Bali

So our Thai adventure had come to an end, and it was now time for Bali to begin.

We flew via Singapore and arrived in Denpasar, where we were picked up and taken to our traditional guesthouse in Kuta.

After a chilled first night eating at the guesthouse restaurant and meeting our new Bali group, we awoke early the next morning ready for a jam packed day exploring our new surroundings.

First stop was a stunning Balinese temple, set on a cliff edge in Uluwatu. We had to wear these bright purple sarongs in order to enter the temple and as a sign of respect for the balinese culture.

Although, they didn't seem to be the best attire to wear to a cliff full of monkeys... as we watched one leap onto a woman and then swing off her sarong for about 5 minutes before letting go.

After that fiasco we then headed to the famous Padang Padang beach and then to a fantastic bar called Single Fin, with stunning tabletop balcony views of the beach and surfers riding the waves.

After exploring Kuta during the day, we were 100% ready to experience the night life.

We enjoyed some cheap drinks and cocktails (everything is cheap in Bali) in a few bars on the strip, and then headed to a huge club called Sky Garden. The club was insane, with multiple floors, rooms and DJ's; providing all different types of music and creating a great buzz in the venue.

This was all amazing, although I have to say we were most impressed by the toilets in the club.

We had definitely drank one too many cocktails, however these toilets were picture perfect. Just like Ruby and our friends Naomi and Charlotte above...

After our eventful first night out in Bali we were up bright and early ready for a surfing lesson on Canggu beach.

We began with a few practices on the beach, and then headed out to the sea to put our moves to the test.

The instructors made it look so easy and effortless...yet for me it was one of the most dramatic yet hilarious experiences of my life.

In the picture above I thought I was beginning to get the hang of it, so decided to be brave and stand up on the surf board, attempting to ride the wave.

This was not a good idea.

10 seconds later I was hurled underwater by a massive wave, and then discovered that both my contact lenses had fallen out from the force of the wave, leaving me blind in the middle of the sea.

Brilliant.

This wasn't exactly how I imagined my Bali surfing experience to pan out.

After walking up the beach completely blind to replace my lenses (thank god I brought them with me), I then spent the rest of the time safe and sound on the beach, taking pictures of everyone else surfing like a pro.

Everyone but me...

The next day we left Canggu and began travelling to Lovina, located in north west Bali.

On the way we stopped off at a traditional balinese rice paddy, which was absolutely fascinating and evidently a brilliant spot for selfies.

We then had lunch in a restaurant set on the hills, overlooking the beautiful scenery. We ate rice with our meal that had been grown on the exact rice paddies we were sat looking at!

Amazing.

Our next stop was the iconic Beretan Temple in Pura Bedugul.

It's the exact temple on the currency of Bali!

It was amazing to see such a well known landmark in real life, and seeing it look so picturesque amongst the setting mist surrounding the Balinese mountains.

We couldn't get enough of the beautiful temple and its amazing gardens.

The location was picture perfect, and we certainly tried to take the most perfect pictures.

We were still on our way to Lovina, where we would be staying in a luxury guesthouse set high in the Balinese mountains.

Our final stop along the way was the amazing Gitgit Waterfall. After walking down hundreds of steps leading to the waterfall, we finally caught a glimpse of it and it was such a sight to see, one that couldn't even be captured on camera.

Naturally, we each had our photo taken on a rock positioned perfectly in front of it. Because why not? It's not every day you get a waterfall in the background of your picture.

The next morning we awoke at 5am to see the sunrise.

Our villa had an amazing infinity pool which you can see above, and we sat by it (still half asleep) and watched in awe as the sky changed colours and the sun finally rose above the mountains.

Such a beautiful start to the day!

After our early start we visited a local Balinese home, where a family who lived on a coffee plantation taught us the traditional art of Balinese basket weaving.

There were 2 little girls from the family who helped us to weave, and they put our efforts to shame as they could weave at lightning speed, and made a basket in under 5 minutes.

After, we visited their coffee plantation, and got covered in coffee powder (as you can see from our muddy looking faces) and then enjoyed an amazing lunch cooked by the local family, probably one of our best meals in Bali!

The next morning we packed our bags and took a ferry to a gorgeous island called Gili Trawangan, or more commonly known as 'Gili T'.

The island is so idyllic and unspoilt that motorised vehicles are not allowed, and the only way to access the island is by bike!

I've never seen anywhere like it.

After spending the rest of the day relaxing on the beach, we were more than ready for our first night out on the party island.

We all unintentionally matched with our co-ordinating playsuits we bought the previous day, and after a meal in our hotel called Gili Amor, we were off to experience the lively looking bars on the strip of Gili T.

The island had such a chilled yet buzzing atmosphere about it, and we spent most of the night in a Reggae bar dancing the night away.

