men couldn't have been nicer, although they still said no. 

I really wanted to take Tanna here so I asked if we could get the cheaper ticket and 

upgrade to gold if  someone left, thinking it's after lunch someone might leave soon. 

Suddenly one of them said “a moment please” and a minute later hey presto…..

 they had just one gold ticket left :)

 I think perhaps we were given a daybed reserved for hotel guests? 

 I bought the gold ticket and for us it was worth it.  

https://www.tripadvisor.com.au/Attraction_Review-g297701-d15132623-Reviews-Wanna_Jungle_Pool_and_Bar-Ubud_Gianyar_Bali.html

Lobby and restaurant

our ticket :)

Me looking over the edge

entree

We had more entrees for our main as that's what we wanted!

The food was delicious and service great 

As it got later we had no intention of leaving,

not until we absolutely had to!

finally dessert and time to leave

Lunch at Blackbeach 

gave us some unusual views

 and the food was wonderful

                         

                                   

Our rice field walks

We found a driver we liked on the street near our hotel, and used him to drive us around while we were in Ubud. He was a lovely man and we had plenty to discuss, politics, 

religion, tourism.... nothing was out of bounds,
this chattiness is one of the things I love about the Balinese.

Today we wanted to go to Tegallalang Rice terraces,

on the way he stopped on the side of the road and said

 "walk here first, I think you will like it better"

He was correct :)

It was an OMG hot kind of day, 

and we had stupidly forgotten our hats so the driver jumped out and gave us his umbrella. 

He told us to follow the path and always turn right....

 "if you turn right you can't get lost, 

I'll meet you at the other end so you can just walk one way"

The urge to go left was strong, but we resisted lol

These rice fields were vast and empty, if we didn't speak the only sounds were our footfalls and the clamor of busy of insects.

We wandered along, two little people all alone soaking up the peace.

I commented on how lucky we were to be here and Tanna said she'd just been

 thinking the same thing.

 I couldn't tell you exactly where it was,

 but I can tell you there are plenty of places like this in Bali 

and they are not hard to find.

Our driver met us near the end of the path and had a couple of hats for us. 

We smiled, thanked him and put them on...

 trying not to think about all the other sweaty heads they had sat on!

He also commandeered my phone to take photos. 

This one we had no idea he was taking and it's one of my favourite from the trip 

At the end of the path was a little shed where the hats had come from. We were offered fruit and

there was a donation box which was not pointed out to us, but when we saw it we happily put some money in it.

YUM!! love snake fruit

And so we drive on to Tegallalang

Here we were not alone, this place was like Disneyland compared to other rice fields.
Zip rides, giant swings, people everywhere.

Although as you can see it is really pretty and you can get a nice photo, but it certainly lacks the peace of our previous walk.

Next stop 

Gunung Kawi Sebatu

Sebatu

Not far from Tegallalang 

this temple was shown to me by a driver when the kids were little

Tanna and I spent over an hour feeding fish, speaking quietly about life, laughing and really just being in the moment together.

Almost meditative in it's peace and beauty this remains my favourite temple in Bali 

Lunch overlooking the Tegallalang fields 

Batan Waru for dinner

Although it was more about dessert!

Always come here for the black bottom tart, we were so full after our main meal that we had black bottom tart for breakfast dessert the next day.

We aren't big drinkers and really noticed what a difference alcohol makes to a bill!!

breakfast the next day lol

Madani Antique Villas

Our next hotel was for one night only

One night to spoil ourselves and stay somewhere amazing.

 This little villa in the middle of the rice fields didn't disappoint,

if anything it exceeded our expectations!

It's so isolated that we had to actually walk through 

the rice fields to get to it

the entrance

the room

the views

the villa

bliss

views, views,views

Floating breakfast.... because we could

That night I swam in the moonlight 

as fireflies danced over the rice fields and frogs sung in the gardens.
It really doesn't get much better than this.

Next stop Aling Aling waterfall and secret garden 

Road trip supplies,

 given to us by villa staff when they heard how far we were driving!

Pondok Kunang Kunang

I'd booked into this little home stay next to the waterfall hike, we intended to get up early the next day spend half the day hiking then drive to Amed for our next adventure.

Best laid plans and all that!

First off Tanna hadn't been feeling the best for a couple of days now, 

then the drive here took 3 hours 40 min instead of the estimated 2 hours 20 mins, so much traffic! Never do this drive on the weekend, there was lots of domestic traffic, big buses kept bringing everyone to a stop.

Then when we got here the little pool was so dirty there was no way we could swim or cool down.

The hut was super cute and clean enough, if Tanna hadn't been sick or if we could have swum in the pool we would have stayed, but we didn't.

We got our money back, booked a room on booking.com and moved up the road

dirty pool

Shanti Natural Panorama View Hotel 

We moved a two minute drive up the road and found paradise

The view from our room

our little hut

restaurant view

Breakfast!

In the end it was decided Tanna would take the medicine we'd brought with us and spend the day in bed. I spent the day in the pool watching cheeky little monkeys steal mangoes from the resort grounds. 

