[Blog] Bali Travel (Patreon)

Bali at long last! While the other two countries I've been to before, this was my first time being in Bali and I made quite a lot of preparations way in advance to make sure I'll have a pretty good memory of Bali once I've returned from my travels. But already as I was exiting the Denparsar Airport gates, I was greeted with heat and humidity I never encountered before! OMG Bali is hot haha. I could feel myself sweating just standing there looking for my ride. The air here felt quite fresh but with a tinge of smoky after taste to it if that makes sense. Or maybe that's due to all the taxi drivers who waited at the gates with a smoke in their mouth. 

Unlike Thailand and Malysia, there would be no train services to get to where I wanted. I soon learned that there isn't a lot of roads available for pedestrians in Bali full stop and instead you're only meant to get around by relying on taxi and gojek which is a ride service where you hire a motorcycle rider to take you to where you want, or you could also hire out a motorbike itself and ride it around Bali if you're confident. It's been a while since I've driven one so I decided to just take a taxi to my first lodging in Ubud known as the secluded mountain destination for artists and craftsmen. I almost passed out and slept because it was a very long drive from the airport to Ubud, on Google Maps it read 2 and half hours but due to the traffic it took an hour and half longer. 

What do you think? The architecture here looks pretty unique right? It might not be as eye catching as the temples in Thailand but I think there's some aesthetic beauty to the solid rock carvings and engravings done on the structure. When I asked the driver if this was a small temple, he said it might be, or it could also be the dwellings of someone very wealthy who built their homes to look as aesthetically beautiful like a small temple so it's sometimes harder to tell which is which unless you know the inhabitants. 

Welcome to Ubud art market streets. There were quite a lot of tourists walking up and down these streets looking for souvenieurs to take home. You'd come across clothes, swimwear, trinkets, charms, masks, hand woven bags and much more while browsing the shops. 

Unfortunately, nothing really stood out for me so I didn't purchase anything as most of the shops start to sell the same things if you keep walking. I think there was some bartering guide that tells you to start at 50% counter offer to whatever the street merchant offers you on first glance. 

I took a snap of a beautiful sunset as I started to look for a place to get some Balinese dinner. 

I eventually found myself entering inside one of the more popular Warung in the neighbourhood. Warung is like a small family owned business which could be eatery, café or small retail shops. This one looked a lot like a big family home which was renovated into a large outdoor restaurant. There were plenty of seating and I enjoyed the overall aesthetics. If there's one or two downside to this place, it was that there was so much mosquitoes flying around and the fact that the owners of the Warung were burning quite a lot of incense in the establishment. 

Other than that, the food was great! Even at first glance, you can tell it's probably a lot more greener and healthy for you. I don't know why but not only are they harder to find on the menu but salad costs quite a lot in Thailand and Malaysia, so I was really happy to find something like this. 

I also went to the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary which was a pretty long walk from my hotel in the centre of Ubud. I was quite thankful that it was in the morning when I started the journey down south on foot. 

Across the bridge would be a kingdom for monkeys! Apparently, this attraction used to be free before Covid but lately, they started to charge tourists for entrance fees. You'll often see similar complaints about how some attractions literally doubled in price compared to what they were a mere 2 months prior on Google reviews. I think this was one of them because I read it used to be cheaper last year. 

There were a lot of them running around, jumping at trees, jumping at each other, playing,  fighting and chilling out, or eating. They weren't as big as I thought they'd be. Even the bigger ones weren't any bigger than a basketball (or two). Occasionally you'll find a family like this one grooming each other while the young clings to its mother. 

Saw this big statue during the walk around the forest of monkeys and I took a snap of it due to how ferocious it looked. While some of temples found within the forest probably are built to modern standards, the original temple found on this site seems to go back to 700 years ago according to studies. 

Seeing these things makes me wonder what kind of tools did ancient Indonesians used to carve something like this and whether it was done by one craftsman or dozens.

My following days were spent between Jimbaran and Kuta where I pretty much relaxed at nice resorts next to the beautiful Bali beaches. I think these were my real R&R days where I didn't really travel or sightsee as much and just chilled either at a swimming pool or taking a walk to the nearest shopping malls. I didn't fully understand why people would spend idle days at a resort before, especially when they flew so far out to a foreign country and should be taking in as many sights as they can during the time they have available. But I can kind of see the appeal in resorts now after having experienced it for myself. 

At this one resort in Kuta, they offer a free breakfast menu where you get to choose what you would like for breakfast and the kitchen will prepare your selection of tea, entrée, main and serve it out to your table. I really enjoyed dragon fruit during my stay in Bali so I ordered Dragon fruit juice of the day and Dragon fruit smoothie bowl served in coconut bowl. 

Small fruit platters were mandatory and they were served right as you took a seat at a table in the dining halls. 

They also served free Balinese tea and traditional Balinese treats at around 4~5pm. 

From top to bottom, the first one was pasta sauce with cheese on top of a slice of bread, the middle one was like a sweet ginger nut sponge cake that melted in your mouth and the last one was a pink pudding that contained jackfruit. They let you take as many as you'd like. 

I briefly mentioned beautiful Bali beaches before. The beach in Jimbaran especially was overcrowded with fancy seafood restaurants like these where you can pay a premium to sit outside to enjoy your seafood while enjoying the Bali sunset. 

Extra premium for decorated seats like the one you see in the photo with rose petals on the ground drawing a heart. I would agree that the sunset would have been a beautiful sight to admire, just as I'd seen in some Instagram posts but... 

Plastic waste literally stretched across the sands as far as the eyes can see. I was shocked that none of these were being properly recycled and it seemed like the locals really didn't care about maintaining their beautiful beaches. It was actually very uncomfortable to walk through their beach trying to avoid the trash. This was a real shame to see and I hope the local government will start to take proper steps in maintaining their beaches in the future. 

Overall Bali was filled with lots of surprises for me as a first-time visitor. I enjoyed most if not all the attractions and places I visited but hope there will be more public transport in place next time I go because it felt very limited and the only way to get around from one place to next was through a taxi driver. I absolutely loved the Balinese cuisine and wish I could try more of it next time I visit!