We were really excited to head to Bali, it was one of the places that you just see pictures of an expect it to be a paradise. Due to the timings of our trip we had a month to spend in Indonesia. We knew trying to cram in seeing too much in such a big collection of islands would just make us tired so instead we decided to take our time and just spend our month in Bali and its neighbouring islands. As it was the busy holiday, expensive season we decided to divide our time up into 4 separate weeks and get an air bnb for each one. This way we could save money by buying food from the supermarkets and cooking most meals in the kitchens to make it more within our tight budget.
We got in around 8pm to the airport and we were hungry!! There was only a couple of restaurants in the airport so we ended up having a burger at the Coffee House (139 000). The next hurdle on arriving in Bali was to get to our Air BnB in Seminyak. The taxi companies have a monopoly on the airport as they hate Grab, and also have a fixed price list dependent on what your destination is. With no other options we went to the kiosk and paid the money to go to Seminyak (200 000) where they then sorted a taxi for us. We got to our Air BnB room/small apartment at Yogasari 10.30pm, getting out the airport was a bit of a nightmare and then Seminyak is just a good 1hr away.
Yogasari was a small complex with several rooms/apartments off one outdoor corridor. They included a small private courtyard, bedroom area with small cooking space, with basic cookware and a bathroom. Included in the price though was breakfast each day and there was also a small swimming pool. It was done up nicely overall and the place was decorated with the traditional Balinese flower offerings each day, which always looked stunning wherever you went.
Our first day in Seminyak we just explored on foot. We had chosen to base ourselves in Seminyak for our first week as we had heard that it was relatively close to the central area and other places we wanted to explore but was much quieter than Kuta. Where we were staying was on the outer edge of Seminyak but we spent the first day exploring the local area, walking down the backstreets and actually finding some traditional Balinese eateries. These were made of a small shop fronts with a couple of tables/benches and a couple or family cooking us their 1-2 dishes with the main elements of these advertised in a counter at the front. As we made our way towards the centre/ beach area of Seminyak we stopped at one of these places and tried a traditional suckling pig dish (30 000 for a medium plate). People were friendly and were happy to serve us the option of either small, medium or large plate. This dish included sausage, meatball, skewers, pork, crackling some vegetables and a delicious spicy sauce. After a very filling and meat heavy dish we made our way down to see what the beach was like, expecting big things!
The beach was long and sandy, with it stretching all the way along to Kuta (the main tourist area) and up to Canggu (surfing beach). It was not as glorious as I was hoping with the sand looking a bit unclean and the sea having big waves not making it suitable for swimming. Due to the waves the water looked murky from it being stirred up too. We strolled along the beach, next to all the beach clubs and then made our way back into central Seminyak. We headed to Seminyak Square which was a very touristy, westernised area full of shopping malls, clothing shops, restaurants and coffee shops with a price tag to match. We wandered around for a while and tried to find a supermarket that didn’t exist before stumbling across coco supermarket. Due to it being in Seminyak the food in this supermarket was a bit more expensive but we grabbed some groceries that we could live on to make meals back at the air bnb. We managed to get a range of frozen veg, onions, noodles, soy sauce, chilli and oil to do a basic stir fry for 88 000. On returning to Yogasari we chilled out in the pool/ around it for a bit as the pool itself was very cold before cooking up a meal and having a chilled evening in our apartment.
As we were using Seminyak as a base for exploring the following morning we hired a scooter for 4 days so we could get our explore on. Travelling on the scooter through the traffic in the towns was crazy! The roads through the main area were crammed with cars, bikes and tourists. The rest of our Asian driving had been an experience but this was a whole new level, with us having to weave through traffic and even following traffic up onto the pavement to get through. Dave did amazingly though and adapted fully to this style of driving. Despite the traffic in the cities the main stretches of road were great giving fantastic views of rice fields, local villages and people. It’s definitely the only way to see the country properly. We made our way up to Tanah Lot temple (2000 to park, 60 000 entrance). This beautiful iconic temple stands tall in the sea, waves crashing against it. People are unable to enter the temple but can marvel at it from the cliffs and from underneath it when it is low tide. We explored the base of the temple during low tide, where there was one of the temple keepers who gave us holy water, blessed us by giving us a flower and placed small pebbles on our foreheads, which was quite unique. We escaped back to the cliffs as the sea was coming in quick and people watched for a bit. On the way back to Seminyak we made a detour to Canguu, a small, chilled surfer town. We had a spot of lunch at Vanna for some Nasi Goreng Ayam (30 000), mooched around the shops and had a coffee at Deus Machina. This is a famous restaurant/shop/brand in the area selling- clothing, custom surfboards, motorcycles and even having a barbers. Plus on a Tuesday they have a Tacos and Tattoos night. Canguu beach had a very chilled vibe, with cool bars and lots of surfers.
