Bali – Part III

On Tuesday morning we began our journey to Lombok… starting with a terrifying (twisty narrow roads with a reckless driver) hour-long drive to Padang Bai and then an hour and a half long boat ride to Lombok. This experience prompted us to return to Bali by plane, which was cheaper, faster [and safer] than the journey by boat. Though the views from the boat ride were beautiful and I spent most of it trying catching water off of the waves to cool off:

All of the uncomfortable travel was well worth it when we arrived to the beautiful beaches in Lombok. We spent three nights at the Sheraton Senggigi Beach Resort, which was great and incredibly affordable. Everything in Bali was super affordable but Lombok put it to shame – hello, $6 for an hour long beach side massage! The island itself is much more laid back, quiet, and relaxed than Bali, which we really enjoyed:

The absolute highlight of going to Lombok, however, was our trip to the Gili Islands on Thursday. We hired a local to take us to the islands for about $60 and decided to hit the less-crowded Gili Meno and Gili Air. There are boats that do day trips from Bali to Gili Trawangan and Gili Air; Gili Trawangan is the largest of the three islands and the most developed.

The hour-long slow boat ride to the islands was beautiful (depending on where you stay in Lombok you can get a speed boat that will drop you off after a fifteen minute ride but we opted for a more leisurely tour) and we enjoyed seeing the local fisherman and the coastal views of Lombok:

Our first stop was at Gili Meno for some epic snorkeling (I only wish we had a GoPro to have captured the underwater beauty):

After our first snorkeling stop we swam to shore and camped ourselves out on this beach to soak up the sunshine and lay out on the warm white sand:

The water is crystal clear with beautiful coral reefs and marine life: Our second snorkeling stop was equally beautiful and our guide helped us find a sea turtle to swim alongside (this image is from Instagram and was taken by someone else on the same day we were there so I like to think it was the same turtle):

I try to tag all of my Instagram pictures so I encourage you to check out this location feed from Gili Meno – some of the other users capture some amazing photos and videos underwater that perfectly reflect our snorkeling experience. It was really amazing and definitely the most beautiful place I have ever been.

After snorkeling we sailed over to Gili Air for lunch in a treehouse overlooking the water:

That white and blue boat on the left was our trusty mode of transportation for the day:

We walked around the island and enjoyed some coconut gelato (yumyumyum)  – there are no cars or scooters on Gili so the primary mode of transportation is by bicycle or donkey and the streets are all covered in sand and lined with little shops and restaurants. It would be a fantastic place to spend the night or two and I hope we can return one day to do just that.We ended our time in Gili with one last dip before returning to Lombok:

For our last two days of vacation we headed back to Bali to the Westin Resort Nusa Dua, which was my favorite hotel of the week and was most likely due to the free upgrade to the Ocean View Suite on the top floor of the hotel; though the beautiful grounds and pool-side fruit popsicles didn’t hurt either:

It was hard to leave Bali after such a wonderful week and I hope that we’ll be able to visit again in the future. If we were to do it over again we would probably spend a night or two in Ubud and Seminyak and a night or two on Gili. If you are headed to Bali or Lombok Gili is a MUST DO! I’m also itching to travel to Central Java to see Borobudur Temple… nothing like taking a vacation to inspire more vacation!

Bali – Part II

On Monday, we arranged for a custom tour through Dewa Alit to take us to a few temples and the Jatiluwih rice terraces, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the stop I was most looking forward to.

We started our journey at a Negari Luwak Coffeee garden, a three generation family-run organic coffee business. I was thinking we would be going to an Indonesian coffee farm in the foothills but instead were taken to a road-side garden for a tour and a coffee/tea tasting:

If you’re interested, you can read more about the Luwak and Kopi Luwak here. While the tea and fried banana were tasty, this garden definitely has questionable animal treatment practices (re: caged Luwaks) and I would not recommend.

As we left the coffee plantation feeling uncomfortable, we were looking forward to our next stop: Taman Ayun (meaning Garden Temple), which is a Mother Temple (Paibon) to Mengwi Kingdom built by Mengwi King, I Gusti Agung Putu, in 1634. Despite some questionable signage (see gallery below), it was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been with acres upon acres of beautiful balinese gardens:

We then made our way to Ulun Danu Beratan, a major water temple built in 1663 on the shore of Lake Bratan in the mountains near Bedugul. The temple is used for offering ceremonies to the Balinese water, lake, and river goddess Dewi Danu as the lake is a main source of irrigation in central Bali.

We narrowly escaped a downpour and continued to our final destination, the Jatiluwih rice terraces, which were absolutely stunning. The UNESCO site consists of five terraced rice fields and water temples covering nearly fifty acres. The temples (including Ulun Danu Beratan) are the main focus of this water management system of canals and weirs, which is known as Subak.

It was a long day of driving around the island but was definitely a worthwhile experience and nothing can compare to the site of those terraces – the Balinese have such a fascinating irrigation and agricultural system.

Bali – Part I

Sorry for the long delay between posts – but I have a great excuse… Bali!

When Andrew and I found out we were going to be moving to Tokyo we had already booked an anniversary trip to Mexico. Naturally, those plans got postponed until next year and we decided to explore a more exotic location otherwise difficult to reach from San Francisco… hello, Bali!

We flew out of Haneda airport (if you ever fly into/out of Tokyo, this airport is much closer to the city and super easy to access, plus the lounge is great):

We took an overnight flight through Bangkok, which is a huge airport with a pretty interesting structure (this photo is of one “terminal” and there are at least five others that are similar in size):

We arrived to Denpasar in the early afternoon and spent the first night getting settled at the Laguna in Nusa Dua. We started the next morning up the road in heaven with 90-minute massages at Jari Menari (I only wish we had opted for more treatments); massages across Bali are notoriously affordable, which was definitely my favorite part of vacation – because who doesn’t love to be pampered?

Sunday night we ventured to Finn’s Beach Club, which is a private beach nestled within the cliffs on the Southern tip of the island. To access the Club, you take a tiny tram down the side of the cliffs (Andrew and I are both wary of heights but thankfully this was a quick and smooth ride and the beautiful view distracted us):

Most people go during the day to escape the larger crowds on the public beaches but we opted for their nighttime fire pit and live music (of course, if you have the beach stamina you could stay from open until close). If you’re interested in more photos from the daytime beach set-up, check out The Londoner’s visit from December.

The place was emptied out as the sun set and after retreating to the fire pits for drinks, we were eventually treated to our own private concert, which was the perfect end to our first full day in Bali: