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Bali 🇮🇩
  • JG TRAVELS
Jul – Aug 2023

Bali 🇮🇩

Time to get surfing! Read more
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  • Trip start
    July 13, 2023
    JG TRAVELSBali 🇮🇩JG TRAVELS

    Arrival in Bali

    July 13, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Travel day
    Today's the day we leave Thailand, both of us are gutted to be leaving but onwards to our next destination - Bali !
    Instead of getting a taxi to the airport , we went for the cheaper option and caught the airport bus . We didn't realise that the bus stop was practically opposite the hotel so we had a bit of a wait , but better than lugging our bags for miles !
    Bus to airport took an hour and we got checked in with no issues . The plane journey was quite cramped and alot of the seats were broken . James felt very cramped due to his height and there was a very annoying man next to him who fell asleep on James shoulder . James politely told him to move and he went and sat somewhere else - result ! Flight only 4.5 hours so not too bad at all .
    When we got to the Denpasar airport in Bali , there were huge queues to get visas , then another queue to declare how much luggage you have! It was literally so chaotic .
    Getting a taxi to our hotel was effortless and cheap, only taking 30 mins. The roads here are very busy and there is a big night life scene where we are , so very noisy too .
    We dropped our bags off in our room and walked down to the beach . The waves here are huge and quite daunting , hopefully we won't be in surf too big for our lessons .    Read more

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    2

    1. Uluwatu Beach and surrounding beaches

    July 14, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ 🌬 27 °C

    Uluwata beach and explore

    Today was a really good day for waves in Bali , James and I decided to head to the famous Uluwatu beach , which was an hour long drive on the moped . The journey was really sketchy , with cars and mopeds everywhere and heavy traffic . Once again, James did amazingly , but we accidently ended up going past the beach . Not a problem though as we ended up at uluwatu temple instead !
    We had to wear sashes around our waists to cover up our legs before entering the holy grounds . The grounds were beautiful , with loads of monkeys everywhere . The monkeys seemed more aggressive than in Nepal, but they are still the macaque breed. One lady had her sunglasses grabbed off her face , which we found hilarious until the same thing happened to James . This monkey came out of no where and grabbed his daily prescription glasses off his face and ran off up a tree. One of the workers there tried to bluff the monkey with some lychees, but he wasn't giving in . We got a bit worried at this stage and started to conduct a plan if we couldn't get them back (maybe going home early) but luckily the monkey eventually gave into the lychees and gave the glasses back , although the frame was slightly chewed!
    We then went onto the famous Uluwatu beach and watched the waves and the surfers for a while . Never seen waves like this before , some of them must have been 4 metres high , people are just crazy surfing that !
    Padang padang beach was just up the road, it wasn't sandy and it was quite crowded , so we decided to move onto dreamland beach instead.
    We sat on the beach for a while then decided to brave the sea with the big waves even at the shore . The current was very strong and the white water really thrashed you about , so we didn't stay in there long !
    After a while, we braved the ride back to our hotel , along the way we spotted a rip curl outlet store and had a look there - a little breather from the heavy traffic .
    It was getting quite late and we still had to eat and do our theory for our surfing lesson the next day . We managed to get this done and have a nice chat with Jackie and Leigh for a while.
    We headed to bed at about 0130 after watching some rubbish reality TV on our tablet.    Read more

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    2. Surf lesson 1

    July 15, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    Surf lesson day !
    Exciting day today , our first Bali surf lesson ! We had a ten min drive to our surf school and were on the beach for 1000.
    We had two others in our group and a really cool instructor called Dylan, who was so funny. He kept calling James Koko Lomell because of his height , but James wanted to be referred to as James Bond ( he got stuck with Koko Lomell 🤣) . We spent a while in the beach learning about how to carry your surf board , how to hold your board in the sea with waves and of course how to "pop up" once you've caught a wave.
    When we were stood up on our boards , Dylan went around all of us and tried to push us off to test our balance and core strength. Once we had this mastered we went into the sea to practice . We only practiced on white water today ( green waves look so scary and it's beyond our competence ) to get to grips with standing up and holding your balance for as long as you can . It was so much fun , James stood up on almost all of them , and I managed to stand up on about 5 of the waves , which is alright for someone as clumsy as me .
    It was so much fun but quite tiring as the current was strong and you have to battle through all the white water every time you went back into the sea. We were ready for a coffee afterwards!
    There were loads of nice restaurants close by , so we stopped off at what we thought was one of the cheaper ones - but they catch you out as they add on 21 % tax which isn't included in the price list .
    For some reason , neither of us have much of an appetite at the moment , so we shared a small meal between us .
    Poor James doesn't feel great today , so we headed back to our hotel room for a couple of hours to relax.
    We will head out later to have another swim, look at the local stores and get some food . Surfing starts at 11 tomorrow and we both cant wait.
    Sorry, no photos of the surfing, we will get some soon!    Read more

