Sanur day 1: Uluwatu

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A new episode of Rings of Power was released today, so post will be uploaded tomorrow morning by the pool instead :).

2022-10-11, 11:00 by the pool

Since we weren’t too impressed with Sanur, we texted a tour guide we got to know in Ubud that we really liked and asked at breakfast if he was available. He was in fact by Sanur Harbor dropping off another guest so we got lucky! He picked us up at 9:30 and we drove down to Uluwatu by the floating highway which was cool.

The first stop was at a very local beach called Pantai Pandawa. Only Indonesian tourist were there and it was a very clean beach. Only debris from the ocean was there. Local shops along the boardwalk and no English. The weather hadn’t quite matured yet so it was a bit cloudy still when we were there but still warm as always here. Before we reached the beach, Putta, our guide warned us that we would be stared at and even asked to take pictures. Not two minutes later, two young boys came up to us and asked to take pictures with Mikael and I. Hahaha! Western tourist are very uncommon there and being so tall and pale males us exotic. Haha! I think we were asked to take pictures with strangers four times and I’m sure there was at least the same amount who tools sneak pictures of us. So funny!

We also got a lesson in Hindu about one god who got 5 children and they all had a different weapon and we’re portrayed in many movies. I can’t remember the details now unfortunately, but Outta knew his things and explained everything. While standing there by the statues, the sun came out and it got real sweaty.

Our next stop for the day was at a really beautiful beach called Pantai Melasti. Pantai means beach and Melasti means purification. It was such a beautiful beach, the sand was fine, the water blue and the waves were big. These beaches are down south in Bali, surfers’ paradise. We went in the water, we needed it. But it was tiresome with the waves and current so we didn’t stay in for too long.

The third stop was lunch at a very local restaurant that you barely saw from the outside. Iiga Warung it was called and they had amazing ribs. Lots of tourists there, so I guess that’s a local place which cooperates with tour guides. Lots of Japanese and Chinese tourists.

Fourth stop was GWK where we stayed for almost two hours. It is a cultural park designated to the world’s third largest statue of Vishnu riding Garuk and is 121m tall. There we learned about the big ceremony in March where they build several massive demons and burn. They day after is the day of silence and nothing is open that day. Not even the airport. If you are visiting as a tourist, you are not allowed to leave the hotel room that day. The day after that is Melasti day (purification) and it is for healing. I think that was the way it was. We also saw a Barong dance at the small amphitheatre inside.


To the left: The good king. The middle: his wife. To the right: the king’s brother.

To the right: The demon king. The middle: His younger and evil brother. The left: the youngest brother who was good.

Squirrel. They are rare apparently.

The Ogoh-ogoh.

At 4pm, we headed for Uluwatu Temple to watch the Kecek and Fire Dance at sunset. We got there on time, got our tickets and walked around on the temple grounds for almost an hour. Uluwatu means “On the edge of the rock” which is where the temple is located, right on the side of the rock. Uluwatu was really beautiful with its 90 degrees cliffs. And finally, after almost 2 weeks on Bali (okay, 7 days on Gili T which don’t even have monkeys), we saw the monkeys! There were a few by the parking space and then we saw some running around on the walls surrounding the temple grounds, but not too many. But we were careful and held all of our possessions inside the backpack. So sparsely with photos from when walking around there.

The view was incredible. I was hoping to see whales breaching in the distance like I could in California, but there aren’t any whales here. And the surfers were unlucky with bad waves so we didn’t really see any of them riding a wave.

In the big amphitheatre facing the sunset, we got amazing seats at the top! We sat there for almost 30 minutes but it filled up so fast. The sunset was very far away for some reason but it still gave a colorful background picture to the dance which was about the good king and the bad king fighting over the good king’s wife who was kidnapped by the bad demon king. To his help, the good king vad Hanoman, the white monkey king who fought by his side. The dresses and costumes were so intricate and colorful and the music was not music but the choir of 70 men singing or making beats. It must have been exhausting making that noise for so long! During the performance, we saw a monkey climbing the rail on the other side of the theatre and stealing something from a tourist, glasses or something. Then we had one, right behind us but it didn’t get anything. I thought the monkey went to bed at 6pm, when the sun det, but I guess they knew that there would be a ton of people leaving the theatre one hour later because oh my so many monkeys were out!! They were climbing the cables, lurking in the trees and tried to get over to the stadium. They were everywhere! But nothing happened to us, nothing was stolen, no one was bitten.

Also, a while ago, Putra didn’t say when, they found a white monkey, not an albino, but a white monkey. And apparently when they brought him to the temple, all the monkeys in the forest cheered and roared when the king arrived. There was a huge ceremony and the prime minister was there as well. They put him in a cage for his own safety since he will most likely be hunted which I definitely understand. So putting him in a cage was hopefully the lesser evil.

