Bali (6/27-7/5)

Hello from beautiful Bali!

Read below for my take on the highlights of our 8 days in Bali on the beaches of Nusa Dua and Canggu and in the mountain town of Ubud. At the bottom of this post, you'll find links to our photos that Dan uploaded and captioned to provide a photo-essay of our adventure.

Kimberly

We started our trip with two nights in a boutique hotel just south of Nusa Dua called The Bale (www.thebale.com). Nusa Dua itself is this perfectly manicured resort area that feels nothing like being in Bali with one large resort after another….needless to say, the area wasn’t what drew us here. Rather, our good friends Brigitte & Hubert had stayed at The Bale last September and couldn’t stop raving about it…and it was quite amazing. We got our own villa, complete with an outdoor daybed, large Jacuzzi, indoor & outdoor showers, a private plunge pool….and our own butler! It was far beyond any level of luxury or pampering either of us had experienced, and a great way to kick off a honeymoon adventure!

The funniest part was when our butler asked if we would like him to unpack our luggage for us...given that we're staying here for only two nights (all we could afford!), but we have two months worth of luggage, we felt really awkward...however, how could we possibly turn down such an offer?! So we let him unpack half of my suitcase... Then we went for our complimentary welcome massage....

We have gotten massages almost every day we’ve been here, ranging from welcome massages at The Bale & Tugu (free), to the Ibah ($40), to my massage on the beach in Nusa Dua ($5)…if only we could get massages for so little money back in the states! Seriously, if you like spas, then this is the place to come. Everywhere we go there are little places offering massages, scrubs, facials, wraps. We even did a traditional Balinese Treatment, where (after your hour long massage) they scrub you with a lulur paste (it’s orange and has spices in it), then they apply a cooling mask, and after it dries, you relax in a Jacuzzi while drinking fresh ginger tea. Ahh…

We left The Bale after 2 ½ blissful days to go the Western coast of the island to a beach town called Canggu (just a little north of the resorts of Seminyak and Kuta). Here we stayed at the most interesting hotel I’ve ever been to, Hotel Tugu (www.tuguhotels.com). The owner is an avid art collector determined to preserve Indonesian history, culture, and art. He collected so many things that he decided to open several hotels where he could share his art with his guests. We stayed in a beautiful room on the second floor with antique furniture and a handmade steel bathtub. We could dine anywhere we wanted on the property--literally any meal, anywhere. We had dinner one night in the “black chamber,” breakfast by the water lily pond, tea by the pool one day and on the beach the other, and a lunch in a reconstructed open Indonesian kitchen, after we had finished our cooking class! The one place we didn’t eat that I really had wanted to was in the Bali Sutra—an actual 18th century Kang Xi temple that was moved to Bali from a nearby Indonesian island and reconstructed at the hotel.

The area where the hotel is located is actually quite remote (a big difference from the hectic resorts of Kuta & Seminyak) with only some local fishermen and quite a few surfers who have come to brave the huge waves. We spent our days taking quiet walks along the beach to the nearby Hindu Temples and watching the surfers catch amazing 8-10 foot waves. We spent one day in a private cooking class at the hotel—we went to the market in Denpasar to buy our ingredients, then learned how to make curries, spicy soups, and vegetables steamed in a banana leaf, and then feasted on our wonderful (but a wee bit spicy) meal. The only issue we had was when we were walking back from the beach one day and stumbled upon a 4 foot long black snake attacking a mouse in front of the entrance to our hotel. I have quite an irrational fear of snakes (almost as bad as my shark phobia, so you can guess this was pretty hairy for me!). However, I managed to whip out the camera and got some great shots of the attack (with our 70-300 mm zoom lens, of course!)

After three days in Canggu, we headed inland to Ubud and the surrounding areas. We actually stayed in the neighboring town of Campuhan at the Ibah Luxury Villas (www.ibahbali.com), where we had our own private villa (no plunge pool this time, but we did have an amazing terrace overlooking the river valley where we ate breakfast every morning). We spent our days up here wandering around the various towns, peering into artists’ galleries, and watching the farmers work their rice fields—and getting more massages at the local spas. 

One day we set out to see the rice terraces in Sayan. We clearly were lost, but we did not want the help of this sketchy man who had been following us on his motorcycle since we left the hotel…he kept telling us to go into the rice fields and cut straight through, but we didn’t exactly trust this guy. When I told him that I didn’t want to hike in the rice fields because I was afraid of snakes (partially true, given the earlier encounter…oh, and did I mention that I saw another snake at the hotel down the street from ours in Ubud only a few days later!!). He seemed to give up and leave us alone….we’re still curious if he was actually just trying to be helpful, or if he was going to kidnap us or rob us if we’d gone into the fields with him…. When we did finally make it to the terraces, they were simply spectacular! First we had a cool (well deserved) drink at the Four Seasons in Sayan, then we finally found the little trail that goes along the edge of the gorge to the rice terraces…however, the family who owns the land was sick of the tourists cutting across their fields, so they put up barriers. Luckily, another family came over to help us (because we clearly were lost…again). They offered to show us the way—this time we accepted the offer. It was a good thing too, because there was no way we could have found our way on our own. There were a few moments where I wondered if we were just being led to the shack where they keep the kidnapped tourists…but my worries were totally unfounded, the woman and her husband were as helpful and kind as can be and dropped us at the end of a road that headed back up to the town.

Other highlights from our time in Ubud:
-watching the Barong & Kris dance at the Pedengtegel Theater
-enjoying a six-course gourmet meal at Mozaic (the only “Grande Table du Monde” in all of Asia) for only $35 a person,
-bargaining with the vendors at the market (don’t pay the opening price of 200,000 rupiah for a sarong…we got our vendors down to 40,000…)
-walking into the restaurant where we had pre-ordered the Bebek Tutu duck feast the day before…only to not want to eat (or touch) anything given the condition of the building (Frommers makes some odd recommendations…)
-thoroughly enjoying a cheeseburger and fries at Murni’s Cafe—overlooking the Campuhan river gorge
-trying to shoe away the scary stray mangy dogs who barked as soon as we came along…funny, they didn’t seem to bark at the Balinese…racist dogs!
-looking around for a painting to buy (they’re cheap—great ones go for as little as $50-200), but deciding it would be too much of a hassle to figure out how to get it home

After three days in Ubud, it was time to bid Bali goodbye…and start the honeymoon adventure. Only 19 hours and three flights later, we were finally at the next stop on our trip…the ruins of the temples of Angkor Wat & Angkor Thom. We’ll post the saga from our adventures in Cambodia, along with those photos soon.

On a side note: our honeymoon got off to an interesting start…I was sleeping on the Cathay flight from LA to Hong Kong, when the flight attendant woke me up to tell me that I had left my wallet at the check-in desk in the airport, but they are sending it on another plane to Hong Kong! I have no idea how this happened, how neither Dan, nor I noticed we'd left it at the desk.... The next day, my wallet arrived safely (with 4 credit cards, my drivers license, my Stanford ID, & $111 of cash) on the Cathay flight from Hong Kong. I really couldn’t believe it. The best part was how well Cathay took care of everything…it was like my wallet was traveling as an “unaccompanied minor” on its own trip to Southeast Asia…several different people were tracking its journey along the way and making sure that it was OK…  Needless to say, I’m thoroughly thrilled to have it back…and keeping a close eye on it to make sure I don’t leave it anywhere else!

Photos:
Nusa Dua
Canggu
Ubud