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    3. Surf lesson 2

    July 16, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    We had a weird nights sleep and both woke up with fevers and body aches. However we had to ride through and we headed to the beach eager(ish) to get surfing again! Today we were learning how to turn correctly and controlling the board in Acceleration and Deceleration on the waves. It was great fun but the swell was big today so it was also slightly daunting with many rip currents forming. We have been taught how to use rip currents to our advantage when paddling back out so we don't worry as much when getting caught in them now.
    Our surf lesson has been cancelled for tomorrow as he thinks my face is getting too sunburnt.. I had said that this is how I have looked for 3 months now... 😂

    Afterwards we went for some food at a local authentic Australian bar🤣 (seems like there are more Aussies here than Indonesians). We had been told that we must go and check out the massive surf outlets which sell surf gear and clothing at massively reduced prices. However they had many bargains but not in our sizes which was abit annoying but was cool having a look around. We headed down the beach to watch sunset and seems like everyone else in Bali did the same as the beach was absolutely heaving which is a huge contrast to having the beaches to ourselves in Thailand. We stopped and were speaking to some local people, they seem so friendly, chatty and genuinely want to get to know you which has been great.    Read more

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    4. Day off today

    July 17, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ 🌬 27 °C

    We had a day off surfing today to give James' skin a break from the sun and salt water. We were really craving some fruit so we went to a really cool little cafe just down the road from us that served smoothie bowls . I had a mango smoothie bowl and James had a berry smoothie bowl, they were really tasty but no where near as good as the smoothie bowls we had in Pokhara . They were also massively overpriced but we know not to go there again !
    Afterwards , we headed to some more surf factory outlet stores to have a look for a bikini for Grace ( as hers is all falling apart). Yet again , it was unsuccessful, so we decided to look at some of the high Street stores and instantly found a bikini in the right size.
    We went past the Bali Bomb Memorial and stopped to have a look. Al queda blew up 2 nightclubs in 2002 and killed 202 people. 28 were Brits, 90 were Australian. We had no idea that Bali was subjected to such attacks and found out that they tried to attack again in 2005 with a car bomb this time but luckily it didn't have as many casualties as in 2002.
    Afterwards we went and sat on the beach for a while . James rented a surf board and went surfing for an hour or so. I was still feeling quite run down and achey so I didn't go in again . Also my board rash on my legs is starting to look pretty bad , so probably a good idea to give my skin a break .
    We went back to the hotel and had a dip in the swimming pool , the swimming pool is the only nice thing about our hotel 🤣.
    We had both worked up an appetite for the first time in a while , so headed to a lovely Italian restaurant about 10 mins away .
    The food was lovely as the pasta was fresh and homemade .
    We drove home afterwards and chilled for a while before going to bed .
    Surf lesson number three tomorrow !    Read more

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    5. Surf lesson 3

    July 18, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ 🌬 28 °C

    We had a lunchtime start for surfing today. So headed to a local cafe for Croissants and smoothies for breakfast. We took the short moped ride to the surf school and got set up. One of the tutors has noticed that Grace although being right handed is actually Goofy rider, meaning she surfs with her right leg forward instead of her left. This meant that Grace needed to go back and retrain herself to stand up the other way, this will benefit Grace long term as she will be in a much stronger position and will make the board easier to control in the future. James carried on trying to master turning on the waves and catching green waves and managed to execute it on some of the smaller ones.
    After wards we tried to rent surfboards but were told by surf school that it's very dangerous for us to do so as the tide is so low. So instead we headed to Michael Bar as Michael himself is awesome and it was a nice place to sit on the beachfront and have a coconut and beer. We watched the surfers getting mauled by the waves and had some dinner early as tomorrow morning we have to be back at the surf school for 5.30am. It's going to bloody kill us 😂😂
    Hopefully we will have some surfing pictures to share with you soon as our instructor takes them every session to discuss our board positions, we are going to wait till we have finished the lessons and pick the best ones as you have to pay per shot. 9    Read more

