Bali, Indonesia

 When I wrote the India vacation blogs, I was feeling that it was the most memorable occasion of 2023. However, here I have, yet another one ticked off our bucket list of south east Asia vacations.

This trip has so many firsts - An international holiday planned at such a short notice - just 10 days, A week long - 8D7N trip, A vacation covering 3 different hotels and more that I will reveal in the blog.

A pre-trip discussion - as is common in all my travelogues. A build-up. 

Bali seems to be the destination of 2023. We had at least a dozen friends and families who bombarded our Facebook feeds, WhatsApp statuses and Insta Reels with Bali photos and videos. "This ought to be done", so we thought. A chance almost came up in October when few friends from India went for 4 day trip. But it was too quick since our Sakaleshpur trip. Next up was our 13th wedding anniversary in November but that didn't work out for many avoidable reasons.. Oops! unavoidable reasons like school and college..

Nah.. we could have done Bali trip in November but I chose to splurge on anniversary gift in GOLD.

Next up is school holidays in December. No more excuses. Let's do it!!

Tickets - done. Airasia ki Jai.. airfares almost similar to what I would have gotten if I had booked 6 months in advance

Stay places - Tricky. Everybody suggests that Bali cannot be covered well by staying in one place. Maps would entice you with short distances but the reality is narrow roads and numerous hours on the road. So we decided to split into 3 stays. One in South Bali - Four Points Sheraton Ungasan for 3 nights to cover south Bali and Nusa Penida day tour. Second was in Ubud Village Hotel to cover North and East Bali for 2 nights. Lastly, we picked Swiss-Belhotel Tuban, Kuta to relax for 2 nights before our early morning flight on the 8th day.

Local tour itinerary - Toughest. Bali has so many things to do and places to see that you can spend 15-20 days or may be even a month. We had 2 days busted in travel - day of arrival and day of departure. So that gives us 6 days for local tour. As this was our first holiday this long, I decided to keep a spare day to relax. 

Did I tell you about scores of friends to Bali? Oh yes, I did. So getting contacts for tour operators, sample itinerary, must visit places, Indian restaurants and hotels was not difficult at all. Rather it was the nightmare. It exploded our options - permutations and combinations of what could be done, when and in what sequence. Finally I contacted a cab driver, Asep Purnomo (more on him later) of Garuda Bali Transport for an itinerary. Thanks to our dear friend Arjun for this contact. Asep turned out to be an excellent driver, guide, tour manager and language translator whom I would recommend to you, if you wish to go to Bali. Google "Garuda Bali Transport" and you can reach him.

Do you really want to know about our whole itinerary? 

I don't think so. That would be a short story rather than a blog. So let me give you a gist of it.

South Bali tour covered Garuda Wisnu Kencana Park, Uluwatu Temple, Melasti Beach and Kecak Dance performance. If you want to cover something else or running short on time, I would suggest you to skip Uluwatu Temple. Lots of people. Lot more monkeys. Temple that you can't enter and couple of photo opportunity on the cliff side. As it was day 1, we clicked many photos. But looking at the rest of the trip photos, Uluwatu is the least appealing. 

I would strongly recommend GWK Park and Kecak dance performance at Melasti beach. 

Day 2 was a trip to Nusa Penida island.  With all the hassles of morning traffic to Sanur Harbour, chaos at the boat jetty, scorching sun, narrow and bad roads in Penida, I would say it was still worth it. As it is going to turn out for rest of the days, you will realise that people come to Bali only for getting nice pictures that they could post on social media. 

Of course, you can enjoy the scenic beauty of the cliffs, crystal clear water, green and turquoise colored ocean, waves splashing on the rocks and white sand beaches. But you have to stay and go to each place one day at a time. Not for mortals like us.

Half of day 3 was spent going from South Kuta to Ubud due to traffic. Bali roads reminded me of India. Estimates on google maps need to be doubled to reach anywhere in Bali. So the only agenda item for the day was Bali Swing. Search online for more information. Grrr...

