Tag: Bali

11 April 2018 – Ubud, Bali, Indonesia – Day 3 – Monkey wins!

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Today is our last day in Ubud which is a shame as it has been a nice relaxing couple of days and we really like this hotel with it’s quiet pool.  We didn’t rush as we were going to go to the Monkey Forest today which was just up the road from our hotel a mile or so.  Once again we had a nice breakfast at the resort. I went with the English breakfast and Doug opted for pancakes this morning.  Smallest pancakes I have ever seen but Doug said they were good and that is what counts.  Since we still got fruit and a bread basket there was definitely enough food.

After breakfast I thought I would just confirm our travel arrangements for tomorrow for the Fast Ferry to Gili Trawangan.  It is a good thing that I did as it turned out we no longer had our reservation with the company that we thought we were booked with.  There are many companies that run ferries and lots do not have good reviews and have sketchy safety records.  Turned out we were now booked with one of these companies that had really poor reviews.  Some reviewers commented that they would have given the company a minus number if they could as the service was that bad.  After a lot of back and forth discussing it with Doug (he was still in the hotel room) and the lady at the desk calling companies we managed to get a reservation with Blue Water Express.  She was hesitant to suggest Blue Water Express as it is really expensive.  I told her we weren’t concerned about the price, we were concerned about safety and our lives.  I think it is the most expensive company there, IDR Rp 3,160,000 = Cdn $280.00 for the two of us return, but has a fabulous safety record and reviews.  They only had space available on the early morning ferry which meant pickup would be approximately 6:00 a.m.  We were fine with that. Booked our return trip at the same time as they seem to book up quickly. I have to say this was a very stressful 45 minutes. While she was on the phone trying to book our ferry another man came down to the desk who also wanted to book a ferry.  Bet he was happy when I was done.  Hope his booking went faster.
It was now time to head out to go to the Mandala Suci Wenara Wana (Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary).  The road was not the best we have seen, but we definitely saw lots of beautiful flowers on the way.  Lots of construction going on here, with what appears to be many more accommodations being built.

We knew we must be getting close when we saw this big guy in the road.  Have to say he made me a little nervous as he started to follow us down the road.We arrived at the entrance with no more big guys following us.  Thank goodness! As soon as you entered there were signs with guidelines on to follow.  It always amazes me as to how many people can NOT follow rules. Saw so many people touching the monkeys.  Even saw a few teasing them with water and food. If you get a serious bite it could mean a series of rabie shots for you.

Just after we entered this little guy came over to us and the battle was on. The monkey won and stole Doug’s bottle of water.  It only took a few seconds and he had it.  We got one of the Monkey Rangers to get it back for us, as it had not been opened yet, and we were going to need water on this yet another hot and humid day. Doug ended up with a small bite from the monkey but we had our first aid kit with us so cleaned it up and put some Polysporin on it. Just as we finished we saw another guy with quite a scratch on his arm so we gave him an antiseptic wipe for him to clean up with.
There were so many monkeys that I could have spent a lot more time there just watching them and their antics. They can be so funny and they are so smart.This guy really wanted a drink of water but couldn’t quite get a grip on the tap. He certainly tried though. We do have video of some monkeys playing with water spouts spraying water up. It was hilarious to watch them blocking the water.

I have a feeling that whoever left this bag of cement out was going to be in trouble. Mr Monkey was having a great time trying to empty it.

As we got closer to the exit we came across the Monkey Cemetery.

Our time at the Monkey Forest had come to an end. Before we left we came across this guy. I could have gone around again but……

Nope Doug didn’t want to, so we headed back to hotel where we spent a couple of hours in and around pool relaxing and soaking up this beautiful tranquil place.
After resting a bit we headed out for dinner thinking we would choose one of the restaurants that we had seen during the past two days that looked good.   But nope, we didn’t and found UNO Ristorante Italiano.  Menu looked good and prices were reasonable for Indonesia. We ordered a Calabrese pizza as it was the closest that they had to a pepperoni pizza. Calabrese:  tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, spicy salami, onion, roasted red paprika, black olives, fresh chilli and basil.  It sounded delicious but didn’t quite live up to my expectations.  For some reason I thought it would be spicy but it definitely needed more heat to fall into the spicy category.

I ordered a Cosmopolitan and boy was it strong.  Doug had one of his favorite drinks…..Bintang!
You would think that it was Doug who had the strong drink, or just too much monkeying around today! LOL

Back to the hotel we headed to pack up for tomorrow as we were on the move again.  Tomorrow was going to be a VERY early morning for us.  As the sun went down we headed outside to take some pictures of our hotel at night.  The pictures do not do the place justice and it is all lit up and just beautiful at night.  I think I was too impatient as many of my pictures turned out blurry. Guess I will just have to come back some day to take more night time pictures.  We would definitely recommend this place, Bucu View Bungalows, to stay.

10 April 2018 – Ubud, Bali, Indonesia – Day 2 – YES!!!

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We had a working bank card again!!! Paden and our bank branch had pulled through for us. What a relief. I am sure it was the guy at the Flower Dome in Singapore that swiped my card instead of tapping it, that caused the issue and triggered fraud!

We had a great breakfast this morning at the resort, overlooking the pool. The breads and pastries came in a woven basket. Really nice.

It was just so relaxing sitting here enjoying a leisurely breakfast.

Paden had told us about a path they had taken through some rice fields and how beautiful it was. We decided this is what we would do today and headed out.

We came across a temple and decided we would tour that first.

Doug posing with his new girlfriend/girlfriends.

Temple done, we headed off in search of this path Paden told us about. Part of the movie Eat, Love, Pray was filmed in Ubud, Indonesia. It is absolutely breathtaking almost everywhere you look.

Tried my hand at another ‘trick’ photo as they had these mirrors on the sharp corners of the narrow road. It may or may not have taken me a few shots to get us.

We found a path, but had no idea if this was the correct one or not, since this Private Property No Tresspassing sign was there. We went ahead anyways.

If it wasn’t the correct path, it sure was an amazing substitute for our day.

There were little cafes and shops scattered around. Seems like yoga is very popular here.

Even though we did see some rice fields, I am pretty sure now that we didn’t go far enough to see the terraces of rice fields that people talk about. We thought we had gone so far and decided to turn back. The return trip seemed so short and we were wishing we had gone a lot further.

As we were headed back we heard some quacking going on in the rice field. We thought Ted and Susan had followed us over here. Ted and Susan are a pair of ducks that have been coming to our pool for the last 8 – 10 summers. They don’t have their nest in our backyard, but come for their spa days and hang out. Swim, sleep and eat the bird seed and cracked corn. They even get their own food and water bowls placed in the shade for them. LARGE ones. We use large plant saucers for them.

At first we saw one duck, then two ducks.

Then three ducks and four ducks.

Then five, six and seven ducks. Stopped counting and moved along at seven. We found it hilarious.

We explored the town a little a grabbed a couple of smoothies. That walk took a lot out of us. Did I mention it was HOT & HUMID?

We turned up a side street and came across a little Mexican restaurant. That was it. I wasn’t going any further. Margarita time! After all it was 2:30 pm by now. It was hard to get a good picture of the place as the sun was coming right at me. The place was small and getting busy.

Food and drinks were good and really hit the spot!

So my tostados were really good, but I am still not sure how you are supposed to eat them, since they are on a crunchy shell and can’t be folded. I managed somehow though.

Total was IDR Rp 395,000 = Cdn $34.00 Not cheap by SE Asia standards, but not expensive by Canadian standards. Indonesia is definitely more expensive than Thailand and Cambodia are.

Time to head back to our room. Those margaritas were GOOD! Saw some new construction on our way back. They use bamboo for supports. Actually they use bamboo for everything. It is really strong. Saw a lot of bamboo being used in Vietnam also, when we were there in 2016/17.

Not sure if you can tell from the picture or not, but these leaves were humungous.

We were back at the resort and in our pjs by 6:30 pm. We are just worn out. Often when we get back to our rooms early, the evening would be spent researching and booking our next leg or two of our trip. It was unbelievable how stressful this could be. Finding someplace that met our requirements, as in NO BAMBOO walls, yet was in a good location and affordable, since we did have a sort of budget for our 3 month vacation.

We had already cut out a few places that we had planned to visit and were now cutting out more. We we were just too tired of moving around every few days. This time around we cut out Nusa Lembongan, Lombok and unfortunately Komodo Island. Komodo Island was just going to be too expensive last minute. Most places were booked up and it would have ended up costing us between $1500.00 – $2000.00 for one or two nights for airfare and hotel. Next time!

9 April 2018 – Travel Day – Kuta to Ubud, Bali, Indonesia – Day 1

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We were moving on today. We had booked a private van to take us from Kuta to Ubud and he was to arrive around noon. It was a great deal for IDR Rp 150,000 = Cdn $13.25

We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and then wandered around the grounds taking pictures for a while. This was our balcony where we hung laundry and actually did relax a couple of times.

Our view

If you look really hard you can see the ocean.

We checked out, paid our bill and waited for our ride. Still owed quite a bit, even though we had purchased their upsell offer. Pay IDR Rp 1,000,000 (Cdn $88.50) and get IDR Rp 1,250,000 (Cdn $110.50) credit. We should have bought a few of those upsell offers! Mind you, we had been here for 5 nights and had eaten all our dinners here.

Couldn’t leave without checking out the public washrooms, now could we?

It was a nice drive and I tried to take a few pictures along the way. The closer we got to Ubud, the hillier and curvier the roads got. Some of the sculptures that we saw in stores along with road looked to be amazing. Can only imagine what they would cost to ship home.

We turned off the main road and proceeded along a very hilly, rough ‘road’. We came to where we thought the road to our hotel was, but the driver was not going to risk driving up it. It was narrow, steep and curvy. We couldn’t tell for sure if our accommodations were even on it. We unloaded and proceeded to walk up the ‘road’. For every down hill there seemed to be an up hill also. 100 M sure can be far at times. We had made good time and had arrived in Ubud by 1:30. We have to laugh now as it is approximately 26 km (16 miles), but seemed much further when driving over here. Can you imagine taking 1 1/2 hours to go 26 km back home? And thinking you had made good time!!

We were welcomed with drinks and got all checked in. They sure make the room keys large enough. Don’t want you loosing them. The room was quite large and really nice. There was a welcome letter and flowers laying around that instantly kicked my allergies into high gear. Thankfully the flowers were gone the next day.

We decided to explore a little and found the restaurant. What they serve Bintang? We figured we deserved a rest and an adult beverage. After all it was really HOT here.

Couldn’t go wrong with the price of a large Bintang here. With tax and tip it was IDR Rp 35,200 = Cdn $3.10

We were rested and hydrated now, so decided it was time to head into town. Yup, that meant we had to walk down and up the hills again. At least this time, we knew our hotel was actually here. We walked by rice fields that lined our little road.

We got to town and stumbled upon a barber shop. Doug had been wanting to get a haircut for a while now. He was going to chance it. Really, how can you mess up a man’s haircut? There was an Aussie guy in the seat next to Doug that had the most beautiful long blond curly locks. I really wanted to take a picture of him, but that probably would have been a little weird, even for me. He wanted ALL the curls cut off. He wanted his hair short. His poor barber was terrified of cutting his hair. The client kept telling him to cut more and more off. Doug’s barber just took the shears to Doug’s hair and sheared away! The sign on the window was amusing. GOOD Haircuts ARE NOT Cheap, cheap HaiRcuts ARE NOT GOOD

They are everywhere! We didn’t stop in, but I am sure we probably will at some time.

We were now in search of food. We found this place and decided to give it a try. When I saw Ginger Ale on the menu, I had to have one. We don’t drink pop often, but a good Ginger Ale now and then is great. We ordered shrimp of some sort and I also ordered the Tian Avocado Shrimp Cocktail. Wasn’t fond of all that stuff on the top. Meal wasn’t bad, but I won’t hurry back. A bit too fancy for my tastes.