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    6. Surf lesson 4

    July 19, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Surf lesson 4

    Early start today , we were up at 0515 to get to the beach for 05:45 , it was painful as probably had about 4 hours sleep -especially with all the club music blasting out all night .
    It was still dark when we were on the beach and started surfing when the sun was rising , which was really cool .
    The green waves were massive so could only stay in the white water which was quite shallow . I just needed to concentrate on perfecting standing up the goofy way and maintaining my balance. It was really frustrating as I automatically wanted to stand up on my right foot first , but I got there eventually. I just kept reminding myself that James has been surfing on and off since he was 14 so naturally I wouldn't be at his level .
    Afterwards we headed back to our hotel and started to discuss where to move onto next . The couple next door -called keirnan and Elena overheard us and came to give us some advice .
    We ended up chatting with them for ages and decided to go out for lunch together. Keirnan and Elena live in Brighton , Keirnan does WWE wrestling (!!!) and Elena was a nurse in a recovery ward . Like us , they have both quit their jobs to come travelling. It was so nice talking to Elena as a fellow nurse, as she too had to work permanent nights for years to save up for this trip .
    We actually spent about 12 hours just chatting to Keirnan and Elena and ended up going out for dinner together too before they caught their flight to the Phillipines .
    It was such a shame we had met them on the day they were leaving.
    We tried to have an early night before another early start tomorrow 😴.    Read more

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    7. Surf lesson 5 - onto Ubud

    July 20, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    Last day of surfing today, another 5.30am start, we made it to the beach before sunrise. Today was our last day of applying our skills which we had learnt over the last week. Level 5 surfing, today it clicked with Grace riding goofy and she caught many waves which was great. They noticed that James was getting every waves so swapped me to a shorter board to push me more and said that I should be riding hard boards now and ready for tackling the monsters at the back... I am not so sure yet! We have both improved so much. It was so great to see Grace have so much fun surfing and now she has caught the waves more she has got that buzz I got on my first few waves, you feel at one with nature and it makes you feel invincible for the seconds you are riding the swell. We bought the pictures from the week as you can probably tell on penguins which was cool.
    After the lesson we headed to Gloria Jean for a full English to celebrate and I must say it was probably the worst breakfast in history. Afterwards we packed up our stuff ready to leave Kuta and go to Ubud.
    We have decided to bypass Canggu for now as its quite built up and touristy like Kuta and we want to attempt to find a more authentic version of Bali. We had a 1 1/2 taxi ride, which we chatted all the way with our lovely taxi driver and learnt so much about the culture and what its like to live in Bali. We arrived at Ubud and we're greeted with coconut trees, temples, monkeys and loads of market stalls. This felt much more like what we imagined Bali to be like, we were so happy to get away from rowdy Kuta and we are super excited to get exploring tomorrow.
    We have decided to stay in a homestay in Ubud and our room looks like an entrance to a temple- it is so cool (it's the picture with me poking my head out above) all for less than £10 per night!    Read more

