Bali and the Gili Islands

I'd enjoyed KL and Java and now it's Bali's turn to draw me in. When I think of Bali I think of blissful beaches and lounging around. Normally I like to be on the go at all times. I wasn't sure Bali was going to be for me. However that was then, now I have the time to lounge around and relax I may take to the beach life easier than I thought.

 

On my to do list was snorkelling, I'm not sure how I would take to this, I've never opened my eyes under water even wearing goggles, also I'm not the greatest of swimmers.  All did not end too well as you will find out at the bottom of this blog!

 

One of many Bintang beers

The first couple of days I stopped in Seminyak famed for glorious beaches and bars.  During my two days I spent here I never saw the beach or the sea! The simple reason is that I was meeting 2 Barmy Army Legends to watch the cricket in a bar over many beers and the odd Jagerbomb to celebrate milestones.  It was great to speak with familiar likeminded people for a couple of days.  I took a holiday from my travelling and for two days it was like been on a cricket tour! 

 

Up until this point I had meticulously written down every single expenditure and had a full reconciliation of what I had spent on accommodation, transport, food and drink etc.  These two days my stats are a little hazy due to excess Bintang consumption, but I got it back on track.

 

I wasn't overly fussed to have missed out on the beach life as I was aware I would return prior to catching my flight, by which time I would have none of the barmy army to 'encourage' me to stay in a bar all day.

 

Using the excellent Uber that has been introduced to parts of Indonesia I travelled by taxi up to Ubud for some culture and recover from a couple of heavy days.  The 1.5 hour taxi was less than £6 for a door to door service and worked out cheaper than the tourist bus.

 

My £9.50 a night hotel in Ubud was about 3-4km from the centre up a slight incline.  It had a glorious infinity pool, which was occupied by 8 foreign exchange girls from South America, nice.  One afternoon I was in the infinity pool watching the sunset through the coconut trees, thinking it was Monday morning back home, and thought this is more like it.

Hotel pool (minus the South American girls)

I didn't do much in Ubud, visited a couple of temples but the highlight was the Monkey Forest.  Basically a jungle just near the centre of town which housed thousands of monkeys.  I'm not normally a fan of monkeys but these ones seemed to be used to tourists.  Some tourists were quite clueless in picking up baby monkeys much to the anger of the mothers.  I had a great time watching them play and get aggressive with overly enthusiastic tourists. The walk back to the hotel each day was eventful as you would never know which temple a dog would belt out of and start barking like crazy at you, it didn't help it was pitch black after dark also.

My favourite Monkey.. 

From Ubud I hit the coast at Padangbay wandering to some picture postcard beaches, then caught the speed boat to the Gili Islands.  The Gilis are 3 small islands ringed with white sand.  I watched some beautiful sunsets into the ocean (one of which with a German girl I had met on the boat), had freshly caught fish for dinner on the beach with waves practically tickling the table legs.  My choice of drink moved from the decent beer that is Bintang to a whole variety of cocktails.  The Gili Islands were more expensive than Bali and a bit of a tourist trap.

 

Gili Air

Mojito at Sunset

Beenbags on the beach at sunset, got to be done

The sunsets one final time over Lombok from Gili Air

Finally, my snorkelling trip didn't quite go to plan, I booked a day trip on a glass bottom boat which took you to 4 different snorkelling locations.  This was my first time, and in doing so in the middle of the ocean was quite literally diving off the top board.  Thankfully someone in the group requested a life jacket, and I followed suit, something I was so pleased about.  The first couple of minutes were brilliant, a whole new world opened up in front of my eyes, technicolor fish and a coral seabed.  I was loving it until my snorkel filled with water I started to panic, flapping about and taking in more and more salty seawater.  I was quite distressed, I swam to a different boat and clung on whilst I got my composure,  I made my way back to our boat got in and the snorkelling trip from then on turned into a glass bottom boat trip. 

They say when travelling you should try new experiences, which I did, I may do this again, but next time walking out from the beach where I can put my feet on the ground if I don't like it.  An Aussie women whose 6 year son was also finding it difficult was extremely nice to me.  At dive spot number 3 I was determined to go back in but like a bungy jumper teetering on the edge, I was on the side of the boat and fear prevented me from jumping.  From the safety of the boat I got to see 2 giant sea turtles with hoards of snorkelers from my group frantically pursuing them.

My snorkelling trip which turned into a glass-bottom boat trip