Here are a few pictures of our walk to and from town. There are a LOT of hills here.

Another part of the road we had to walk everyday.

We stopped at the local Mini Mart to pick up a few snacks and headed back to our accommodations. Saw a good sized gecko in the gardens, but didn’t get a picture of it.

8 April, 2018 – Kuta, Bali – Day 5 – Still Not Working

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Nothing planned for today. We were going to walk back to the downtown area of Kuta and see if we could get some money. Walked along the water and saw these people flying a kite. Perfect weather for kite flying.

Tried the bank machines from the other day and Doug was able to get Cdn $50 from one machine. After that it appeared that his card had stopped working also. With our whopping $50 in hand we stopped in Starbucks for a couple of cold ones. Had to laugh at how they labeled the coffees. Mr Joan and Mrs Joan.

We browsed around the mall for a bit enjoying the air conditioning.

Headed outside to check out the area and found a strip of bank machines on the street, but none of them would work for either of us.

One of my favorite restaurants, but we did not go in. We need to come back here one day.

Saw these cool stools at an outdoor bar.

We each bought a t-shirt and then decided it we would head back to our hotel and enjoy the afternoon there.

Once we got back to our end of town, we tried the bank machines near us. Doug was able to get Cdn $50, but of course mine still did not work. We asked Paden if he could stop by the bank, speak with them and try to get my card working. Thank goodness everyone at our branch knew we were traveling and knew me quite well. He said he would go tomorrow after work. Please let them be able to help us.

We needed to relax and it was time that we put our feet in the ocean here on Bali.

That was enough ocean time and we headed back to the pool.

After all it was Happy Hour at the pool bar.

We had a few drinks or more, and a delicious Crispy Chicken Wrap. The same meal we had had the other day at the pool bar. It really was good. Good thing we could charge it all to our room and pay by VISA when we were going to check out.

We stayed in the pool until the sun went down and really relaxed.

After our long pool time we headed over to Flavaz to get some dessert. The apple crumble pie and ice cream were yummy and hit the spot.

The hotel had set up for a private party, with all kinds of food and entertainment. We headed back to our room around 7:30 pm. Late night for us!

7 April 2018 – Kuta, Bali – Day 4 – Amazing Race

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Today was going to be fun filled touring day. We had so many places to see on the agenda. Thankfully we had booked a private tour with Balik Tour in a comfy SUV for just the two of us and we would have no waiting around for bus loads of tourists. You know how those tourists can be! This was the busload leaving from our hotel.

We were picked up from the hotel at 9:00 am in a nice Toyota SUV and headed off to the first destination, a temple. We hadn’t been to a temple in over a week and were starting to feel temple withdrawal. Not really! Before we got to the temple, we had to battle the rush hour traffic. The scooters reminded us of Vietnam, where no one was safe from them, as they droved everywhere, including the sidewalks. Same here.

But not only did we have to battle scooters, cars and trucks, we had to deal with the wildlife on the road. Coming right at us.

We got to our first stop, a Hindu Temple, Pura Taman Auyn in Mangwi-Bandung. Had to drive under an arch.

Driver dropped us off and would wait for us. In we went to tour the place. It was a big area.

Out we went to find our driver. We are always happy when we are able to find our driver. Some are easier to find than others.

Next stop was a small family-style coffee plantation, Tegal Sari Kopi Luwak. They grew and made their own coffee, plus other herbs and spices. It really was just a drop and shop stop. What was amazing to us though, was how the place looked like nothing from the road side, but once you got behind the wall, the place was amazing.

You get a short tour and then you taste their products, but can’t get out of there without going through their shop.

Beautiful lush gardens. Our guide was pointing out all these different plants that they used to make the coffees, teas and spices. Of course, neither of us remember what was what now.

I do remember that they make a very expensive coffee out of this guys poop! This is a Civet Cat

Coffee Beans + Civet Cat Digestion = Poop Coffee

Here are the poop beans. Poop coffee beans are collected from the poop, washed, roasted, brewed and transformed into aromatic cat poop coffee. That is a definite PASS from me!!!