Stunning views, beautiful gardens and incredible peace 

I'd come back here in a flash

Monkeys around the pool

So one night in the mountains relaxing and a driver picked us up for the drive to Amed, he was one of those scary fast drivers who doesn't talk, we got there in record time! 

Puri Wirata Dive Resort and Spa Amed

Booked the night before we arrived

We've stayed in the Amed area before but I've never dived here, so these two nights were to chill and dive. This resort is right on the beach between Amed and Lipah beaches.

I did two dives with the dive shop attached to the resort, both dives were at Tulamben an easy and pretty drive from here. 

The first dive was the drop off which I found very boring, visibility was ok but dull and hardly and life. The second dive was the US Liberty wreck which I loved and now rate as my favourite dive ever! 

Diving the wreck was like being in a were's Wally book, I have never seen so many divers in one spot, but I found it to be such a novelty that I loved it. 

The water was clear and teaming with fish, my dive buddy and I had a lot of fun and many hand clapping moments down there.

The resort 

Tanna and I did a lot of laying around the beautiful pool, right on the waters edge.

 But one of the things I don't like about the Amed area is the beach boys, they hang out on the beaches in front of the hotels trying to sell anything from carved boats to sailing trips in real one.

Selling is fine, and it's their beach so of course they have every right to be there but they have a tendency to stare, they stare so much either perving or trying to get your attention that it can be awkward enough to make us leave the beach side and retreat to the resort side of the pool.

The hotel even has reference to this in the room literature, I can't remember exactly what it said but along the lines of..  locals will linger on the beach and are discouraged from entering the hotel grounds but its hard to enforce this.

It's happened when I've stayed up here before and speaking to other females travelers they agreed. I've never felt in danger but it can definitely be intimidating, I think it's more cultural than menacing, and it wouldn't stop me from coming back, Tanna said she wouldn't return. 

The resort was lovely though next time I want to stay in Amed itself.    

We had booked a villa but when we saw it was right on the car park moved to this twin room with beautiful views. 

our deck with a view

so pretty

Tirta gangga water gardens

We arranged a driver through the dive resort to take us to Tirta Gangga then back to our next accommodation, the tree house. This driver was a dude, his car had devil red shag carpet on the dash with a little disco ball hanging from the mirror.

And he was not ok, it's a short drive perhaps 35 mins, after about 15 mins I begin to wonder at what stage do I ask him to pull over grab our bags and hitch a ride. He can barely keep his eyes open and is constantly rubbing his face and shaking his head, and he is driving toooo slow.

Well we make it alive, as soon as we are out of ear shot we're both talking about the creepy dude. Tanna says he moved his mirror to stare at her, we agree if he hasn't woken/sobered? up by the time we get back to the car we're not getting in.

 Been here maybe five times now and the gardens are as beautiful as ever

We buy ice creams and too much fish food 

which ends up not been not enough, so we go and buy some more and more ice cream :)

We spent almost 2 hours wandering around feeding fish and eating ice creams.

Contemplated swimming in the pools which we've done before, then decided it was too much trouble today. 

When we got to the gates our driver was almost unrecognizable, bright eyed, chatty and seemingly sweet so we hopped back in the car, but swapped seats and he left the mirror were it was.

Eco Tree House Amed

You Tarzan, me Jane!!!

OMG a night in a tree house what a wonderful childhood dream come true :)

It could not have been more authentic, the home stay owner and his uncle built it. A little scary my foot did go through the floor at one stage, a rooster in the attached village wouldn't shut up and it was stinking hot, but we wouldn't trade that night for anything it was perfect.

Entrance on the road 

'Amed Paradise Warung & House Bali' run the tree house,

 this is were you have your meals and can swim in the pool, it's about a minute walk.

 Pool was cute and food yummy.

road outside the tree house 

After our night in the tree house we were picked up by the 

 freebird express shuttle bus for our trip to Gili Trawangan.
Really well organised and friendly, I'd make the trip with them again.

It was super hot so we played in the water while we waited.

The ride over was easy although a few people looked sick, we didn't think it was rough. 

Take note we sat opposite the air con because that's how you keep cool, I was surprised how many people sat under it thinking that was cooler, then wanted to move.

Stayed at Le Pirates  

 for 3 nights, we wanted to turn that into a week!

The swing near Le Pirate

 Low tide near Le pirate

The whole time we were on Gili T we didn't see a dog, a chicken or a rooster 

but we were constantly getting attention from cats!

This affectionate little girl moved into our hut and we were happy to have her.

Our gorgeous little hut named 'Wander' was at the back of the resort away from the day trippers and really private, we fell in love with it.

Hired bikes during our stay, cycling around the island is a lot of fun.

Cats everywhere, we are cat people it 

could be an issue if you're not

Holiday drinks

Cats at the beach, Gili Meno in the distance

cats on the beach chairs, on the east side

Sprite with a view! 

