Our experiences in the Gili Islands were just fabulous, but it was time to move on! We boarded the ferry boat off of Gili Trawangan heading for the well known Bali! The ferry ride (about 2.5 hours due to stops along the way), was super choppy! It was hard to enjoy the breathtaking scenery, due to fighting nausea. Granted, we were in the complete middle of the ocean, I suppose choppiness is to be expected.  The ferry itself was nice, as they had a movie playing and provided us water and clean restrooms. I did get sick at one point (TMI?). Advice- take some nausea medication prior to boarding this ferry- and perhaps don’t enjoy too many alcohol beverages the night before.

The ride seemed to last forever! We finally arrived on the island province of Bali where we were all led to large room. They told us our pre -arranged drivers would call our names out. About 100 people sat at different tables as we waited to be called. John had arranged this ferry + driver for us from Gili T a few days earlier. Once our name was called our driver led us to his van. He was very nice and gave us some tips of things to do in Ubud, our first stop! I had heard amazing things about Ubud, which is the more “country town” of Bali set in the mountains. The traffic was really slow getting there, and the driver explained this was a popular holiday time with many tourists. We finally arrived at our lodging , “Ketut’s Place”. John had booked it and was eager to surprise me! It was absolutely enchanting! One of the most majestic and beautiful places we have ever stayed! The layout was a Balinese temple property with many little cottages surrounding the family’s temple. Apparently, this is very common in Bali, and many families have their own temples.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don’t think pictures do it justice- the property was truly majestic!  Think “Eat, pray, love”. It was so incredibly tranquil! We had a delicious lunch and were greeted by the son of Ketut himself. He told us to be weary of one of the property dogs, as he was hit by a car and had PTSD, so may bite if pet. He gave us tips on things to see and do and even helped book us a tour and driver for the following day. Ketut then appeared near our cottage and invited us to a traditional Balinese fire show that night. He told us he would be starring in it and that we must come! After a rest and shower we headed up the hill to find the fire show. We arrived to signs showing what was not allowed – (this is not the actual sign but this is an example of a traditional Balinese temple rules sign)

However, with all these rules, they still served beer. With our cold beer in hand, we grabbed our front row seats. We immediately felt the presence of mosquitos so we doused ourselves in repellant. In SE Asia, it is really important to be cautious and guard against mosquitos, as malaria and encephalitis are prevalent. I took malaria pills on our trip to Myanmar and Laos, since we were spending some time in the jungle, but did not bring them on this trip. The fire show was really interesting and enjoyable! Apparently, all the performers are the local temple attendees, devoting their time to performing many times per week without pay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was a little scared the fire would hit us since we were sitting so close!!

 

After the show we walked a bit further up the hill and had a fabulous dinner of local Bali cuisine!

We got to bed early in preparation for our next day’s activities!

The next morning, after a lovely breakfast by the temple pool, we were picked up by our arranged driver who first took us to the popular waterfall in Ubud- Tegenungan.  The hike to the waterfall was so incredibly hot and we were definitely sweating!

 

 

 

 

 

 

After seeing some glorious waterfalls in Laos last year, and Hawaii earlier this year, this one was not as impressive- but still cool to see! We then headed to our next stop- a specialty coffee plantation Alas Harum where they make the speciality Kopi Luwak coffee. What is Kopi Luwak you ask? Why it is the most expensive coffee in the world. Why is this- you may ask— Kopi luwak or civet coffee, is coffee that includes part-digested coffee cherries eaten and defecated by the Asian palm civet.

The locals kept referring to the civet animals as “like cat- like kitty cat”….hmmm…they were awfully cute, but definitely not cats! We got to experience step by step the way the delicacy was made and then doing a tasting!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The views of the plantation were beautiful!

 

 

 

I really wanted to bring some coffee beans home, but it would be hard to carry and would definitely not fit in our travel backpacks, so we decided we would order some when we got home.

Our next stop was what Ubud is famous for- it’s fascinating rice paddy fields! We hiked all around them for about an hour. We were sweltering hot- but enjoyed the views!

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then went to the Ubud Monkey park. As we arrived a huge downpour rainstorm came in! We took cover under a tiki hut with about 10 other tourists. It rained and rained and rained. It was really coming down for awhile! This is not uncommon for Southeast Asia, and definitely not for a mountainous town like Ubud.

Once the rain stopped we were able to walk around and enjoy the wild monkeys! They were super friendly and everywhere!

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had another fabulous dinner at a fun restaurant that night in downtown Ubud!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next morning we had a driver waiting to take us to the beachside of Bali. The traffic again was really crazy! It would take us an hour to go just a couple of miles.  As we neared our destination we decided it be faster to just walk! The traffic was seriously insane!

 

 

 

Our Bali hotel was a little shady with check in. The guy handling the bags gave us a receipt with the wrong number of items listed. When we tried to correct him he seemed confused. They told us we would need to wait to get into our room , and that they would hold our bags. They were not very friendly and we felt uncomfortable leaving our stuff with them. Entry and exit from our hotel required us to walk through medal detectors. There have been some terrorist threats in the popular tourist destination. Just a few years earlier, a popular nightclub was even bombed.

While waiting for our room we checked out the cool pool area and then walked around the town and beach. This part of Bali definitely felt more touristy, with peddlers everywhere trying to sell things. The beach was ok- very crowded and trash in many areas. It definitely was not as lovely as the Gili beaches. We have learned from our travels that many of the super “touristy” hot spots you hear about (i.e. pinterest / travel sites)  are the least beautiful and most polluted unfortunately. We saw this in Phuket, Thailand as well.

We scoped out where we would celebrate NYE the next night, got an amazing foot massage and even bought some gorgeous local wall art for our condo!

 

 

 

The art store owner was able to remove our canvas art pieces and roll them into easy to transport tubes. We have had great luck finding spectacular artwork in Asia at really great prices! (Update: when we took our new Bali original artwork to a local frame shop in the US- the framer was amazed stating our pieces were worth way more than what we paid, and that we got a fabulous deal).

Arriving back at our hotel, we were anxious at first when they could not seem to find our bags. After some discussion with management they finally found them in a back room.

The next day was NYE! We started the day off with breakfast near the beach. then spent some time at the rooftop pool of our hotel.

That night we had an a wonderful seafood New Year’s dinner and then set out for a NYE party at a local restaurant . We had a great time and met some really cool people! There was live music, dancing and John (aka Conner), also got picked to be in some crazy contest on stage!

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a great night we decided to start the new year off with an adrenaline rush! John had  been eyeing this sling shot ride since we arrived in Bali. I am more of a scaredy cat and this was definitely scary looking! I knew he really wanted to do it, so after talking with the ride staff and learning it was under 2 minutes, I figured I could take one for the team!

 

 

 

Let’s just say- that was an adventure! My face says it all! Don’t think I would do it again, but bucket list check!

We had a blast Bali! I would definitely go back to Ubud in a heartbeat and would love to do some hiking and more exploring! The Bali beaches, peddlers and traffic I could do without, but wouldn’t change it all for anything! Next stop- back to Malaysia! This time to Penang!

New Year , New adventures for the Conners!

<3,

Kinz