TripRoundUnder

Given it had recently been both of our birthdays, we thought we deserved a holiday within the holiday! We had looked at a bunch of experiences and places to stay within Northern Australia, but prices continued to be obscenely expensive. So, we decided to do the classic Aussie thing and book flights to Bali and become Bali Bogans!

We drove back to Darwin from Litchfield and were blessed to have Steve’s family friend, Becci living in town. She was kind enough to let us stay the few days leading up to the flight and keep the troopy at her house in return for keeping her greyhound Noobi company and cooking dinner. Great deal if you ask me!

Darwin continued to be swelteringly hot, but we looked at it as preparing for the humidity we were expecting in Bali.

We boarded our flight without any huge calamities, but were a little worried when greeted by a screaming baby a few seats behind us… Jamming headphones on our ears we managed to drown out the noise and even spotted a few cool islands out the window as heading out towards Asia.

It was Steve’s first time in Bali and the scenes outside the Denpasar airport were a little bit of a culture shock. Thousands of people jockeyed for best position on their scooters and weaved around the hotel car that picked us up.

We arrived at our Hotel in the coastal area of Sanur and given the reasonable price we had paid, it looked like a mansion! Steve was quickly learning that they liked to do everything bigger and more crazy in Bali, not caring how much space was available!

With an excited but also nervous Steve in toe, we immediately headed out to explore the area and the culture shock continued, with the sights, smells and sounds of Bali being something to behold. Something we did notice was that no matter the living situation of the locals, they were all smiling and happy to see us. Talking to our hotel driver, he explained that Covid had decimated the local economy and people were happy to see Australians back.

After stopping back at the hotel to catch our breath, we headed out to Naughty Nuri’s, a well known steakhouse across the road and had a great feed of ribs.

From here, we decided we were up for more adventure and went looking for ice-cream. With Lauren leading the way, we decided (with regrets) to walk along one of Sanur’s busiest roads to find some. We ended up succeeding in our mission, although the stress of dodging scooters, potholes and people may have taken a few years off our lives. Continuing the adventure, we ventured into a local supermarket and buy as much random local fruit that we could get our hands on. Really felt like risking Bali belly in hindsight as much as possible in hindsight.

Waking up the next morning, thankfully without Bali belly, we went out for the classic açai bowl breakfast and decided that we were going to be very satisfied with all of our food choices in this country!

We continued our food and cocktail journey into lunch and dinner where we headed down to the beach to one of Sanur’s many beach clubs/restaurants where we had an amazing seafood dinner!

The next day marked our last in Sanur and we headed to the beach for our “fast boat” over to Nusa Lembongan, a smaller island next to Bali itself. Finding the right boat and people was the first challenge as there were many boats and stalls all trying to sell you tickets for their boat. We eventually found the right one and they definitely mean fast boat with the amount of engines hanging off the back!

We had heard of a recent capsize of one of these boats, so the relatively calm seas eased our fears and also Lauren’s seasickness habit on the crossing over. We had heard a lot about this island and pulling into one of the main built up areas, we weren’t left disappointed with the view!

After following the very vague instructions given on arrival, we eventually found our Villa on the other side of the island. We leaned into the island lifestyle and immediately tucked into a coconut as the humidity continued to be a hot topic, if you pardon the pun.

Our villa was a perfect little getaway spot called Komodo Garden and after spending some time relaxing by the pool we headed out to explore!

By coincidence it also happened to be NRL Grandfinal Day and we found an awesome little bar to watch it at with a bunch of other Aussies. It was a little bit of a pity that it wasn’t a closer game, but you certainly couldn’t complain about the view!

After doing some research, we eventually found a small little cove at the bottom of a very steep hill and an awesome little outdoor Indian restaurant for dinner with another pituresque view.

After stopping for dessert on the way home, we fell into our bed very full, happy and satisfied.

The next day after spending some more time relaxing by the pool, we continued our food and exploring journey around the island and it was becoming evident that Lembongan was a place of many amazing views. Including this scene of a Bali volcano seen across the bay.

We ventured down to another local beach club/restaurant and had a lovely candlelight dinner on the beach watching the sun go down.

Our well deserved dessert on the way back to the villa marked a turning point for Lauren as she sampled a local pandan pancake and it changed her life. From this point on, we always look for pandan options and are rarely disappointed.

