Let the holiday begin!

Paris - Taipei: 13 hours

3-hour stopover in Taipei

Taipei - Denpasar: 5 hours

Met a lovely French girl on the second flight - she quit her job in Tours earlier this year to come and live in Bali, and now works for a travel agency in Sanur. She's 26 years old, has done LEA + Tourism studies, spent one year in Alicante and then taught 5-year old kids in Hungary the year after that...Yeah, freaky how it reminds you of someone?! Anyway, I spoke to her all the way to Bali, and didn't get a wink of sleep! Really interesting conversation though, so it was definitely worth it :)

I then had to wait 3 hours for Doro to arrive from Cambodia, plus an extra hour and a half for her to actually manage to get out of the airport since there was a power cut and all the immigration counters were down...Typical! I had been awake for over 24 hours by then, so you can imagine the state I was in! It was great to finally see Doro after 6 months though, just like we'd never been apart really!

Then came the hunt for a taxi - we had organized an airport pick-up because it was super cheap and the guy from the hotel had warned me that taxis usually struggle to find the actual place (Kuta/Legian is a real maze!!) Obviously, no-one turned up so we had to negociate with people to have them phone the hotel with their Indonesian mobiles, but nobody was picking up...We finally decided to take a taxi and it took us over an hour to get there, the traffic was insane and it turned out that the address and phone number indicated on the official booking confirmation was completely wrong! The hotel manager, an Australian guy, was super apologetic about everything and told us we could stay the night for free and check out later the next day hehe :)

Really cool hotel btw: 

Kubu Kauh Beach Inn 

Lebak Bene, Legian (close to the Pullman Hotel)

300,000 IDR/ night for 2 (with AC)

The next day, we toured Kuta Beach and its surroundings, and then decided to head off to Jimbaran - we first negociated with a minibus ("bemo") who changed his mind after 15 minutes and dropped us off in the middle of traffic next to Denpasar airport - we then managed to hail a taxi and nearly got run over several times in the process, but finally reached our destination :)

Villa Puri Royan

250,000 IDR/night (no AC)

We went to Jimbaran Beach to watch the sunset and have a candle-lit dinner with our feet in the sand...It was paradise until it started pouring with rain and the parasol fell on top of Doro and broke in half right on our table!! Little note about the weather during this season: lots of sunshine in the morning, starts clouding over in the middle of the afternoon and pours with rain for an hour or two in the evening. I’d say it goes up to 35 degrees during the day. It is HOT!

We headed to Thomas Homestay (recommended in Lonely Planet) the next  afternoon.

250,000 IDR/night (with AC) 

The hostel is basically located high up on the top of a cliff and the rooms give straight on a breathtaking view of the ocean - there's a little sink and mirror on the terrasse outside the room so you're basically waking up facing the ocean, it's incredible...We went for a walk on the beach below and both fell over on the slippery rocks, that was quite painful...got a few bruises and scratches to prove it ;) In the evening, we rented a scooter from the hostel and drove to the Uluwatu temple to watch a traditional Balinese ceremony at sunset and see the monkeys there...The scooter drive was fun - wouldn't do it in Kuta but the rural roads aren't as crowded so it's easier...Encountered a few cows in the middle of the dirt road though :)

The next morning we went to Padang Padang Beach to enjoy a bit of eye-candy :) it's a beautiful beach, very popular with surfers, but I wouldn't recommend it for people wanting to go for a swim - the water is disgusting there...We just missed a traditional ceremony on the beach, but hopefully we'll see some more up North. We then took a taxi back to Kuta and managed to get into a posh hotel in Legian and enjoyed the pool there for the rest of the afternoon...Then went for a manicure to get ready for NYE!!

Gangnam style dans la piscine!

 

NYE was absolutely insane!!! We started the night on the beach and walked all the way up to Seminyak - fireworks and beach parties everywhere! We then took a motorbike back to Legian (took us quite a while because of the traffic but it was a lot of fun to discover Kuta by night :)). We went to several clubs, including Bounty which a lot of people had recommended - you're basically dancing on a pirate ship! Met a bunch of Australian guys there and partied till 5.30am - best NYE EVER!!!

Importing the T for Tune in Australia and New Zealand ;)

 

Got a full body massage this afternoon and we're now recovering in a bar by the beach...HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!! Pretty good start our end ;)

Wishing you all the best for 2013 :) 

Love,

Laura xxx