Bali
Our Experience
A lot of destinations exceed my expectations, Bali, however, is top of that list. I always thought it was an island full of Australian’s drinking and behaving badly, the streets would be overcrowded and in general, highly over rated. How wrong was I…
A beautiful destination, helpful and friendly locals, incredible scenery, white beaches, blue oceans, homemade and delicious food and drinks, cheap shopping and so much culture. It’s certainly not without the badly behaved tourist though, in fact effective this year, Bali has implemented new tourism policy for tourists to abide by with new rules and regulations implemented to deter some of this bad behaviour.
The first time I visited Bali was because Liv suggested it as place to meet once I moved back to Australia. A short 5 hour flight for myself and an almost around the world flight for Liv, but she agrees it was worth the jet lag for. We ventured straight to Ubud for the initial part of our trip. Ubud is located inland and is known as Bali’s cultural heart with an array of museums, delicious food options, temples, and rice terraces.
One of the first places Liv and I visited in Ubud was the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary, only 80 rupiah to get in, there are over 700 monkeys, 185 species of trees and 12 acres of forest and makes a lovely break from the bustle of other main towns.
My favourite day on the mainland was a personalised day trip we undertook with a local driver. He took us to the tea and coffee plantation where they make and sell Kopi Luwak (Asian Palm Civet coffee) which is the most expensive coffee in the world due it’s method of production.
The locals call the Asian Palm Civet a Luwak and these little creatures eat red coffee cherries. The animal eventually digests the bean and once it exits the animal, the still intact beans are collected from the forest, cleaned (I hoped very well) and roasted, then ground. We enjoyed the free tastings and fell in love with the luwaks themselves. Our suggestion when buying any of this coffee is to be careful where you buy the coffee from as some places are known to keep the poor animals caged up and fed only these beans to produce more. They should be eating more in conjunction with the beans, as well as living freely like these ones were and the staff finding their droppings in the forest.
Un-Bali-Vable views looking over the rice fields while having lunch at Bebek Joni Restaurant where I had Gado Gado – a famous Indonesian vegetarian dish of tempeh and tofu with vegetables in a peanut, curry sauce, with a Bintang beer on the side.
We visited the stunning Tegenungan Waterfalls where we swam and had photos on the big swing with the beautiful falls in the background, by the time I revisited again the swing had sadly been removed, but a new restaurant and day club built over looking the falls. Mango daiquiris with the views of the falls and surrounding land almost made up for the swing.
Back in Seminyak we visited the famous Potato Head Beach Club on our last day in the mainland of Bali – the food was incredible, as well as having sunset cocktails listening to music. Shopping was plentiful and cheap and beautiful massages, facials, manicures and pedicures along the way. All sorts of accommodation options from cheap shared accommodation, through to luxury 5 star accommodation, hotels and resorts.
Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno and Gili Air
The largest of the three vehicle free islands is Gili Trawangan, which Liv and I stayed on, is home to Cats of Gili Café, which as animal lovers, we fell in love with very quickly! We learnt about their amazing work they do, including the spay clinics and this explained why we had seen cats with their ears slightly cut and strangely shaped tails.
Hands down the most delicious smoothie bowls for breakfast at Hello Capitano Café before spending hours snorkelling off the beach directly in front of our accommodation, seeing not only fish and coral, but turtles too!
The next time I returned we stayed at Gili Air, equally beautiful and slightly smaller which I liked. Our accommodation was right on the beach front, very simple bungalows, but what more could you need than to wake up and walk 50 meters and be in the ocean. Banana pancakes and fresh juice each morning looking at the ocean always seems to ensure you are going to have a great day.
Indonesia has been affected severely from the global pandemic and the lack of tourists, no government subsidies to assist those who were without work as we had in Australia and England. We heard many local stories about how tough this time was and how they were forced to sell their scooters, an animal, anything they could to continue to feed their families. They bound together and helped each other through, some spoke of Australian’s they’d met in the past who sent them money over. They were so happy to have tourism returning.
We did a boat trip from Gili Air, stopping at Gili Meno to see some baby turtles, then back in the ocean for snorkelling and probably the biggest turtles I’d seen in my life! The famous underwater statues called Nest which are a bridge between the human world and the marine world consisting of 48 life sized figures which you can snorkel or scuba to view.
Lombok
Ever since I set foot in Bali I had wanted to go to Lombok, another Indonesian island East of Bali. Known for it’s pristine nature and great surfing beaches, Lombok is a quieter destination compared to Bali. Impossible to see everything in the one full day we spent there, but we certainly tried! Senggigi for breakfast where very little was open as Lombok was still very much recovering from the pandemic and very few tourists had started appearing.
Senggigi has a really interesting history which our lovely driver, Guna, told us all about. We drove along the coast line with beautiful scenery the entire way until we arrived at Mawun Beach which is known as one of Indonesia’s most spectacular beaches. Swam and chatted with the local children, some who tried to sell us jewellery and some who were just very happy with the fruit we offered them.
Ashtari restaurant for lunch which literally had a post card view of the scenery below us. Our next stop was Sasak Village where 35 local families, 175 people lived. Their huts they call home are made of cow dung and clay. One of the local men showed us around and the roles they all have, I bought a beautifully hand made sarong one of the women had made and we all left a donation. We drove back another way, through the jungle to see another side of the diverse island, stopping occasionally to let a monkey cross the road. I’d spend more time in Lombok during my next trip, you could spend weeks!
IMPORTANT!
Make sure your passport is in perfect condition, my passport had a tiny tear in it and they would not accept this. Very fortunate I have dual passports and bought both with me. The second time I flew into Denpasar Airport, I also saw a man not allowed to enter due to a 5mm tear in his passport.