Hey there all, here goes with our first two days in Bali. I do hope you enjoy & it ain't too boring for you.
Day One:
After getting two hours of sleep, we - my husband & I, sans kids for the first time in about 15 years - got up at 1.30am to make the 4.50am Air Asia flight from good ole Perth. We came last year with our three older kids so i suppose we are still relative newbies. We got to the airport & realised we were part of a mass exodus! The plane was jam packed & the flight went smoothly; the time flying coz of chatting to a lovely woman sitting next to me. VOA went smoothly, we got our luggage then we were off to find transport to Ubud. Well we went up & down, past the construction looking for perhaps a shuttle, but by the time we passed the domestic terminal, our novice brains kicked in - maybe no shuttles down this way. So backtracking, we semi-bartered - husband saying lets just get out of here- with a uniformed taxi guy agreeing to pay 250,000. Too much? Probably.
Arriving in Ubud, we are staying in the gorgeous riverside room at the Lady Bamboo villa. This is absolutely my kind of place: the hosts are very friendly, the room fitted out in traditional Balinese rustic style & our outdoor bathroom is stunning. It is so quiet here and yet only five minutes walk to the main drag of Ubud. We are staying here for 7 nights, very happy!
The rest of our day was spent eating, catching up on sleep & reading. We ate lunch at the Casa Luna - delicious gado gado & nasi campur - and dinner at the Tutmak - yummy burgers & bintang. The food in Ubud is just so divine.
And yet, as I wrote in a previous post, I found the women with babies begging on the streets heartbreaking. We gave a little money but I felt guilty & uncomfortable for having just eaten to my heart's content. It just isn't fair.
Day Two:
Started off with breakfast & then went & booked a shuttle bus to Legian. A bit crazy I know but our daughter is staying in seminyak & I had a hair appointment at Luxe in Legian. The shuttle was great, so good to chat to others in the bus. And Luxe? Absolutely worth every penny. This place is run by an Aussie woman Rochelle who is just lovely. My cut, colour & blow-dry cost 900.000, so cheap by australian standards, & it is a fab cut. Would highly recommend Luxe.
As my hubby is a biggish bloke, we thought we'd try our luck at Ketut's fixed price shop. We found garlic lane but we couldn't find the shop!!! We asked loads of westerners & Balinese but no one could direct us to it. Never mind, by this time husband had had enough of being harangued so we caught a bluebird taxi to seminyak where we met up with our daughter & her boyfriend & ate at the Trattoria. Another heavenly meal & so wonderful to see our daughter after a couple of weeks. (she has been in Bali too).
Here comes the mad bit... To get back to Ubud we only wanted to spend 200,000 rupiah, a bluebird taxi driver agrees to this. Unbeknownst to us though, he's Michael Schumacher & guns it to Ubud. We get from seminyak to ubud in under 45 minutes. Seriously. We were slightly, ok, fully packing it! The driver said he had to get back to Kuta. We just didn't know his driving us may have caused him stress. It caused us grey hairs, & I've just been to the hairdressers!
Anyway, we have recovered, with the aid of my trusty friend toblerone. Hope this hasn't been too dull. Tomorrow we are off to the dolphin lodge - on my bucket list - & then I promise we will settle into ubud life
Will report some more soon. Ta for reading :).