Our time in Bali would be split over two pockets of travel time. Our first would be three days in the Area of Kuta, where would party away the last few days we had with Zara before she left for back home. We would then later return to have some chill time in Ubud where we could find ourselves. So, let’s get started!
Kuta
17th to the 20th Of November 2019
By Katy
We arrived into Bali Airport and got a taxi to our hotel. It was a grand looking place with a fantastic reception. Though I always have a distinctive distrust of places that afford such grandeur to their front door. It reminds me of an episode of South Park where the gang become a music agency. Their main tagline for their reputation as a business is how good their fountain is.
However, I was to have my suspicions dismissed during our stay. Our check in was very well done and the room was okay, expect the aircon didn’t really work and we had construction work noises penetrate our room on the first night. We mentioned this and the next day the hotel (despite some very confusing conversations that didn’t really work due to a language barrier) kindly moved us and upgraded us. What a result, and one we really appreciated given how hot the rooms were at the night time.
Anyway, on our first night we explored the local streets. First thought that came into my mind: I have entered the Indonesian equivalent to Malia. Street bars aplenty with pumping music coming from each one (which leads to some horrid remixes between songs as music from each bar overlaps). Loads of people on the streets offering to sell anything anyone could want (from taxi rides to drugs and sex). First impression, seedy…
We found a nice place for dinner and enroute also located a place that looked like it did an amazing breakfast! Noted that down for our potential hangover the next day. We found some quiet off the main strip bar to have a few drinks in and to get into the mood. Several lychee and gin cocktails later we were ready to party!
We headed across the road from our hotel to some nameless bar that looked pretty lively. There was a wide mix of patrons inside, backpackers, young ‘lads and lasses’ holidayers, locals and a fair few prostitutes. We went straight to the bar and ordered ourselves some ridiculously strong, ridiculously large cocktails. This initially made us balk, as they were 100k Rupiah each (about £6) which was far more expensive than we were used to. But we pushed through, and unsurprisingly, the cocktails helped us forget our ever expanding budget.
The prostitutes around the bar were obviously going for the hard sell, whilst I was ordering the drinks and had my back turned for a second, one of them decided to set her sights on Martin! I was kind of impressed by her boldness but mostly a bit miffed that she thought I could be shrugged off so easily. We made our way to the dancefloor, to join the mix of people dancing the night away. Cocktails in hand, we realised how much we were in need of a good dance.
Once this bar started to quieten down, we headed next door to Paddy’s Pub (of course there was an Irish pub here). This bar was LIT. the oldschool (for us) tunes were bangining, the clientel was more our age, and the open air venue made dancing slightly less gross. Having said that, we did occasionally have to take a break from dancing like lunatics to go and stand in front on the massive air-conditioning unit by the bar. This machine was such a welcome relief from the stickiness of the night that we even decided to have a photoshoot with it. We lasted until about 5 minutes before closing time at Paddy’s. we headed back across the road to our hotel for a well earned rest.
After the mother of all hipster breakfasts, featuring smashed avocado, corn fritters, pancakes and smoothies (with oats to fill us up), we headed to the beach with every intention to spend the day doing absolutely nothing. We had escaped any potential hangovers, probably due to the sheer amount of sleep we had allowed ourselves the night before, but we still really wanted a lazy day. The beach in Kuta is beautiful but it is not necessarily relaxing.
Being the most tourist focussed location on Bali, the beach is just another opportunity for selling. We spent the first 30 minutes of our day fending off sellers of everything from drinks and surf-board rental to hats and crossbows (yes. That’s right. Fully functioning, full sized crossbows). We politely declined every offer, although some promised that they would come back later to see if we had changed our minds.
When we were finally left in peace we were able to enjoy the day. It was too hot to lay in the sun but it was perfect with a little shade to read a book, have a nap and spend lots of time playing around in the sea, the waves were huge! After a short doze, I awoke to Martin arguing with a seller who had taken us up on our distracted “yeah maybe laters”. She was smacking him with a handful of braided bracelets insisting that he buy one because she came back especially. Once we had finally convinced her there we definitely did not want to buy bracelets (although she honestly nearly got us), we decided to call it a day and wander back to the hotel, via a few market stalls of course.
Tonight was Zara’s last night so we decided to go for a big slap-up meal in the place down the road with excellent reviews. The meal was absolutely amazing, if not slightly ‘British cold weather’ themed, featuring mash and gravy. There was also a very cute dog in the restaurant but that’s probably not overly relevant right now…
We had treated ourselves to a big jug of cocktail in the restaurant and we were once again in the mood for dancing. With it being a Monday night, the strip was significantly more quiet than the previous evening but, when we had almost given up and were walking back to our hotel, we noticed that the massive club right next door was free entry this evening, This suited us perfectly. Even better, the whole place had air conditioning and it was still happy hour! Cocktails and shots in hand, we made our way to the dancefloor.
Our last day in Kuta was spent much like the day before. We went to the beach for some chilling, some playing around in the sea, and for Zara to sip on her final coconut of the holiday. We wandered back to the hotel so she could pack up and get ready to leave. After Zara was safely packed into a cab on her way to the airport, Martin and I grabbed a beer by the pool and decided that we would have an early night. Two nights of partying until the early hours had done us in and we were acutely aware of how quickly we were approaching 30. We had a quick Google search of what to do with our final week and a half in Indonesia, stuck on a film and were asleep by 10pm.
Ubud
27th of November to the 2nd of December 2019
By Martin
Our landing back into Bali was pretty uneventful this time. We decided that we would contact our hotel before getting on the plane to see if we could arrange a pickup. Thankfully they offered the service at the same price a taxi would have cost (around 350,000 IDR , of nearish 20 pounds). This made our hungover journey much easier as we didn’t have to have any faffing around.
We arrived in the late evening to Nara Ubud Cottages. A small hotel with four cottages joined together with little terraces to chill on and a nice water feature garden. Around the back was a pool that we could enjoy as well. However, the hangovers were turning into something different all together and what followed was several days of bed rest and taking things as easy as we could. The problem however, is that we both get itchy feet and suffer from cases of #FOMO so we still tried to get things done.
On our first day we headed into the main town part of Ubud. Google maps assured us it would be a short 18-minute walk to get into town so feeling achy we started our journey. We arrived at a dilemma. The directions told us to go down a path that had been cordoned off, and our other choices were walk a much longer route (adding 3 kilometres) or pay to go through the monkey sanctuary. We ummmmed for a while before decided the cordoned off, free route was probably the best decision, right?
In fact, we were glad we did take this route. The path took us on the outskirts of the sanctuary where many of the monkeys were having alone time from the humans walking on their turf. As a result, we walked around and with them following our shortcut. The only issue came at the very end when the path no longer existed, and much like our monkey friends, we had to tiptoe whilst clinging onto a fence to continue to the road.
We walked around town and took in the atmosphere.
Once we had started to feel a bit better we decided to get a moped for our stay. Having now gained enough visual appreciation of the madness that is road in Bali, we felt comfortable we could navigate the streets with ease. Luckily, everywhere near our hotel appeared to be a combination of a taxi rank/moped rental/travel agent. It didn’t take us long to get our bike and we were on our way.
Our fist sight to see would be the Palace in the centre of Ubud. Not a lot of it was open to the public but we were able to have a quick peek around and admire the structures, monuments and aura of the area.
We then drove all the way to the outskirts of town to see the Elephant Cave, an ancient Hindu temple carved into the rock of the island. The inside of the temple is very small and dark, but still has a strong air of spirituality. The entrance to the cave is beautifully carved and makes for some great photo ops. The rest of the grounds consist of the three rivers that come together, which incidentally was the reason this location was chosen for the temple. It’s really a beautiful place.
As you can see from our photos below, one of the requirements for entry was to wear a sarong to cover knees and ankles. This lead to some amusing exchanges with some of the stall owners located around the temple. As soon as we drove into the carpark we were flagged down by about 10 women all waving brightly coloured fabric in our faces. I had read about this before we arrived at the temple so I was prepared for the cries of “Sarong? You can’t enter the temple without a sarong! You have to buy one now!” We were so uninterested that one seller, clearly desperate for a sale managed to haggled herself down from 150k Rupiah for one to 50k for two… all without us saying a word.
One of the main reasons that people come to Ubud is for the yoga. This tiny town in the centre of Bali is like a Mecca for all things yogi. From myriad of vegan restaurants, to customised yoga clothes to chakra aligning soul to soul massages, the whole town is like a shaman dreamed up a town (and then capitalists commercialised it). Not wanting to miss out on this fantastic opportunity to get our flex on in some of the most beautiful yoga studios available in the world, we decided to check out The Yoga Barn. The list of potential classes was endless, with each class lasting 90 minutes and a new class starting every half hour.
We opted for the Morning Flow class. As we are both big fans of Vinyasa back home, but having not practiced for nearly 2 months, we thought this would be best suited to our current levels of fitness and was well aligned with our preferred style of yoga. The studio was absolutely stunning and the class was perfect, exactly what we had hoped it would be. I have never been in such a large class, but it didn’t feel overcrowded. In fact it was quite moving to have so many people working and flowing in unison.
That evening we jumped on the scooter and drove out to a little town called Petulu. Petulu was pretty unremarkable until the late 80’s when, supposedly out of nowhere, a colony of 20,000 herons decided to call it home. Now every day at dusk you can see thousands of these very noisy birds return to nest for the evening. You have to pay a small fee of 100k each (this can be haggled down to 100k per scooter if you can be bothered), to enter the town but once you are there it’s pretty cool. Don’t walk under any tress though…
Our next day activity was to get a downhill cycle tour of the surrounding area to the north of Ubud. The attraction here was the downhill element, as quite frankly, cycling in the head and humidity of central Bali had all the appeal of a slap across the chops.