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    8. Ubud

    July 21, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Today we got up and headed to The Sacred Monkey Forest. It was a mile or so walk from our Homestay so we had an opportunity to explore Ubud on the way. We headed down looking in all the quirky shops along the way, we wish we had more money and space in our bags to buy more souvenirs but we must refrain as we still have some of the trip left. We finally arrived at the Monkey Forest, as we walked in there was monkeys literally everywhere... Funnily enough 😂. Within about 2 minutes I was trying to photograph a monkey and another (wet & skanky) Monkey decided to jump onto me and start ramsacking our rucksack. I quickly became the entertainment of about 30 people all surrounding me taking photos. Great start 🤣. The monkey found some food and quickly ran off with it🐒. Weirdly I was told off by the staff as apparently my bag excited the monkey. Despite many people carrying their rucksacks in. We carried on through the forest and I felt incredibly jumpy after this, we saw thousands of monkeys all ages and loads of babies which was cute. However some Monkeys werent very nice and saw 1 person scratched by one and another who had been bitten. The Monkeys were aggressive and made you feel jumpy to be around. After an hour or so we made our way to the exit, relieved to have not been bitten. It was cool to do, but not 100% sure it was an enjoyable experience 😂.
    Afterwards we were heading to the Ubud Palace, Bali interestingly has 8 Kings, in different regions and this was site of the King of Ubud. The palace was gorgeous itself and felt very traditionally Balinese in the way it was designed. We explored here for an hour and as we were leaving we were offered tickets to a traditional Balinese fire dance. We obviously brought 2 as this sounded ace. That evening we had some lovely Indonesian food and then headed to the show. It was set in a temple and felt very authentic and cultural. The lights dimmed and the fire was blessed before the show. All of a sudden about 150 topless men came out and started chanting around the fire, they were narrating a historic events, which due to being Balinese we didn't really understand but it was so enjoyable and it felt like we had stepped back in time 500 years. There were monkeys costumes, Kings and ladies in traditional Balinese outfits. The show was ace and you were completely obsorbed by what was going on. Towards the end of the show, the fire was knocked over spreading the coals everywhere, out came a man with a straw skirt and a horse head (don't worry Rosie it wasn't real). He proceeded to kick the coals around barefoot and ended up sitting on his bum on the coals whilst shuffling about. He also then ate some coals whilst spitting the embers everywhere, he looked like he was in genuine pain but carried on anyway. It was such a finale to the show and was like nothing we had seen before. It was so cool! We headed back to the Homestay as we had another busy day tomorrow. What a great day, Ubud is so much more like we imagined Bali to be.    Read more

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    9. Ubud

    July 22, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Today we decided to visit the famous Tegallalang rice fields . We grabbed a taxi from our homestay and had a very scenic drive there . When we arrived , the place was extremely busy , luckily people seemed more interested with taking pictures of themselves on the Bali swings than the rice fields , so we managed to get out of the crowds quite quickly .
    The rice fields were beautiful , we walked a fair distance around them and the trekking path took us through some smallholdings - we saw lots of chickens and some cows too . We finally felt like we were experiencing authentic Bali culture , with locals wading through the rice fields wearing banana leaf hats.
    It took us about 90 mins to walk around the rice fields , we grabbed an iced brown sugar coffee ( tastes like creme brule!) afterwards and met our taxi driver .
    On the way back , he dropped us off at the Bali Pulina coffee plantation - home to the famous Kopi Luwak coffee. Kopi luwak, also known as civet coffee, is a coffee that consists of partially digested coffee cherries, which have been eaten and defecated by the Asian palm civet. The cherries are fermented as they pass through a civet's intestines, and after being defecated with other fecal matter, they are collected, dried and roasted . The coffee tastes very strong , but actually contains much less caffeine than usual coffee. It's also the world's most expensive coffee due to the process.
    They had two tame Civets there , one of them was playing around in the garden and the lady that worked there picked it up and let us stroke him . They are so cute and comical , I think it's my new favourite animal !
    At the end of the tour , we had a coffee and tea tasting session . The coffee was just amazing , my personal fave was the avocado flavoured coffee. James' was the vanilla and coconut coffee. Of course we had to try the Kopi Luwak coffee too and it was actually really tasty yet very stong ! ( I know the concept is gross !)
    We went a different way back to Ubud , with rice fields either side of the road and lots of temples .
    We packed our bags back at the hotel and spent over an hour looking for somewhere to eat . It was so busy everywhere as there is a dance festival for the dead starting tomorrow in Ubud- which we are gutted to be missing .
    We went back to our homestay and went to bed quite soon afterwards , we are getting up at 6 to catch our ferry to Gili Trawangan- we are very excited!    Read more

