Bali with Angel: On donne tout!!!

My first night in Bali was quite eventful…I landed in Denpasar at around 11pm, and - obviously - my pick-up was not waiting for me at the airport… I was so mad, because Doro and I had had the same problem with Kubu Kauh Beach Inn back in December and I had made sure to follow up the reservation by email etc. this time!! Thanks to my previous experiences in Bali, I knew exactly where to go and how to negotiate the fare with the taxi driver, so it wasn’t too much of an issue. However, everybody was sleeping when I finally arrived at the homestay around 12.30pm, and they were not expecting my arrival – turns out the Australian guy who manages the bookings had not forwarded the information…The homestay was full for the night, I had to plead with the guy for 30 minutes until he finally agreed to lend me his bed, saying we would sort everything out in the morning if I agreed to wake up at 6am…Lovely!

My friend Angel arrived the following night – we had talked about travelling around Bali together on a daytrip to Deauville back in April 2012 with Doro… She had wanted to come with us for NYE but it hadn’t worked out back then because of her job… I was SO happy when she told me she was going to be able to make it this time round! I haven’t known Angel for too long, and it was our first holiday together, so it could have gone one way or the other…but we had the BEST time and got on extremely well! I’ve rarely had so many fits of laughter on holiday with someone, we were a great team :)

We spent Day 1 in Kuta enjoying the beach, pool, shops and massages (of course)!

We set off for Ubud on Day 2 – we stayed at The Unique Homestay, which is very central and quite close to the tourist information centre (practical if you want to book tours) – 250,000 IDR/night (including breakfast). We walked around the town and ended the day with a pretty scary visit of the Monkey Forest in the dark! The monkeys can get pretty aggressive so I suggest you don’t bring any food along…I saw two people getting bitten there.

We booked a driver we had met in Kuta for a “typical” Ubud tour on Day 3 - check out Made Artawan in my Facebook friends for cheap deals: Tegallalang Village rice paddies/plantation visit + coffee and tea tasting/Mt Batur volcano view/our first elephant ride/Goa Goja Temple (Elephant Cave).

We went rafting on Day 4 – I think that was probably one of the highlights of my trip. The views from the river were STUNNING and we laughed SO much the whole time, it was hilarious. Our rafting guide was an absolute joke, and we were paired up with two other lovely French girls – had such a good time. We drove to a tiny village called Sidemen to spend the night at Abian Ayu Villas – we were so glad to have found such an amazing place – we booked it literally last minute! We met a French guy called Benjamin and had a great chat by the pool with amazing Balinese food.

On Day 5 we visited the Besakih temple and the Tirtagangga Water Palace. We had loads of fun at Besakih - locals pretend to be “guardians of the temple” and ask for an additional entrance fee, they are extremely pushy and not very nice to tourists…We managed to get through the gates unnoticed and had a few “Mission Impossible” moments, quite a laugh I must say. We then headed off to Amed, a fishermen's village on the East Coast. Another last minute deal we found online: Bedulu Resort – we spent the afternoon in the lovely swimming pool which has a breathtaking view of the sea. The cabin we stayed in wasn’t that nice but that view was definitely worth it! We had dinner in the Rastha Rusthy bar down the road – made friends with the owner who gave us a private reggae concert, unforgettable!

Back to Kuta on Day 6 for our reunion with Doro – Finally all three of us together after ONE YEAR! We were pinching ourselves!!! We went straight to party at Sky Gardens - amazing nightclub, would definitely recommend it if you want a good night out in Kuta! We also went back to Bounty Club where we had spent NYE; it was such a weird feeling!

We spent Day 7 trying to sort out Angel’s money troubles. Be careful if you come to Bali with a Visa card, they don’t work in the ATMs there – I also had issues back in December, Doro had to lend me money because I was able to withdraw money only once. This time round I had my Commonwealth debit card so it was fine, but Angel was not so lucky…She tried getting cash out everywhere, but in vain – and when we checked her account, her card had been debited twice!!! So yeah, beware…It can ruin your holiday if you come unprepared!

On Day 8 we went to visit the famous Tanah Lot temple, followed by another beautiful temple called Bedugul. We then spent the night at Villa Lotos in Sanur (450,000 IDR/night for a huge villa) and met up in Linga Longa Bar with Wira (my Uni friend from Nottingham), Sarah (who I’d met in the plane on my way to Bali in December) and Brice (a secondary school friend from Maisons Laffitte). Turns out all three always hang out in this bar - Brice and Sarah are very good friends! There were also two other guys from Maisons-Laffitte on holiday visiting Brice. The world is so small!!!

On Day 9 Doro and Angel left to go to the Gili Islands – and I went back to Kuta to meet Kati at the airport :)