Bali

Unlike the original plan of travelling across land from Yogyakarta, because of me being ill we flew directly into Bali with a new flight.
We had only 4 days here so knew we wouldn't be up to pushing ourselves so planned a leisurely few days and one day of sightseeing.
We were very lucky in that my dad has a Marriott timeshare and let us use some of his points so we could have a free stay in a very nice hotel. Oh how it was appreciated. Genuinely the bathroom was the size of our entire room and bathroom in the last dump of a hotel we stayed at! It was amazing to have some western comforts too, including a bed long enough for Phil and sun loungers by the pool.

We arrived around dinner time and explored the nearby streets which were absolutely full of restaurants, spas, supermarkets and more. Its was not going to be hard to find food options, although maybe too much choice!? Anyway we settled on a cute cafe and each had some Indonesian classics like nasi goreng and chicken satay, pretty delicious. And of course a stop at an obligatory ice cream parlour afterwards. Then we went back and had an amazing nights sleep in that dreamy bed, not waking til 10am.
The following day we decided to go to the nearby beach (double six beach). The hotel had loungers we could use so we were looking forward to a day relaxing there. Sadly the beach was not what we were expecting. I won't sugarcoat it- the beach was filthy! The sand was grey and as you got closer to the water there was rubbish everywhere washed in from the water, it was shocking. We walked along and rubbish would wash in over your feet along with the waves. It's unbelievable.

We then saw a digger rising along the sand collecting all the plastic and litter. The scooper was full and we saw it go back and forth. Phil explored going into the water but it was dirty (no white froth, literally brown) we decided it was not hygienic enough. How disappointing and more to the point, harrowing. How sad to see mankind destroying the beauty of our planet with our waste.

We left the beach for the afternoon and returned to our hotel pool to cool off. Another relaxing evening ahead with finding a lovely restaurant with a very talented live band and that concluded another day. The time just flew here!

The next day we had a full day tour planned to see some of the sights. It was going to be a long day starting at 8:30am and not getting back til 7pm however we would see a lot.
Our first stop was the elephant cave, that had an elaborate carved cave entrance and some lovely temples and grounds. We really enjoyed this first stop, a very beautiful place surrounded with jungle.

Our next stop was the famous holy water temple, Tirta Embul. People travel from all over to bless themselves in the pools and flowing fountains. We happened to go on a Sunday and being a holy day it was packed with people! So we didn't get in ourselves but I did have a little refresh with some water on my face and neck, it was very cooling on such a hot day.
We drove on to the base of a volcano for lunch. We went to a very good restaurant that has a cracking view of the volcano and the lava stained lands. It's still active but hasn't gone off since 2004. We ate a fabulous indonesian buffet with some of the best local food we've tasted, even the fried rice was delicious. After stuffing our faces and enjoying the view we got caught in an almighty downpour and had to wait it out for awhile before returning to the car, I guess that is what happens when up high.

Onwards we went to a stop we were really looking forward to, Tengallang terraces and rice paddys. The view is amazing, stretching out in front of you for miles are highly defined rice paddys, layered up in terrace formations so water can flow to all of them.
We went for a wander round, climbing through the terraces and enjoying the views. At this point the sun was really beating down and we were flagging so could have spent hours there, however on this occasion we just explored some areas.

Now our driver said we still had time to go to the most famous temple in Bali so we took this chance and drove to the coast to see Tanah Lot. A temple perched on its on island that gets cut off by the tide in the evening. Also a very holy temple to the local people, so much so only Balinese people are allowed to actually go on to the island.

We wandered down through the crowds a few hours before sunset and got as close as you can the other side of the tide. It did keep its air of mystery being isolated like that so we enjoyed seeing it.

We arrived back at our hotel pretty knackered at 7pm so had a leisurely dinner and went back to the hotel. Unfortunately Phil had caught too much sun and wasn't feeling too well with some mild sunstroke. This lead to an early night and some more relaxing days by the pool, nice meals and even a massage. It was like a mini holiday within this trip!

It was not quite the Indonesian experience we had been looking for, but it'll just have to happen next time!

BethRead more