We had another great nights sleep and for our next days adventure to go and explore Ceningan Island attached to Lembongan by the famous yellow bridge. It was super cool although slightly pungent to see the seaweed farms littering this part of the island, with farmers employing techniques and technology that had been used for thousands of years.

We also checked out one of the famed surfing spots of Ceningan, Mahana Point where a cafe and cliff jumping spot is perched directly on the edge of the cliff overlooking the surfbreak. Don’t know if this would pass through council approval back home, but it makes a great spot. No chance in hell you’d get us to jump off the cliffs though!

We also checked out more of the stunning cliffs on the seaward side of the island encountering locals, both human and bovine.

It was our last night on Lembongan, so we made our way to the best sunset location we could find and in true Bali style watched the sun go down, cocktail in hand. After another amazing dinner, we went to bed, a little sad that we were leaving our little island paradise.

At the departure beach the next morning, we got a real taste of the less desirable side of Aussie tourists. This was in the form of a couple of kids going around the beach trying to kill all the crabs, unchecked by their likely boozed up parents. Steve was very close to losing his cool.

There were some ominous clouds building over Bali and on our boat ride back to the mainland, we were preparing ourselves to get a little wet! This turned out to be accurate and we rushed into a restaurant as fast as we could after disembarking as the heavens opened.

We managed to book a taxi to our next location, the popular area of Canngu on the opposite side of the island. We again got a taste of Bali traffic, with our driver working his hardest to avoid the scooters flying past on either side. Arriving unscathed, we ran into the problem of our hotel sending a message that they had been having internet troubles and needing payment in cash. A slight problem when we were on foot and didn’t have a close by ATM. After getting some info from a local we eventually located one and made our way to the hotel after a 3km wander through rain and crazy traffic. We were slightly annoyed when we found that there was an ATM across the road from the hotel!

We checked in and headed out for a nice romantic dinner at a local Italian restaurant.

It was here that Steve’s Bali holiday took a turn for the worst. Before dinner he was feeling a little off but didn’t take too much notice and we ordered our meals. He then began sweating profusely and feeling lightheaded before making a quick move to the bathroom, frantically hoping the person inside would hurry up! From this point and for the next 24-48 hours, he probably spent more time in the bathroom than not and was feeling very sorry for himself. To be fair to her, Lauren was an absolute saint during this time making sure he was cared for and had enough water and medication.

The next day was a write off spent mostly in bed for Steve, but being pushed by Steve, Lauren managed to get out and get her hair done and explore a little bit of Canngu.

Steve really needed to get his act together quickly though, as we had a bicycle tour through the Bali countryside booked the next day and we couldn’t miss that!

The day arrived and although he wasn’t 100%, more like 65%, we moved on and were picked up and taken up into the hills of Bali’s beautifully green interior. We had booked with a smaller local company and we were very glad as the owner was our guide and knew everything about the area.

Our first stop was a local coffee and fruit plantation and we were lucky enough to sample some of the local coffees and teas. We even tried the famous Luwak Coffee harvested from the droppings of possum like Civet. Sounds gross, but the coffee tasted alright!

We stopped a restaurant for morning tea and had food with a view, with one of Bali’s largest volcanoes dominating the horizon.

It was then the real test for Steve’s stomach as the riding portion of the tour commenced through the local villages and rice fields. It was amazing to see this side of Bali, away from the flashy tourist spots and huge hotels. Families lived in compounds and we were lucky enough to be invited inside a few of them and meet the lovely people living there.

Our tour continued and we went through townships of wood carvers creating beautiful sculptures for the markets and shops in the busy coastal areas.

The landscape was stunning and it was nice to be out of the suffocating crowds of Canggu and cruising through rice-fields and small country lanes.

The tour finished off the tour at the guides home compound and the rest of the family had prepared lunch for us. Bali is full of lovely people and these were definitely some of them!

We spent the next day relaxing at the hotel and although Steve was getting a little better, I think he needed the rest!

As it was our last night in Bali, we did manage to head out and continue our culinary expedition at one of Canggu’s many restaurants. We even found room for our classic ice-cream dessert stop off on the way home! No matter how bad Steve’s belly is, he will always have time for good ice-cream!

The next morning came and it was time to say goodbye to Bali. It had been an awesome experience, sad belly aside and we were a little sad to leave. We will definitely be back to explore as we had barely scratched the surface of what Bali has to offer!