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    10. Gilli T

    July 23, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    We met our taxi driver from day before at 0630 to get to Padang Bai ferry port . Our ferry wasn't until 0930 , but the journey can be unpredictable depending on traffic .... we ended up arriving 2 hours early , but better than 2 hours late !
    The ferry port was so busy , people everywhere with no order to it at all . Once we grabbed our tickets and paid the island tax we went and sat at a local warung for some breakfast . The two hours flew by and we were soon boarding our little speed boat to Gili T .
    The journey was about two hours long and the harbour at Gili T was also packed full of people. We pushed our way through and managed to get a horse and carriage to our little beach bungalow further up the island.
    There are no motor vehicles on the island , so transport is literally biking or horse riding . The island is so small anyway, you couldn't justify having a car !
    We loved our ten min horse and carriage ride , the rider was very chatty and funny . He explained that we had the biggest and strongest stalion on the island - therefore he named the horse Toyota . James and I were literally in hysterics.
    We soon arrived at our little bungalow resort , our bungalow was more like an elevated hut with the toilet and shower on ground level . It was basic but so cute and cosy.
    Once settled in , we went and sat by the beach for a good while . The sea bed is all coral and the water is very shallow , so we paddled about rather than swam. It was beautiful but again totally overcrowded with Instagram obsessed tourists . We found it very funny watching people pose vainly for the camera for that "perfect shot" 🤣.
    There were lots of people riding horses along the beach in front of the sunset . One thing we do love about Bali are the sunsets - just stunning .
    Gili T is famous for partying and magic shrooms , there was a Dutch man next to us that kept staring at rocks (and photographing them) and saying "what the ****" , turns out he was as high as a kite on shrooms 🤣.
    We had some food at a local restaurant and we were shocked at how expensive the food is over here . We knew it would be more pricey than the mainland but wasn't expecting it to be by so much !    Read more

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    11. Gilli T

    July 24, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Today we made our onwards plans over breakfast and have news that we are returning home on 16th August . We are returning to Thailand for 2.1/2 weeks enroute home as to be honest, Bali is great but we really are missing the quietness and chilled way of Thailand and it's extremely busy here. We weren't able to see everything we wanted to in Thailand and we both thought its pointless staying in Bali if we would rather be somewhere else, we are finding it far to commercial and seems like everything is set up for social media pictures which is definitely result of all the influencers who live on the island. We would come back to Bali but only if we got really good at surfing, the island simply cannot cope with the influx of tourists.
    After breakfast we walked around the island to the town to hire 2 bicycles for 24 hours. The island has no vehicles on so you either have to travel by horse cart or bike, it's so nice being somewhere with no vehicles polluting with emissions and noise. Today we were going to explore the whole island and stop at the snorkeling spots along the way. We made it to turtle cove and stopped here, the beach despite being busy was absolutely stunning with the clearest blue water and white sand. It was so cool seeing completely different fish despite seeing less than in Thailand (we saw 2 Puffer fish mum, I know you love these!). The current here was so strong pushing you a few feet every second. We had to keep our wits about us. After a tiring couple of hours fighting the current we headed back to shore, as I was about to get out of the water I saw a gorgeous sea turtle in the shallows eating the sea grass. We followed him around for a while and got some cool shots on the go pro. After chilling on the beach for an hour we carried on our tour. There were Magic Mushroom shops everywhere which we found strange as Indonesia has severe penalties even for soft drugs (including being shot) so this confused us abit. We biked the whole island and found many Tsunami evacuation routes which was slightly daunting, especially reading they predict a mega earthquake in the next 10 years with a Tsunami wave of upto 50 mtrs, as the islands are 2 mtrs above sea level this is slightly worrying!
    We got back to our cabin about 5 o'clock and had beers watching the sunset, we met some really cool Indonesians here and I quizzed them on the legality of Mushrooms and we were told that the islands are all run by Mafia so mainland rules don't apply here. 1 guy even disappeared to show us his mushrooms which looked absolutely horrid 🤣🍄🍄🍄.
    Tonight was an all night beach party with live drummers (from our hotel) they were so cool and really got everyone into it. 'Welcome to Exile, where good vibes fly and fun is had' .The night flew by and we treated ourselves from the skimping to many beers around the fire sat on Bean bags, it really did feel like a big family and we had a great evening. We went on a drunken bike ride to the shops which was fun and then called it a night, the music stopped shortly after and we both slept amazing. We are off to Island 2 tomorrow, Gilli Meno which is known for feeling like a deserted island a big change from Gilli T which is at full capacity.    Read more

