bali - the trip of a lifetime
In July 2018 we took a trip to Bali on our way to Byron Bay, Australia for a friend’s wedding. I had done oodles of research about which parts of the country to try and cram into our week, so much so that our guidebook looked like it had been attacked by a pad of sticky notes! We settled on visiting: Nusa Lembongan, Candidasa and Ubud, and for us the trip couldn’t have been more perfect.
NUSA LEMBONGAN
A small, quiet island; perfect for sunbathing on beaches, drinking by your private pool or in your favourite bar and soaking up the luxury of the hotel. This was our favourite place in Bali.
Getting there
We landed in the airport after Ryan’s first ever long haul flight (he loved every minute, especially after discovering drinks were complimentary and he had his own private TV screen!) Having contacted our hotel beforehand, they arranged for us to be picked up by ‘Rocky Cruises’ at the airport and taken to the island of Nusa Lembongan. We sailed from Sanur to Nusa Lembongan for 500.000 IDR return (including airport pick up). The boat there is literally an experience in itself, you have to take your shoes off and wade into the sea to board the boat so wear flip flops or something easy to remove. It’s a half hour trip and the men literally carry your giant cases onboard on top of their heads a couple at a time! Now that’s weightlifting for you! Our hotel staff kindly met us on the beach and guided us to our hotel, which turned out to be only a couple of minutes walk away.
Where we stayed
We booked all of our accommodation through booking.com and spent four nights at the ‘Bersantai Villas’ (one of which was entirely unexpected when we were stranded on the island due to a freak storm!) As Bali is so cheap once you get there we decided to splurge on our hotels, spending around £400 for this one. We weren’t disappointed - we had a private pool shared between two villas and a view of the ocean… what more could you ask for? You can access a great PDF map here, which shows our hotel location (labelled as ‘Lembongan Island Beach Villas).
Things to do in Nusa Lembongan
Scuba diving. If we had been staying for a couple of days more this would have been on our itinerary. A walk along Jungut Batu beach reveals tonnes of drinking, dining, snorkelling and scuba diving places.
Snorkelling. We organised this through the hotel and it was Ryan’s first time and favourite part of the whole trip! Try to see the Mola Mola fish - they are GIANT and can only be seen at certain times of year. Sadly, we didn’t see any but your captain will know the best spots to visit and when the fish are around.
Hire a scooter or bike and explore the island. Safety obsessed Ryan wouldn’t let us hire a scooter, so we cycled our way around and spent the day at Mushroom bay. There are only a few roads covering the island so you can’t really get lost and you get some great views as you ride around.
Have some breakfast at ‘Ginger and Jamu’. It’s a plant heavy menu and is quite frankly a delicious start to the day eating your brekky on the beachfront looking out at the sea.
Fill that holiday belly with yummy traditional food and cold beers or cocktails in coconuts. We loved the bar beside our hotel, ‘The Deck’ and a hotel restaurant called ‘Tiger Lillies’ hidden in the Jungut Batu village.
Wander through Jungut Batu village which runs parallel to the beach, and soak up the atmosphere. The village is dotted with little temples and you can people watch the locals going about their day to day business. Sadly be prepared to see lots of cocks in cages as cock fighting is a favourite Balinese pastime.
We ran out of time, but I would have loved to see the island’s traditional seaweed farm on the other side of the island, and taken a boat trip through the Mangrove forest (both of which can be organised easily with a tour operator).
CANDIDASA
A perfectly placed base for day trips up and down the East coast of Bali. Hire a driver for the day and go explore.
Getting there
Our journey off Nusa Lembongan was fairly eventful as due to the freak weather (which later turned out to be associated with an earthquake), “the swell” was too high to sail on the day we should have departed. We ended up leaving the hotel at 5am the following day in darkness with a few other guests at the first window of opportunity. We were taken to the other side of the island where many more guests from the island were waiting to be bundled into boats. It was quite an adventure, we had to swap boats in the middle of the sea (no doubt looking like highly suspicious h'opping from one boat to another at daybreak). Finally we ended up on Nusa Penida where us (and hundreds of guests from the other islands) were crammed onto the loading dock of a ferry boat (along with motorbikes some cars and a number of cows) to be taken to the dock on the mainland at Padang Bai. We took it all in our stride.
If you are travelling from Nusa Lembongan to Candidasa, we’d advise you to get a boat to the much closer dock of Padang Bai (rather than returning to Sanur), and be aware that the moment you dock you will be bombarded by taxi drivers trying to get business. If you are more prepared than us, you might even contact your hotel in advance and they would probably come to meet and collect you at the port!