The following day we made our way into hectic Kuta to get some groceries from the larger Bintang supermarket and try find a Sanuk store, which disappointingly we didn’t exist despite it saying there were a couple in several malls that we scoured. Instead we walked along the beach and looked at the ridiculous amounts of souvenirs shops, bars and tour/transport shops. With headed back to Jalan Plawa for cheap local food, finding Gado Gado (10 000) this was a dish with cold rice squares, fried tofu, lettuce, boiled egg, prawn crackers smothered in satay sauce and sambaal, like a delicious Balinese Ploughmans. We went for an afternoon swim back at Yogasari then chilled out making dinner at our apartment.
We had a more adventurous next day as it was our day to explore all of the south. After breakfast we made our way towards Jimbarin beach on the way to Uluwatu. We had hoped to see the fish market but this wasn’t around by the time we got here. We saw some lovely resorts and a nice beach there though. We dodged the police traffic stops and parked up at Uluwatu at the southern western edge of the island (1000 park and 30000 entrance). Uluwatu is quite famous as a cliff side temple. The views from the cliffs over the sea were pretty however we found the actual temple quite disappointing, which was a shame due to it being quite a long drive. Instead we jumped back on our scooter and stopped at Nygang Nyang secret beach. There was a 2000 `”donation” and was definitely not that hidden. We parked up and explored the cliffside views of the sea. There was a long trek down to the beach and we walked a short way before deciding that it didn’t look worth the climb down and then back up again. Getting back on the road we found a small shop selling burritos (25 000) and got the bike fuelled up. We went to go to what was supposed to be another gorgeous, quiet beach- Pantai Pandawa however just before getting there we got into a very built up area with concrete gates. It turned out this is now a tourist trap with them charging 15000 to enter the area. So instead we swiftly turned around and continued on our exploration of the south- which had not been that successful so far. We headed to Nusa Dua area on the eastern corner of the island. This was an absolute maze of roads and resorts and it took us a long time to find where the peninsula actually was and somewhere to park. The beach here was stunning though when we found it on foot and the water was a gorgeous shade of blue. Whilst there we also saw the water blowhole, where the sea water blows up violently through the rocks. Nearby in the park on the peninsula were some remnant sculptures/balloons left from the festival of lights. When we were finished with our adventures we made our way back up to Seminyak. This time we decided to pay for the Mandara toll road (4500 for motorbikes) where we had our own lane and we were practically driving through the sea.
Due to the previous day being quite exhausting our last couple of days in Seminyak were very chilled hanging around our studio apartment looking into the next few places we were visiting, writing blogs, using the pool and going for a couple of walks around the town. We headed to the beach one evening to try to watch the sunset but it ended up being very cloudy. Instead we made our way to Fat Tony’s for burgers/hot dogs (35 000 each) before having a few beers. Our last full day in Seminyak we walked to the beach, along the length of the beach and into the square getting more donoughts and treating ourselves to a coffee at Ritual Coffee (30 000 each). We had dinner at Kuh Boo watching a lovely sunset despite it being near Yogasari in town. Prices there were reasonable- 8000 for ice teas and 25000 for great chicken curries. We returned there in the morning after checking out to have some lunch and try to order a Grab as they were banned near Yogasari. It was a bit of an ordeal with only 1 grab taxi about for going to Ubud and it messing us about a bit. We eventually managed to negotiate a deal with them (230 000) and they drove us up to Ubud for a week in this more countryside/artsy location.
Alex
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