The details: Flight at 14.:30 means be in the airport at 10.30am for Emirates flight. This gave us plenty of time to get our bags checked in, go through security & relax with a drink. Emirates couldn't be nicer, food, drinks, more food n drinks, and more food n drinks 😂.... All up to date movies, podcasts, music etc, time flew by... literally. First flight to Dubai 6 & half hours, second flight 8 & half hours with a few hours to spare in Dubai airport. On arrival at Denpasar Airport, Bali be prepared to wait around an hour for checked in baggage and swollen legs after the flying 😅....
Arrival - Day one - Monday
It's a good idea to do your Bali visa before leaving home as it saves long queues in Bali airport and your tax certificate. There's also a customs form to fill out through a QR code on your phone (pending WiFi connection). Otherwise you can use airport computers & print.
Next SIM card, we met a lovely girl from Cork travelling alone and we all decided on a new SIM from Telkomsel. The staff do it all for you & cheap as chips. We then shared a taxi to Canggu (traffic was like Dublin of an evening) nearly 2 hours later we arrived at the lovely Aston hotel (not realising it's party central here 🙈😂). Got checked in, ready & out to experiment. Dinner was lovely in the hotel with a voucher towards dinner. We had a few drinks & watched the madness for a while (it lashed rain) before falling into bed wrecked.
Day 2: Tuesday - We're on the 5th floor by the infinity pool, restaurant & all facilities. Breakfast fantastic, loads of choice (photos to follow).Then up to the pool to soak up the sun. Massage available for €15 ( full body), amazing. Use revolut here, it's easier & less pricier than bank card charges. If you go shopping be prepared to bargain (taxi at airport also bargain with them). Download GRAB app when you arrive, so reasonable. You can take out cash but know your conversion.
Tonight we decided to try Finn's for entertainment & food, great choice, this place is hopping (not exactly what I came here for) but there ya go 🥰 it rained again - am I in Ireland 😂
Day 3: Wednesday - My poor friend dying with Bali Belly since 6am. I got her what she needed in the shop then headed surfing with our 'new friend'. So much fun & frightened the bejaysus outta myself when I fell off the board and hit my head off it (I'm okay though. Then had a coconut before heading back to the hotel via GRAB bike (.12cent ) & check on my friend. She's struggling, poor girl. I book myself a massage & get some more sunshine 🌞. By 6pm, beautiful sunset, it's a bit cloudy though & the rain mills down again. My friend is no better so we get reception to ring a doctor and he sorts her out with an IV drip & numerous medications 🙏
Finally we try to sleep but the noise on this busy street is too much, ear plugs in for a sleep meditation (get me to Ubud quick please),We dip in and out of sleep.
Day 4 Thursday - Got up & had breakfast & prepared for a day by the pool. Friend number 2 feeling a bit off also, but managing lunch. Friend number 1 coming around so we take a bike ride to see her, Loving the scooters, dirt cheap (download GRAB). Then I start to feel a bit off
(Oh god what's happening). I manage to eat lunch but feel the need to go back to hotel. The girls took a ride to Echo beach. I'm not feeling great & then, yes I've a touch of the Bali Belly too. I contact a doctor to bring an IV drip but he won't arrive til morning. Thankfully I'm not as bad as my friend was but sick during the night & the noise outside was a nightmare. Got through the night though.
Day 5 - Friday - doctor arrives & pumps me with vitamins & medication through IV (we need this in Ireland). My friend is well enough to go to the pool. I take some rest & water n feeling a little better. We go book a trip to Olluwatu for Saturday & another for Sunday to Nusa Penida feeling like we've missed so much already.
We asked to be moved to a quieter room & thankfully this was possible.
Took a walk to echo beach & had a little snack we could both manage. Unfortunately it was cloudy so sunset wasn't as breathtaking as we'd hoped (still beautiful though).