This place was still suffering from earthquake damage, and didn't have a full kitchen running but the young guy was really friendly and the view beautiful so we decided to sit and have a drink. 

Good decision!

You can't see it in the photos but there are actually turtles swimming in the water. 

Hired a boat to go snorkeling for a couple of hours..... lol

The difference between the local guys here and Amed was like different countries, not just different islands. Although the friendliness of these guys did at times morph into Kuta Beach antics, and no I don't want you to be my son in law (insert eyes rolling) lol

We wandered along the beach for a bit and found a guy we felt comfortable with, he spoke great English, and had us laughing as he talked about all the languages he spoke.We had to wait a bit for the 'tour guide' which turned out to be two kids who looked about fourteen and could hardly speak a word of English, I only heard them say ok and hurry the whole time we were with them. 

But they did have great big smiles, took us where we wanted to go and they found us a grandfather turtle!

Right about now the word 'hurry' came into play

Tanna and I jumped in and swam with this beautiful boy off the north point of Meno until the sea lice became too much, Tanna was stung on the lip, not fun

see ya

This is why we came over to the Gilis, to snorkel the statues off Meno, we stayed on Gili T because it has a hill and I'm a mum travelling with her daughter, if a tsunami was going to happen I wanted somewhere for Tanna to run too. Silly as it was a long way to run lol

I've stayed on Gilli Air and visited Meno before they are all lovely.

This photo of me is kind of what we wanted,

 although would be nice to see a face 

But this is what it was like the entire time and why we couldn't get a good photo. 

 Tanna and I spend our lives on the coast, we've both worked on boats, snorkeled and dived all over and this snorkel trip was crazy dangerous, so many people who couldn't swim lashing out, boats almost hitting us, people running into each other.

 In the end we left much sooner than we wanted to, it was exhausting!

 I can't believe no one has drowned there yet or been run over by a boat.

Go there it is magical, but get up early and beat the crowds. 

I'll be back 

Dinner on the beach

On the last night we wandered around from Le Pirate to Gili Eco Villas and had lobster on the beach, it was the most delicious BBQ lobster,  while we watched a magnificent sunset.

A beautiful meal to end a wonderful Gili experience

Cats on the northern tip

 while we eat lobster and sip cocktails

'Rock n Reef' at Bingin Beach

Spent just one night here, we knew we were going to be getting here late coming from Gili T but decided it was worth the effort to see if we wanted to come back again next trip.

Our room was Mimpi under the red bougainvillea 

Along a little path from the road and down many steep stairs

Our room

Gorgeous little beach, with crystal clear water and soft sand, also comes with early morning monkeys which scared the crap out of me as I wandered along the beach alone at sunrise!

Room with a view

seriously doesn't get much better than this!!

We fell in love with the view, 

had an amazing early morning swim on the perfect tide and

both agree we'd be back for a few days on a romantic break.

 But  this trip one day was enough for us.

Besides the monkeys we could have been on a beach anywhere. 

                                                                   Seminyak 

TONYS VILLAS AND RESORT

We spent the last four nights in a private villa at Tonys, Seminyak isn't somewhere I usually stay but Tanna wanted to shop, and shop we did!

Our villa was beautiful but if I have to stay down here I'd rather be closer to something, either the beach or eat street.
We walked along the beach, all the way to Legian beach hotel one day and it was a really nice walk. Ate at some lovely restaurants, bought too many boutique shop dresses, looked at Potato head, had the most delicious choc peppermint coconut ice cream (three times!) 
Shopped at Matahari Kuta square, Seminyak square and everywhere in between!

Accidentally jumped in a blue taxi or was it a bird taxi? Not sure but it was not a bluebird taxi and he totally ripped us off! Happened twice they are so sneaky in making their cars look the same and they are so dishonest, not a nice way to end an awesome trip. 
Bluebird taxi drivers are the best!

A room with a view over our private pool

Our little pool

the bath

Our typical Bali snack 

Amazing breakfast in the restaurant

or around our private pool

          Eat Street raw chicken skewers...yuck!

                 Tanna was halfway through a skewer when she 

said it had a weird texture, I was like yum it's so tender. 

     Ends up hers were actually completely raw in the middle, they didn't charge us for the food but we were waiting for Tanna to get sick.

Luckily she didn't :)

YUCK

Getting sns nails done behind Bamboo Blonde

Legian beach 

I wanted to take Tanna for a really nice thank you lunch and this was the prefect place to it!

Best dessert ever!!!

             
                                                       

                  Eating Greek one night we had these drinks mines at the front.....

winner!!!

Booked most of the hotels through booking.com

Most transfers we arranged with the hotel were were heading to, like to support the places we stay in

We didn't get sim cards just used facebook messenger and whatsapp, free internet is in cafes everywhere and  all our drivers had whatsapp

charcoal tablets are fantastic for  an upset stomach

best tip remains tie a plastic bag on the tap so you don't forget not to drink the water 

Thank you Tanna for this amazing holiday xx 

and that's another Bali trip until next time....

next stop Egypt!