At first it had felt like we had been forgotten about. We ordered an early breakfast to ensure that we would be ready for pick up to get to the top of the cycle route. However, when no one came to show an hour after we were expecting them we messaged the tour operator. The driver was only 15 minutes away, a rather delayed response had said. Still, we were happy that we were being picked up and settled down for a cup of Red Velvet hot drink at the nearby coffee shop.
We arrived at the start of the cycle and were greeted by a…second breakfast! What a great start to the day. Katy decided a second banana pancake was in order whilst I took the varied route of an omelette. A quick fly of the drone to capture the view was in order.
Sun block on, sun glasses polished and helmets tight, we started our journey. This was the beat cycle ever! I attempted to never peddle during this activity as I maintain that a downhill cycle should mean gravity is my bitch and does all my work for me. Our first stop is at a local town where our guide talks to us about the going on of daily life up here. Somewhat shocking to me was the local gambling pastime of cockfighting, which I knew about from films and fiction but never really thought about it happening for real. We were also told how the locals live and how things like school and work are organised.
Back on the saddle we continued down the slope. Next stop was a rice paddy where our guide introduced us to his friend. He then told us how the rice was grown and collected within the paddy. The local farming lady was very welcoming and allowed us to beat some rice. Katy went up first and with a ferocious downward swipe, knocked the many grains of rice stored in the plant into the collection bowl (as well as many rogue grains which flew about the show). I too gave it a go and it was good fun, but imagining this activity as a full time job in 30 degree plus heat with a humidity bordering 100% was pretty unpleasant.
We carried on our bikes again and were greeted by some uphill sections! The fudge?! I paid for the exclusive reasoning that I could be as damn lazy as I pleased and now I actually have to pedal?
Irrational anger aside, the hills were unbelievable steep. Having not got into gear in time I stumbled and ground to a rapid halt. Trying again I got about halfway up before I decided that walking would be the most sensible option here. I was not alone, as Katy and the other two members of our group also opted for the walk.
Our final stop on this tour was in a workshop, seeing locals carve detailed traditional Indonesian designs into local varieties of wood. It was great to see this craftsmanship up close and see how rapidly they could carve the designs. I don’t think I could come close to the level of dexterity and concentration required for this task and would end up with a rubbish piece of half lopped apart wood.
One final ride on the bikes and we had arrived our final destination. The HQ for the bike tour on the outskirts of Ubud. We had a lunch/dinner at the venue which was tasty, containing the usual treats of tempe and noodles/rice.
With not much else planned for the day, we read by the pool and had some chill time before deciding we would go and check out the town for some dinner and evening entertainment. Stumbling across a new looking Indian restaurant we thought we would give it a go. Offering classic curry dishes from home the staff were super friendly with free shots and conversation. The food was really good and of particular note would be the Naan, Cheese and Garlic I have never tasted such a good bread!
Perhaps doing things in a wrong order, we then progressed to the nearby LOL bar. Not full of laughs but instead a reggae night was on. We both sat at the bar and enjoyed a few beers listening to the music and getting into the groove. After the first half of the set for the evening had come to close, we decided to head back and get our packing done. Though best intentions always fall hard and packing became a “tomorrow morning problem” as we decided to watch a film instead.
Our final day in Bali, and Indonesia had arrived. With our flight to Australia scheduled for the late evening we still had time to complete some form of activity and we decided on completing a traditional balinese cooking class. This morning session took us to a local food market, where our guide talked us around all the local produce and intruded us to ingredients we would encounter in our lesson. Katy managed to find herself a puppy friend (who viciously attacked her with lots of love) in the market and got lost for a little while but we managed to get her attention back before we had to leave for the kitchen.
A short drive away we arrived to our class, 10 students strong. The pupils were a diverse crowd and all eager to get their chef hats on. We were told that the schedule would see us prepare and cook a buffet style lunch that we would enjoy once the class had come to an end. Yum yum!
We were given aprons and then demonstrated how to cook a variety of meals, including a tempe dish which had become a firm staple and favourite of both Katy and myself. Expect us to cook this once we get back home! Other dishes included
We sat down to enjoy our banquet of great tasting food. Everyone had brought their A game and lunch was fantastic. It was 14:00 so we decided to visit the market once more for some last-minute bartering of bargains, before heading to the hotel and relaxing poolside one more time, beer in hand. The same driver who picked us up arrived to take us back and so we made our way to the airport.
Our time in Indonesia was over, but it will certainly never be forgotten. I personally had next to no knowledge of anything Indonesian before heading to the country. As a result, the unexpectedness of the four weeks had left me mindblower at how diverse, friendly and beautiful the whole place is. Each island we visited had a different vibe which added a new take on things as we went along.
If you’re reading these blogs to gain some reference to planning a trip of your own, my advice would be to add Indonesia to your list, and at a minimum Bali!