Where we stayed
Our time in Candidasa was cut short with two rather than three nights at the ‘Sagara hotel’. It was a beautiful hotel which we wished we could have enjoyed for longer! Although in a quiet area, it suited us as a perfect base for a number of day trips I had planned. There was an infinity pool overlooking the sea, a lovely restaurant and bar, and cost us around £325 to book for three nights.
Things to do around Candidasa
Local to our hotel was the traditional Bali Aga village ‘Tenganan’. It can be done in a morning, and your driver will likely drop you off at the coffee plantation just outside the gate for a half hour guided tour. We tasted a range of yummy teas and coffees (but having researched beforehand we turned down their famous Luwak coffee as we don’t agree with the practice - you can read more here). Be wary buying from their gift shop though, (we regretted it as the instant drinks didn’t taste nearly as nice when we got back home!) Provide a small donation at the gate of the Tenganan village, sign their visitor book and a local resident will provide you a tour. They explain the history and culture of the Bali Aga people and may even invite you into their home to buy their wares - we one hundred percent got roped in! (Story for another time!)
Eat at the restaurant - ‘Joglo’. It was walking distance from our hotel, and Ryan was able to drink the local spirit ‘Arak’. He tried it as both a shot and as part of a cocktail - but make sure you check with your server that it is safe to drink, as some Arak is made with methanol and is poisonous!
Snorkelling in Amed on the volcanic black sand beaches. Amed is an hours drive from Candidasa, on the North Eastern coast. Plonk yourself on a sun bed, and hire some snorkel equipment for the day. The great thing about snorkelling here is there is no need for a boat, you simply wade in from the beach to the coral reef. Our driver broke up the drive with us by stopping at:
Tirta Gangga Water Temple - buy fish food outside the gate and go feed the GIANT coy carp.
You also drive past the rice terraces and could make a trip to one if you had time, otherwise simply soak up the view on the drive like we did.
Spend a day on White Sand Beach (also known as ‘Pasir Putih beach’ or ‘Perasi beach’). This is supposed to be a stunning hidden beach near Candidasa and the one thing we didn’t get to do as our stay was one day shorter than expected.
UBUD
The cultural hub of Bali - I loved this hustly, bustly place.
Getting there
The taxi driver we had befriended in Candidasa, kindly drove us to Ubud (about an hour from Candidasa). As Ubud is situated in the middle of Bali this nicely broke up our journey back to the airport. Taxi journeys in Bali cost about £30+ to hire a driver for the day, which is a bargain as they often stop off on the way taking you to places you weren’t aware of beforehand, and might not have found on your own.
Where we stayed
We finished off our trip with one night at the most impressive hotel ‘Amora’, situated at the top of the Campuhan ridge (a beautiful 20 minute walk from the centre of Ubud). The hotel overlooks the jungle and rice terraces and each room has a private pool (it cost us around £150 for the night). We were so taken with our accomodation we struggled to bring ourselves to leave and explore the town! In the morning, the hotel offer a floating breakfast service, which you can eat in your private pool feeling like kings and queens!
Things to do in Ubud
Wander along the streets of the town - it has great nightlife, bars, restaurants and locals bustling around… plus SHOPPING!
Visit the sacred monkey forest sanctuary at the bottom of the high street. This was one of my favourite things to do in Ubud, the monkeys and their babies roam free around the temple ruins - just beware though that if you carry food in your backpack they will undoubtedly sniff it out and aggressively climb all over you! We had been walking for a while before we got to the monkey sanctuary in the heat of the day and during our visit Ryan started to feel dizzy. Despite his protestations that he was fine (I could tell he wasn’t), I convinced him to drink some water by informing him that just because he is a big, strong guy doesn’t mean he won’t still faint in front of all the tourists! With a rejuvenating glug of water, we quickly made our way to the nearest bar.
Walk along the Campuhan ridge. Without planning it intentionally, our hotel happened to be perched right at the start of the walk we had planned to do which was perfect as we could walk each day down to the town centre. There are stunning views as you wander down the ridge (take water as there isn’t anywhere to buy any along the route) and plenty of small art galleries and bars at the top of the ridge (perfect for sipping on cold beers overlooking the rice terraces if you’ve just come back up this way).
You can spend an evening watching a traditional Balinese dance in one of the temples in Bali or take a taxi to Petulu nearby to watch hundreds of white herons come in to roost in special trees dotted about the village. The villagers believe the herons began roosting there after the villagers were massacred, symbolising the dead souls who were lost that day. You need to arrive by around 5pm and don’t worry about going to the official viewing gallery (the view isn’t great) - and it’s much better to perch nearby one of the special trees.
Visit the nearby Tegenungan Waterfall - be prepared for LOTS of steps to climb!