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    12. Gilli Meno

    July 25, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    We caught the speed boat to Gili Meno at about lunchtime , we were feeling slightly hungover from the night before but it was so worth it .
    The boat ride was only about 15 mins long , and we were so pleased to see that the harbour was so quiet . Our little hut (which is only costing us 6 quid a night!) was only a short walk away . We got settled in and washed our clothes before heading out for a walk along the very small island .
    We decided to walk along the beachfront, collecting pretty shells and paddling in the sea along the way .
    After about 20 minutes , we came across a lovely looking resort and restaurant . The lovely man at the front of the restaurant was so charming that we just had to stop for an iced coffee.
    We chatted for ages and before we knew it the sun was setting . There was a bbq at the restaurant which had loads of freshly caught snappers and corn on the cob.
    Instead of looking for other places to eat we decided to have a snapper for supper . James had a white snapper and I had a red snapper which were cooked to perfection !
    The fish just flaked away from the bones and we really enjoyed it ( which is really good for James who has never been that keen on fish) .
    On the way home we came across a turtle sanctuary, we stopped there for a while taking pictures of the really cute baby turtles , we made a small donation before leaving . James also spotted a shell on the floor moving on the way back - turns out it was a cute little hermit crab!
    When we got back to our little hut we watched a film called " The Impossible " which is based on a true story about the 2004 Tsunami in Thailand and Indonesia .
    We have been very interested in the science behind tsunamis and have discovered that we are sat right on a tectonic plate called the "ring of fire" , it is scary to think that Indonesia is overdue an earthquake . The next earthquake is predicted to be a mega quake, which could result in a Tsunami up to 50 metres high.
    We went to bed shortly after the film , both feeling a little anxious after our discovery 😅.    Read more

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    13. Gilli Meno

    July 26, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    Today we got up and rented 2 bikes to explore the island. We headed to a restaurant for some breakfast to fuel us for the day. We ended up buying some handmade bracelets which were made with pearls/stones from the island which were cool.
    We headed around the island as today we were snorkling and attempting to find the shipwreck just off shore. There are also some underwater lifesized human statues which sounded amazing. We headed into the sea in a rough vacinty of where we thought they were, we were greeted with amazing coloured coral and many different types of fish - you can tell why this is the snorkling island of the 3 Gilli islands. It was amazing and very similar to Thailand with fish all shapes and sizes. We saw many puffer fish which are now my favourite aswell (@mum) 😂🐟. We also came across 2 giant trigger fish but kept our distance as we don't want to have a close encounter like we did in Thailand 😬😬. The current was really strong again today and very choppy, think this is common for Indonesia. We loved seeing the blue coral which isnt found many places around the world.
    After an hour of exploring and no shipwreck we headed to shore to move further along the island. There was a hive of activity in one area so headed out about 100 mtrs from shore to investigate. We came across the statues which were approx 5 mtrs deep, they were in a circle and it was super cool to see. We had a swim about here fighting through the hoards of people and managed to get some good videos ,but sadly no shipwreck.
    Afterwards we carried on around the island and stopped for a drink, we ended up speaking to a man called Arbi who was selling sweetcorn from a cart for an hour and he was super chatty, we loved his sweetcorn, he told us he is known on the island as the corn man 🌽🤣.
    We carried on and did a full lap of the island before heading back to our cabin. I had a phonecall with dad which was nice and we played with the family of cats who came down to visit us, dad, mum and 2 kittens who were super fun. We headed to an Italian Warung (cheap food place) and ended up eating 2 portions of their pasta, not that it was nice, as it really wasn't but we were super hungry. Afterwards we headed back to our bungalow to watch a film, Grace is choosing a horror as we speak... (suprise, suprise haha). Moving to Gilli Air tomorrow, we could easily get used to this Island hopping malarky 🏝️🏝️🏝️.    Read more