We walk back through the shops & eventually order a grab bike as it's getting dark (we're 15 mins walk from hotel). Back to hotel, shower & early night for me, thankfully it's a bit quieter in this room 💤
Day 6 - Saturday - Trip to Oluwatu (booked though hotel with driver for the day). He also became our tour guide & kept the cheeky monkeys away from us at The Temple. First stop was GWK Temple (tallest temple in Bali) beautiful here. Then onto a coffee plantation, followed by a stop at Bluefin Beach. Had dinner here (which repeated on me for hours after). It's so difficult to know what to eat when you've had a dodgy tummy. On then to our last destination (Oluwatu Temple). This was breathtaking, on the edge of a cliff at sunset. The biggest issue is preventing the monkeys from stealing your items (one guy's phone was taken, and a girl's flip flop - right from her foot lol). Then the Kirtan Dance - very entertaining and back to hotel to sleep, being picked up at 6am tomorrow for a full day of snorkelling & sight seeing.
Day 7 - Sunday - Trip to Nusa Penida. Picked up by our driver (Gede), he's amazing, doubles as a tour guide too (great English & knowledge of all the hot spots in Bali. Dropped to our pick up point and walk to the Port where we catch our 'Fastboat' (never been on one before), it's like a bus on a boat. Oh my god scary, the driver only hit the ocean in parts it went that fast...me nerves, thought I was going to die lol. We stop at the first snorkelling point and everyone quickly hops overboard while me and my friend are still contemplating getting in. Our minds were quickly made up when someone came back after a jelly fish fright (poor child reckons she got eight bites).... not going in there. Everyone came out a bit disappointed as the sea was too murky to see the Manta Ray fish, it was a little cloudy too. On to the next stop and we're still undecided while an American lady tried to coax us in (apparently this was much better, lots of fish to be seen but we held off) I know... boring but too nervous of getting bitten lol. Then on to the final stop and we finally get the courage to go overboard with the encouragement of the American woman (so worth it).
Back to drop the snorkeling gear and onto the next destination Kelingking Cliff. This is a drive up a cliff through tiny roads (not for the faint hearted), then walk the rest of the way. I'm so surprised at how unsafe it is here, no railings to stop you accidentally falling over the cliff 😢. Hadn't time to think when our new driver/photographer tells us to pose on a rock on the side of the cliff (help, do this quick before I change my mind). I'm still having the worst visions since I did this!! But amazing photos/video.
So lunch was had and we decided on a beach instead of visiting another two cliffs lol. We go to Crystal Beach, it's so beautiful here. Then back to the port for our journey back on the fast boat and worse than the journey there, we nearly lost our lives on the way back (scary these fast boats lol). Then the drive back to Canggu is long with traffic delays, almost used to the traffic at this stage.
Week two - Day 1 Monday - hit the road for Ubud with the wonderful Gede driver. He tells us all the knowledge of the local rice plantations etc along the way. When we hit Ubud we're instantly taken into a new vibe (can't believe how it effects you), you need to experience it to understand. We're thinking oh my god why did we waste a week in Canggu. As we get deeper into Ubud the serenity is so obvious (love it here already). Gede drops us at our hotel and we take photos of all three of us (almost crying, this man is a gift). He takes off and we check into the beautiful Grand Sehati Hotel. Then off to explore Ubud, we're both hungry so we look for somewhere inviting to eat. We come across the lovely Atman Cafe which we had passed along the drive into Ubud, people were sitting, people watching and it looked perfect. We choose a table near the street so we can watch the world go by while we take it all in. Both of us so relaxed we decide to have a little liquid lunch (sure we're on our holidays). Wine and pizza was the perfect choice, I think they mix their cm's and inches here. One pizza would have done both of us, but we eat our way through it and enjoy the wine and the chats and without a plan for today just go with the flow.
When we finally feel like moving we decide to take a walk and somehow ended up doing the Campuhan Ridge Walk, that certainly walked off the wine. It's a long but interesting walk and when we reached the top the sun was setting (a little bit cloudy, but still beautiful). It's like a little village at the top of the ridge with some lovely hotels with infinity pools. The rice fields are also beautiful to see. We make our way back to our hotel as darkness falls.
Comments