After a little education, we had to sample the products. Can’t say I was overly fond of any of them. Then we were shuffled into the shop. Of course we ended up buying something that we will most likely never use. I always feel obligated to make some kind of purchase.

UPDATE: Three years later we still have the unopened product. I just happened to see it the other day. Guess it is time to throw it out. And to think that we carried this around the world, taking up precious space in our backpacks. LOL IDR Rp 60,000 = Cdn $5.31

We headed off to the next stop. The clouds were starting to roll in. Really hope we don’t get caught in rain today. Our one big day of sight seeing here on Bali.

Our next stop was Daya Tarik Wisata Ulun Danu Beratan, a Shaivite water temple (Hindu Buddhist) in Beratan which is up in the mountains. That probably explains why it looked like rain.

Tickets in hand we proceeded through the entrance way. This place had pretty big grounds to cover from the look of it, including a lot of water front property.

It always amazes me when I see ‘house’ plants that I have growing, out in the wild here. This is a plant that I called a ‘shrimp plant’. I have no idea if that is the proper name or not, but I had one for a couple of years before it died on me.

I have 2 of these Brugmansias and even though mine are in pots they still grow big and I have to trim 2 -3 feet off them every fall to bring back in the house. I store them in our unused bathtub for the winter months.

Everyone was taking pictures of this and standing on it taking selfies, so I figured it must be something important and needed to take pictures of it also.

The clouds are quickly moving in. Hope they move right on by us.

There was this small group of men fishing. Sure looked relaxing. I wonder if it was some of the workers, during their lunch break. There were many workers around building and sprucing up everywhere.

Doug was getting tired of taking selfies. For every selfie that I post, I have probably taken 100 or more. You would think by now, that I would be better at it, but I am not. Either part of us cut off, background too blurry or we are too blurry. Don’t they say “Practice makes perfect?” Well I am still practicing and a long way from perfect!

We had been here an hour by now and we always feel like we shouldn’t leave our drivers too long. Mind you they probably enjoy the break and are many times found chatting with other drivers. I would imagine they all know each other in this business. I am sure that there were many other buildings that we could have explored but we decided to head out. Of course there was a shopping area on the way out. A pretty random sign for their EXIT. We didn’t get rained on!

We were now headed off to get some lunch. Our driver took us to a beautiful restaurant here in the mountains somewhere. We were seated at a great table near the side, with a spectacular view overlooking the valley and hills.

Unfortunately the skies opened up, the winds picked up and the rain poured down. We were in for a big thunderstorm. Everyone had to move from the open sides of the restaurant as there were no window coverings at all. We moved more into the center of the restaurant, but had to move again right up to the wall, as the winds were so strong and we were still getting wet in the center. The water was even seeping down the interior stone walls, but at least we were out of the wind now.

They offered an all you could eat buffet, but we ordered off the menu as we would never eat enough off the buffet. We of course bought our driver lunch also. Lunch was inexpensive here, but they did add on 20% tax and service fee. IDR Rp 201,000 = Cdn $17.50 Can’t go wrong with those prices to feed three people lunch.

Since it was still pouring down, the driver went out and backed the vehicle up to the entrance, so we wouldn’t get soaked.

We were headed of to the Monkey Forest, Pemerintah Kabupaten Tabanan. The rain had let up some, but we were still getting wet.

Quite the monkey to greet us. The guide took a few pictures of us. She obviously had a difficult time with focusing as most turned out blurry.

We didn’t stay here long, as the rain had not stopped completely and I am not even sure if there was much to do here, or if it was really a stop to bring business into the shops here. They had a whole area of bats and there were so many baby monkeys around. Just adorable. Monkeys were adorable, not so much the bats.

Of course we ended up in the shop owned by the guide. It gets tiring after a while. And yes, we did purchase something. This time it was can ‘cozies’ that we can at least use by our pool.