Ok fine. I will explain. After some smart guy realised that he can put tall swings by tying ropes on sky high coconut trees overlooking his paddy fields and after some city-bred tourists were thrilled by it, Bali swing became a destination of its own on every itinerary. If you don't do it, don't dare post your Bali pictures on social media as you will get loads of questions of why you missed it. Truth be told, for us from Kerala, it is nothing special. Nevertheless, there are around two dozen such swing places in Ubud, Tegalalang to be specific. Beware that the staff at these swings are hyper about clicking photos and poses and will fill up your device memory if you don't restrict them.

Here is a sample from 300 odd photos that were clicked in a span on 2 hours. Oh, you don't get so much time on the swing. Each swing is hardly 5 minutes. The rest is all waiting time.

Don't be disappointed by my review. I am not a swing person. I am sure you will be thrilled by it, if you are a swinger, like my daughter.

Day 4 was the real reason for my Bali trip. To see a volcano. First destination was to see Mount Batur in Kintamani area. As you can guess now, going to any tourist spot takes around 2 hours of drive. So we managed the monotony by stopping at Tirta Empul Temple (go there if you are Hindu temple lovers) and Coffee Plantation (go there even if you are not a coffee lover). Luwak Coffee (also known as Civet coffee around the world) is coffee bean extracted from poop of an animal and processed to make world's most expensive coffee. Coffee Plantation in Bali would advertise themselves as "Luwak Coffee" and "Free tasting". They will take you on a free guided tour around the plantation having coffee and different herbs. The staff will show you the animal, civet in a cage and the whole process of making Luwak coffee. In the end they will give you free tasting session of 7 different flavoured coffee and 7 different flavoured tea, EXCEPT... you guessed it right.. Except Luwak Coffee!

Ok. The real stuff. Mount Batur. A volcano that is not as active as its sibling, Mount Agung. Mount Batur can be seen up-close by doing a sunrise jeep tour or trek if you are fit and nocturnal. For an average tourist, Mount Batur viewpoint shows you this.

See the black soil formed from lava that has flown down the slopes less than 50 years ago. Another first for me. Seeing a volcano. Truly mesmerising. 

I would have loved to see Mount Agung the same way that has last erupted in the last decade. But nature had other plans. December being the wet season, Mount Agung was fully shrouded in clouds with only few sneak peeks of portions of it, if you are lucky. 

Our first trial was to see it from Great Besakih Temple which lies on the foothills of Mount Agung. When we reached there are after an hour drive from Kintamani, we found ourself fully engulfed by clouds. Without further ado, we skipped the temple and drove another 2 hours to Lempuyang temple. This is yet another social media influencer's dream. The photo in front of the Gateway to Heaven (the kind of gates that you would rather find everywhere in Bali) with Mount Agung in the background and reflection of all seen below. Here it is.

For us we had rain clouds providing us a perfect backdrop with Mount Agung nowhere in sight. And forget about the waiting time of 2 hours to get this photo. On top of it, the reflection is not really water. It's just a camera trick with a mirror held near the camera.

Who cares!!

The photo gets the most likes, comments and special mentions amongst all that you post online. 

At many times, during the waiting patiently, we got sight of Mount Agung in the background and envied the families who got the perfect shot before us.

Day 5 is another day of must visit photo places - Ulun Danu Beratan and Tanah Lot Temple. I am sure you are about to leave the blog. So I stop here. Find about it on online or ask Chat GPT as is popular these days. I must say this. If you go to Tanah Lot and you are vegetarian, you should try the customised vegetarian pizza at the Ocean View cafe.

Oh no no.. How can I finish the blog without mentioning another first time experience. A 3 hour traffic jam on a highway!! It was all over the news in Bali that night. The traffic pile up at the Ngurah Rai Airport on Friday night before the new year long weekend caused a 3 hour blockade on the highway that finishes near the airport. If we had chosen alternate route or walked the 1 km stretch and taken another taxi beyond, we would have missed "first time experience" of sitting in a 3 hour traffic jam. It was so exciting for Asep that he was laughing and posting videos on social media about it for almost 2 hours.

Phew! That was a long one. If you have reached here and thinking about striking Bali off your bucket list, let me know and we can talk details. There are numerous ways of exploring Bali customised the way you like it. I am pretty sure you will make lifelong memories from this place.