“It’s Balinese New Year, next week…”
When we first heard this, little did we know what it actually meant… Unlike Western New Year, this quiet Hindu festival would see us staying in our hotel for the entire 24 hours of New Year’s Day. No lights allowed outside the hotel room, only a small selection of food served, and no TV. Although it meant we lost one of our days on the island to explore, we’d luckily booked to stay at Ari Putri in Sanur. This boutique hotel had a lovely pool and small gym that we made good use of, so we couldn’t really complain too much about been confined (it was probably the best value hotel we’ve stayed in on our travels). Plus, the night before we got to watch locals carry their grotesque-looking statues down the road, as part of the traditional festivities.
On the days when we were allowed out of our hotel, we explored some of the island with Laura and Jason, who, to our great excitement, had come to see us for their two week holiday off work. Together we spent a lovely day on a tour of git git waterfall and the surrounding Northern areas of Bali, as well as a good day out in Ubud.
The git git tour included a visit to a coffee farm, the beautiful holy water temple (where new year celebrations and rituals were still in full swing), a view of two large lakes, a trip to natural hot springs, lunch by the black sands of the Northern beaches, and of course, the waterfall itself. Water was the theme of the day!
The waterfall was beautiful, set in the middle of a short forest walk. The hot springs were also really interesting. Other than one small other group, we were the only non locals there, and although they smelt of sulphur, they were very hot and nicely laid out with water pouring into the pools from stone dragon mouths. Just need to watch your step getting in so as not to fall on an unsuspecting local’s lap, like yours truly!
The coffee farm visit gave us a chance to try our freshest Kopi Luak yet, but I did feel a bit mean and sorry for the civets, after seeing the basic cages they were kept in. We did also get to try some beautiful teas though, including rose, hibiscus, mangosteen and many other colourful flavours.
I really enjoyed visiting Ubud, the supposed cultural town of Bali. We had fun in the monkey forest, wandering through the mossy trees and over the streams. Not to mention of course, taking lots of photos of the cheeky monkeys! I was a bit nervous, having read other visitors’ online horror stories. The monkeys did jump on people, but only on those holding food or water bottles, and there are local men selling bananas to feed them. We didn’t see anyone get bitten and they left us alone.
After fun in the forest we wandered through the main street of Ubud, stopping along the way for lunch, brownies, drinks, massages and facials, as well as popping into many of the boutique shops. Although the street does have lots of Western shops and cafes, the distinct Balinese architecture can be seen around the town, adding lovely charm. The mini thatched roof temple tops that can be seen all around the island, along with some beautiful beaches and lush green paddy fields, are what makes Bali a special place. Ubud would be a great place to hang around for a few days.
As we were staying in Sanur, we spent our evenings exploring the restaurants around the area. We had a lovely Italian meal followed by delicious ice cream at Massimo’s, and some good food at the small restaurants between our hotels, Ari Putri and Sanur Beach Hotel. The beach itself at Sanur wasn’t anything special, at least the bit near our hotels. The sand was quite dirty with lots of dogs hanging around, but it did have lots of colourful jukungs, the local fishing boats with bamboo floats on either side.
After 5 days in Sanur, we left Laura and Jason to climb Mount Rinjani, whilst they explored the quieter side of Gili T by horse cart and bicycle. We then all met up again 5 days later in Senggigi, Lombok, for 3 more nights. This time, we stayed at Kebun Villas at the top of town, whilst they stayed at Sudamala, up the road in Mangsit. Our hotels were both very nice and we spent the days by our 75 metre long pool. The beach in town again wasn’t particularly good, as it was small and mainly covered in boats. Further up, the beach at Sudamala was nicer, but there were lots of hawkers, the same as in town. The hotel there is in a great spot to enjoy a cocktail and watch the sunset though! In the evenings we had some lovely food in town at Square, Asmara, Bumbu and Papa Besar. And more importantly, we had a great time with the four of us hanging out together.
Saying goodbye to Laura and Jason, we went on our 4 day Kencana adventure to visit Komodo, before flying back to Bali to meet other visitors, Marcus and Hollie. This time we stayed on the edge of Legian and Kuta at Bliss Surfers hotel for 4 nights. Probably my least favourite hotel out of the ones we saw in Bali/Lombok, but it was still very nice compared to many of the other places we’d stayed. We enjoyed wandering around the many touristy shops and around Kuta square.
The beach here was also the best one we saw on Bali/Lombok, with a never ending wide stretch of clean sand. The sea was quite rough but it’s really popular with surfers. We hired boards on our first day and had a go. It was surprisingly tough, trying to hold onto the board as the waves bashed it around! There were several times when I was thrown around under water and worried the board would wack me on the head. Luckily it didn’t, but Chris took a bit of a hit at one point. We also quickly learnt why surfers are usually in long tops and shorts when the lads got rashes all over their chests from the boards!
We weren’t too successful on this first attempt at surfing but we booked a lesson for the following day. Unfortunately, poor Hollie got sunburn on her feet so badly we moved it to the last afternoon. I then got some sort of tummy bug on day 2, I think from creamy cocktails, which wiped me out for half of day 2 and all day 3, so I missed it. But the others all had a good time!
There were some nice restaurants and cocktail bars in the area, but the whole place is very built up with heavy traffic and hawkers again. I only ate out the first night because I was ill for the last 2 (other than 1 other night in Vientiane, this was the only time I was ill in our entire time in SE Asia!!) but there is lots to do in the area and lots of nightlife. If I went back to Bali there are still areas we didn’t explore and that I’d like to visit….Jimbaran and around Padang Bai. The best place we saw was definitely Ubud, and this is probably the only place I’d say shouldn’t be missed, and the nicest place to stay. Athough, it was worth doing the git git tour, too. Other than that, our highlights of Indonesia were Merapi, Rinjani and the Komodo trip. And lucky for us, for the rest of Bali / Lombok we were with friends and family which made those bits really special, too.
chrisandlaurentravel 