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    14. Gilli Air

    July 27, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    We didn't realise that we had to check out at 1000, so had a bit of a rush to get ready when we woke up ( we stayed up late watching a really scary film ) . Luckily no one noticed and we got checked out with no issues .
    The harbour was only a short walk away from our bungalow, we got speaking to some of the locals and arranged a private glass bottom boat ride to Gili air , only costing us a pound more than getting a busy speedboat ride . We stopped off at a nearby warung to get some banana pancakes and a coffee before our boat ride.
    The sea was really choppy , so the boat ride was great fun - getting splashed along the way . James even managed to spot a large white tip shark too , which apparently are quite rare to see.
    The boat actually dropped us off on the beach in Gili air , so we managed to avoid the harbour tax ( so actually the private boat only cost us 50 pence more ). We walked to our lovely little guesthouse just 15 mins away .
    We sat and chatted for a while whilst our room was being cleaned . There is a lovely man called Abi working there , who was really chatty and kind to us.
    Our room was spacious with good aircon , but it was missing a few essentials - like a sink 😂, but we managed to work around that.
    We decided to take a walk around the island after getting sorted . James has a nasty wound on the top of his foot as a result of itching an insect bite, so we made the decision that he shouldn't go in the sea for a couple days . It was quite sloughy and weepy , so needed to be dressed before going anywhere.
    We walked around the south side of the island and stopped off for a smoothie along the way. We chatted with the locals there for a while and slowly made our way back to our accommodation.
    Once back at our room, we had a cold water shower each and poor James slipped over on the slippery tiles - landing on his right knee. I had ran out of pain kilkers but luckily had some ibuprofen gel and a knee support that helped . We asked to the staff for some ice too .
    After all that excitement , we needed some food ! We had chicken enchiladas for supper from our guesthouse and to our suprise they were actually really nice . We then watched the sequel to the film we had watched the night before and went to bed shortly afterwards .    Read more

  • JG TRAVELSBali 🇮🇩JG TRAVELS

    15. Gilli Air

    July 28, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C

    Today we were woken up at 4.35am to a lady screaming prayers on a speaker phone at the Mosque about 300 mtrs away. They read prayers for 10 minutes just before sunrise and this repeats 7 or 8 times a day. We don't mind the daytime ones but must admit it wasn't the best wake up call as it really does sound like they are screaming. Once we got up and had the most amazing smoothie bowl from our hotel. We both felt a little out of sorts today so spent a few hour relaxing in our aircon room. It was nice to have a chill, although we love backpacking, it does seem to make you exhausted.
    We spent some time planning our onwards journey as we are leaving the Gilli islands tomorrow. We have booked to move onto Canngu for 2 days/3 nights so we can surf abit more before we fly back to Phuket. After a while we headed down to the Harbour to book our ferry and transfer to Canggu which we managed to negotiate to £17 each which is really good value and we will be travelling on 'luxury' boat. Afterwards we walked all the way around the island to stop at sunset side for a couple of drinks in the sun. We found a really cool bar full of beans bags and a live Reggae/rock band, 1 drink turned into a few and we ended up sitting here for about 4 hours as music was so good. We walked back to our apartment and found a really cool house decorated in loads of lights and funky decor. We also found some cows on our way home, first cow we had seen in ages. 🐄 Maybe we are missing Hereford...🤔.. Maybe not.
    We had some more food at our apartment which ran a warung which is so far, the cheapest and best quality food we have found in Indonesia. Approx £5/6 for us both to have full meals, drinks and Calamari to start. We had a shower and went to bed as we need to be up and packed for the ferry back to mainland tomorrow.    Read more