We don't even like reggae music and hardly knew any songs, but it was such a funny night and we got a real feel for the island itself!

The next day after our first night out in Gili T, we hired out bikes and biked around the whole island - which took no longer than an hour so you can imagine how small it is!

We stopped along the way at a beach in a part of Gili T called Menoufia, where we found the infamous swings in the sea!

The sun was setting as we drank our drinks on the beach, and took enough pictures on the swings to last us a lifetime.

The sunset was so beautiful, and we felt so lucky to be able to watch it from such a stunning location.

After our last night on the beautiful island, we packed our bags again and took a ferry to the final destination of our entire trip: Ubud in Bali, home to Monkey Forest.

On arrival at our new hotel in Ubud, we were told we had the rest of the day to relax by the pool and top up our tans. Ruby and I decided to buy a coconut to drink from, which I thought would taste disgusting but it was actually so refreshing.

Naturally we ceased a photo opportunity, and I found a petal from a Frangipani Flower floating in the pool.

These flowers are native to Bali and you see them everywhere. Lots of people on the market sell clip on flowers that look exactly like this one.

It was also so nice to have a few hours to relax, as most of the time our trip had been jam packed with travelling and visiting new places, and we so we were thankful for some time to reflect and take it all in.

After a chilled morning relaxing by the pool, we then headed to the well known Monkey Forest in Ubud, which was just down the road from our hotel. It was AMAZING.

The forest is filled with over 600 monkeys, and you walk around as they roam the area, jumping on you for food or just to be playful.

Before we went in we had to read a list of rules telling us what not to do inside the forest, and these included not giving the monkeys eye contact as it is seen as a sign of aggression. Ruby took this a little too literally and walked around with her head down refusing to look at them...

She's not really an animal person and didn't want them to jump on her either, but I knew I would regret it if I didn't see what it was like - especially whilst we were here in monkey forest! So I took a banana, held out my hand and a huge monkey leaped on me.

You can see from the pictures above that at first I was a bit anxious about it, and it took me by surprise because they climb up you so fast! But once they're on you, you realise that they literally only want to eat the banana, and jump off once they're finished.

It was so much fun and such a unique experience that I will never forget.

That night we had an early nights sleep, as we would be getting up at 1am to climb Mount Batur, an active volcano located in North West Bali.

We had an hours drive to the volcano, and then began hiking in the dark using only torches to guide us.

It was quite scary climbing in the dark, and also because of it being a volcano the ground was pretty uneven and there was a lot of lava rubble left from the latest eruption in 2000.

Despite this, we somehow made it to the top 3 hours later, ready to watch the sunrise from 1,717m above sea level.

Although, we had to wait a while for the sun to come up and it was absolutely FREEZING at the top. All we could see for a good half an hour was a load of mist blocking our view...and these were mine and ruby's faces when we thought we had trekked all this way for nothing.

However, a few minutes later the mist cleared, the sun began to rise and we suddenly got to see what all the fuss was about.

The view was incredible. Because we had climbed the mountain in the dark, we only then got to see how high up we actually were, and how beautiful Bali looked from a birds eye view with the sun beaming over it.

It then took us at least 2 hours to make our way down the volcano, and if anything it was harder because it was almost impossible to keep your grip on the rubble (we spent most of the journey sliding about and falling over).

Once at the bottom it hit us that a) we had climbed the second biggest mountain in Bali and b) it was our last day, and that night we would be catching a flight home.

It was unbelievable how fast the time had gone, yet we also felt as though we had experienced more in just under a month, than we had in our whole lives.

And so that was the end of our adventure!

I really cannot recommend travelling enough. Whether you do it alone or with friends, in Thailand or in Bali (or anywhere else for that matter), you will have the most incredible time and I know it sounds so cliché but it will honestly change your life.

There were times where it was tough and a little exhausting, but it only helps you to learn and grow as a person. I had my best friend Ruby by my side the whole time, and she's basically my sister so we always knew when one of us needed some alone time or time to just chill quietly, and it was amazing because we went through everything together.

I hope these couple of posts have given you a good insight into what our travelling adventure was like, but if not, then experience it for yourself.

Go onto Gap 360 or IntroTravel and have a browse through their travelling packages, ours was called Thai Intro and Bali Intro. They also have lots of shorter trips available which only last a couple of weeks, so you could just do one or combine a few shorter packages together which is what a lot of people do.

The Vietnam and Cambodia trip also looks amazing and we're thinking about doing them in the future. They're also not too pricey in terms of what you get out of it, and like I said before, all the accommodation and travel is organised for you so you have nothing to worry about when you arrive.

I feel like I'm sounding a little too excited about this, but it really is an unforgettable adventure!

And if you don't believe me then experience it for yourself.. and I promise, you won't regret it.

Bella x

#travel #bali