Next stop was the whole reason for us booking this tour. We wanted to go to Pura Tanah Lot for the sunset. Pura Tana Lot means temple in the sea. Tanah Lot was the Leg 6 stop in Season 29 of the Amazing Race. Air date was 4 April 2016. We are great fans of Amazing Race.

Once we got in, we could go left or right. We went right, of course the wrong way to get to the Tanah Lot, but we still saw plenty.

There was a small beach here and we saw a surfer or two.

Pura Batu Bolong

There were A LOT of people here. I bet they were all tourists!

I will pass on the snake and that is what we did, passed right on by.

When the tide is low, which it was, you can go into the temple. However, the line was at least an hour long to get over there. We didn’t have the time, nor the energy to bother with that. We wanted to see the sun set and would have missed it. So we toured around the grounds.

This is the entrance to the Tanah Lot, photo taken from the back side, since we didn’t walk back up to the actual entrance side.

My failed attempt at trying to get a picture of Doug holding the sun. Oh yes, we tried numerous shots! Plus a few other ‘trick’ shots. Epic fail! LOL

The attempt of getting a selfie with the sun setting behind us.

However, I think I got a few great shots of the actual sunset.

Out on the hillock is the Batu Balong Temple. You can not go in this temple, only photographs, which I took when we went right instead of left. It sure makes for spectacular photos during sunset.

It was now 6:15 pm and time to head off back to our driver and back to our hotel. It had been a long day, as we had been on the road since 9:00 am. The traffic was absolutely insane and it took us 1 1/2 hours to get back to our hotel. Tanah Lot is approximately 20 km north-west of Kuta, where we are staying.

6 April, 2018 – Kuta, Bali – Day 3 – Banking Emergency

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I decided to try something new for breakfast. Still don’t know what the red and green stripped item was. Tried it, don’t need to try it again.

We had planned nothing for today, but knew we needed to get some cash, if nothing else. And we wanted to book a private tour for tomorrow. We decided we would walk along a brick path that we had seen. It ran along the ocean, the beaches and resorts.

After 30 – 45 minutes we came upon the shopping mall. Have I mentioned lately how HOT and HUMID it is here? We couldn’t wait to get inside to cool down. Most of our walk had been in the full sun.

They do a security check as you enter the mall from the beach side. Scan and inspect bags.

Took us a while to find the bank machines as they were well hidden. When we did, there were so many different ones, that we had no idea which ones were safe and compatible with our bank. I had been using my TD Canada Trust card since the beginning without issue. We tried one machine, no success. Tried another machine, still no success. And another with no success. Another guy came along and got money out no problem. What was going on with my card? Finally decided to try my Scotiabank card and was able to get some cash out, but was limited to the equivalent of Cdn $50 plus a $5 service fee. Something wasn’t right. The day we had gone to the Flower Dome in Singapore, they guy at the ticket booth had swiped my card and asked for my signature. I had freaked out about this as my card was set up to use a PIN to prevent fraud. This was the first time I had tried to use my card since that day. We would now have to somehow get in touch with the bank to see what was going on.

We looked around inside the mall, knowing we couldn’t buy anything until we had figured out what was going on with my bank card. Here were baskets full of Mangosteen and Snake Skin fruit. There was a Baskin Robbins and a Starbucks in the mall. PLUS right outside the door was a Cold Stone Creamery!!! My favourite. And we had no money!!!!

Saw this shirt. Today was definitely a SHITDAY! A no money SHITDAY!

Walked around the town for a bit. So many scooters, we could almost be back in Vietnam.

We were just so hot that we decided to go to Starbucks and get a couple of French Vanilla Iced Lattes. It had been a while since we had had them and we needed them. Yes needed them.

Crazy people that we are, we decided to walk back to the hotel along the water again. Actually, we had no idea how else to get back. Maybe we would get some shade by now. Or maybe not.

The beach up here was nicer than our hotels beach. Not far from our hotel there were a lot of rocks. There were even a few surfers out.

When we got back to the hotel, we tried the bank machines in our area. No luck there either. Definitely will have to try and contact TD Bank.

It has been a while since I had seen weird flavours of snacks, but I found some.

Got back to the hotel and tried to contact the bank. I was having no success and so went to the front desk to see if they could possibly get through. They told me how to do it and went back to our room to call their operator. She tried 3 times and got nothing but a busy signal. This was not helping my stress level. It was Friday night here and early Saturday morning back home. Couldn’t do much else about the banking situation right now. Will have to try again.

We had dinner at the hotel again tonight, but we sat beachside, instead of in the actual restaurant area. View of the sunset was amazing.

Doug had fish and chips and I ordered Bolognese Linguine. No drinks tonight. I say I ordered Bolognese Linguine because all I got was the linguine part. There was this adorable kitten/cat that was roaming around and looked to be starving. I kept giving it all the meat that was in my dinner. It was heart breaking to see. I didn’t need the meat but this little thing certainly did, and vacuumed it all up.

We headed over to the Flavaz Cafe inside to order dessert. We had discovered that they had half price desserts after a certain time of the day. Plus, they had more choices than the restaurant did. I got a slice of German Chocolate Cake and Doug ordered a banana smoothie. The cake tasted great. Plus I was still a little hungry, since kitty got all my dinner protein.

By now it was 7:30 pm and time for us to head back to our room. We had a big and busy day tomorrow. Good thing part of that tour was already paid for and I still had enough cash to pay the rest!

5 April, 2018 – Kuta, Bali, Indonesia – Day 2 – Leisure Day

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Today was going to be a rest day. We sure needed one of these, as we were getting pretty exhausted. Got up and headed down for our included breakfast. Breakfast was great. The bacon on the buffet left a lot to be desired, as in, I like my bacon cooked. Many places over in SE Asia barely cook their bacon. However, I did ask the cook if I could get some crispy bacon. To my surprise he pulls out a tray of crispy bacon. Guess they keep it hidden so that people don’t take it all.

We checked out the resort a little.

This is our room on the second floor. It had a pretty large balcony.

Did a quick check of the beach area, but the beaches here are not the best we have seen. I don’t think Kuta is really known for spectacular beaches though.

Picked out our loungers for the day. Pool area wasn’t busy which was great for us. Bali is known for having thousands and I mean thousands of Chinese tourists. They come by the bus loads, but tend to go out on full day excursions, which leaves the resort pretty empty, nice and quiet.

We scored one of the few air mattresses for the pool. It did have a slow leak though, which could be challenging at times. We took turns floating around on it.

We enjoyed lunch of a crispy chicken wrap, that we shared and a beverage or two at the swim up bar. Doug had one of his favorites, Mojitos (light rum, fresh lime , mint leaf, sugar syrup, peppermint syrup) and I tried a drink called Blue Frozen Kamikaze (vodka, lime juice and curacao) and an Illusion (vodka, triple sec, melon liqueur, pineapple juice, lime juice and sugar syrup). Both of course were great.

Headed back to the room for an afternoon nap. We would head back down for Happy Hour.

Someone had booked a private dinner on the beach. We watched while they set up the table and a BIG beautiful heart on the grass area made from rose petals. It looked pretty special. Once the staff member had left, 3 Chinese girls went over to the area and were taking turns posing, while their friend took pictures of them in the heart set up. They also sat at the table pretending to be drinking from the glasses, while having their pictures taken. This went on for a good 10 minutes or more until a staff member came and shooed them away. Once the staff member left and was out of sight, the 3 girls went back and continued taking more pictures. Just so disrespectful! They finally left and thankfully a staff member went back to straighten it all up, yet again, before the actual people showed up for their romantic dinner on the beach.

Happy Hour and watching the sunset was just so relaxing and spectacular.

We ordered dinner and dessert. Doug ordered the Prawns in a Thai Green Curry and I had a Mediterranean Salad. I was still full from our lunch and drinks. Our bill came to IDR Rp 575,000 which is approximately Cdn $51.00 Might not seem to high, but was certainly higher than what we had been paying in Thailand and Cambodia. They also automatically add a SVC charge on here.

I had obviously been bitten a few times while enjoying happy hour and dinner. Guess it will be another itchy night.