  • JG TRAVELSBali 🇮🇩JG TRAVELS

    16. Gilli Air to Canggu

    July 29, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    We headed down to the pier at Gilli Air to head off back to Bali. We stopped for an amazing ice-cream and spotter a turtle whilst waiting. Our boat was supposed to leave at midday and didn't arrive until 2pm. Once aboard we headed across the bay, the boat was packed and about 20 mins in we hit the waves. It must have been 4 or 5mtr swells and the boat was being flung about like no tomorrow, it felt like the captain was going full thrust into the waves and at stages you could feel the whole boat leave the water before coming crashing back down. We both have never had motion sickness before, but this boat ride was a harsh introduction, we had to really concentrate on not being sick. This was made really difficult by the amount of people around us being sick also. We both concentrated purely on our breathing and managed to complete the journey without being sick, result! 2 1/2 hours felt like eternity.
    Upon arrival at Padangbai Pier we were swamped with people attempting to take our bus tickets before we even got of the boat, it was chaos and really not what we needed after the boat ride. We knew we were having a bus to Canggu but almost ended up falling for one of the scams where they take your bus ticket and then try and usher you into a taxi (claiming it's 5 hours and we are last stop and no aircon etc) at ridiculous cost, 1.2million rupiah about £70 to be precise! I must admit I lost the plot with the guy and managed to get our tickets back and finally found the bus... We were lucky as many people fall for this scam, we were close but no chance we were paying that. After 2 hours in the bus, our driver who was supposed to take us to Cannggu central randomly dropped us about 30 mins away, everyone on the minibus was not impressed but we booked a 6 seater taxi and split the costs between us thankfully.
    We got to our hotel which is lovely, and settled in. We ordered some pizzas to the hotel and had a chill as we were predicted to arrive at Canggu by 3pm and arrived about 7.30pm.. We are knackered, what an eventful day! Grace was still wobbling all over the place from the boat ride 😂    Read more

  • JG TRAVELSBali 🇮🇩JG TRAVELS
    1

    17. Canggu

    July 30, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    Had a bit of a lie in this morning, both feeling a bit weird and achey after yesterday's boat ride .
    We were just in time for our free breakfast of boiled eggs and toast with some coffee . Afterwards , we walked down to Canggu beach just a 15 min walk away from our hotel . The beach was really disappointing, it was very grubby with too many people there . We really wanted to go surfing again , but the waves were all reef breaks so decided to give that a miss as we didn't want to have any casualties before heading to Thailand.
    There was a nice looking bar and cafe on the beachside called "Old Mans" which is quite well known in Bali, there were cosy couches to lounge on, so we sat and had cappuccinos and chatted for a while .
    Once refreshed we decided to brave the little market stalls to look for some gifts to take home. We didn't really have enough money with us , but we managed to make a list of what to get when we went back the next day.
    There were loads of nice clothes shops along the main street in Canggu , but were completely out of our price range , it was nice to look anyway !
    Along the way , we found a really cheap warung to have some drinks, we managed to have ice coffees that were the equivalent of 40p ! Lots of locals and tourists were stopping there for food , so we decided to stay there for our evening meal too . All in all we had spent a grand total of £5 for evening food and drinks !
    We slowly walked back to our hotel afterwards and sorted out our washing etc. We watched some dragons den and went to bed at around midnight .    Read more

  • JG TRAVELSBali 🇮🇩JG TRAVELS

    18. Canggu

    July 31, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Today we headed to the local stores and markets to look for a few small pressies for family. We found majority of what we were looking for and then headed back to our hotel.
    We were going to surf at Canggu it was the main reason we went there, but the beach was filthy and the waves were packed with people and it looked as if it was a reef break so beyond our level currently. This was a shame so instead we headed to our lovely pool at our hotel instead. We had a swim for an hour or so and packed our stuff as tomorrow as we are travelling back to Thailand.
    We thought as it was our last night in Bali we were going to treat ourselves to a nice dinner, we went for a candle lit Italian and felt very underdressed as it was super posh. The meal was beautiful and came to a total of £28 (extremely expensive for Bali, resonable for the UK) this is the most we have spent on food in 1 meal since we have began travelling and it was a treat. The quality of the food was amazing with great service, we had bread, calamari, carbonara, pesto pasta. Yum yum.
    We are beyond excited to head back to Thailand! We have enjoyed our time in Bali but won't be returning until the surfing gets better, it doesn't touch Thailand at all, we are both happy we went there whilst flights were £400 return for us both rather than paying to go from the UK. Indonesia is a great country and has 18,000 islands to explore we will be back but to 1 of the other 17,999 islands 😂    Read more

    Trip end
    August 1, 2023
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