The very last stop of the day was seafood dinner by the ocean but the restaurants were closed because of the ceremony today so we got dinner at a restaurant close by the temple. Mie Goreng and Nasi Goreng for the last time this trip. It was really good. Up until that point, my stomach had been perfectly fine. But I had to leave Mikael alone for a bit to try out yet another restroom. Much improvement though! Or maybe it’s just the Immodium pills, I don’t know. It did hurt a bit in the evening again while we were watching episode 7 of Rings of Power. But the night was fine.

Since I’m writing this by the poolside, the sun is annoying and I can’t really see which pictures are good or not, I will upload pictures when we are at the airport later and have some time to kill.

Hello Sanur, Bali

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Today was the day when we unfortunately had to leave paradise. But we made the most of it, set the alarm at 5:30 and observed an incredible sunrise over Mount Rinjani (active volcano) on Lombok.

We enjoyed our last breakfast on the beach, packed up, checked out and walked to the harbor and had a chance of waving Rahman and the Blue Marlin Dive Resort goodbye on our way past.


The boat ride today was bumpy and Mikael got really seasick. I was tired and managed to read 3 pages and then I fell asleep. Didn’t sleep for too long. But a couple of times anyway.

In Padangbai, we were greeted by our driver, we stopped to buy snacks (chips and cola), which was the best thing I’ve ever eaten. I think we have eaten way too little salt this trip. Even if we’ve been careful with drinking Resorb.

At 2pm, after an hour in the craziest car ride I’ve ever been in, we checked in at our last stay on this vacation: Swiss-Belresort Watu Jimbar in Sanur. Unfortunately, the Deluxe room that we had booked was full so we got upgraded to Grand Deluxe room with our own private jacuzzi.

You can tell that this is an old hotel and not much has been done lately and I have to admit that I am a bit disappointed. The pictures look much nicer. Of course. The pool area is really nice though. We’ve already checked it out.

The jacuzzi is not an option since there’s no hot water out there. What’s the point of having a jacuzzi if you can’t have hot water in it? Too bad. But on the other hand, we had unlimited hot water in the indoor shower! Neither the shower in Ubud nor Gili T had hot shower water, haha! Gili T had for maybe 3 minutes.

We didn’t stay long in the hotel, repacked a bag and headed for the beach which isn’t more than 10 minutes of walking from here. We also had late lunch at “Cafe Smörgås”. A Swedish cafe on Bali? We were really hungry and it looked like a really nice place, so we decided to try it. Mikael had meatballs with mashed potatoes and gravy and lingonberries and pickled cucumber. And I have to admit, that it was a great one! The owner is Swedish and started this cafe 14 years ago. I had something asian though, probably the best vegetarian spring rolls I’ve ever had. And popcorn chicken.

After lunch, we wanted to hang out by the beach for a little while but we’re disgusted when we came to the beach. So much garbage and plastic! It was also low tide. I wonder if it will be different tomorrow morning during high tide and if someone will pick up those plastic piles?

We were sad, and extremely sweaty! So we walked back to the hotel complex to lie by the pool for a bit. We did that for maybe half an hour and then the sun disappeared behind the hotel. Since then, we’ve been chilling at the room. We skipped dinner tonight which feels nice actually, then we watched two episodes of the latest season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

Now, Mikael is sound asleep and I’m writing this and half watching the spectacle that’s going on outside: the massive storm! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a storm this intense before. Lightning lighting up the whole sky at least every other second! It’s cozy! And safe to be on the inside.

Gili T day 5: Paradise (incl. Bali belly…)

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Tonight, I am once again in too much pain to be able to go through pictures and write a blog post. But it will be uploaded tomorrow 🙂

2022-10-09, 19:00

Yesterday was a perfect day in paradise, and that of course includes Bali belly. It is manageable, but in the evening and nights it gets really bad. But during the day, if I don’t move or dive, it’s fine. The day started with amazing weather and since Mikael’s sinuses were a bit off since the dive the previous afternoon, we skipped the first fin dive and decided to do the afternoon one to Meno Wall, since we hadn’t done it before. So the morning was spent doing nothing, lying on the beach, eating bruschettas, cooling down in the ocean. It was the perfect morning. I finally got some time to read! And I finally got a little tan, haha.


At breakfast it was a bit cloudy, but that cleared up as soon as we left the hotel for the beach again.

The dive at 2:30pm was to Meno Wall, a new dive site to us. The dive itself was great, but it was depressing how much dead coral it was there. We saw tons of turtles again, a tiny tiny pink nudibranch and an almost as small black seaslug. It was a great last dive, these walls of coral is pretty awesome. We also saw three big puffer fish, one yellow which was pretty cool.

We paid for all of our 14 dives and it totaled to 380 SEK per dive. That’s pretty good for boat dives, everything included.

Our last day on Gili T ended at Scallywags restaurant where we decided to go all in. We both had grilled lobster for dinner (first time ever for me). And with drinks (which I couldn’t finish, even if it was a mango daquiry, my stomach just said no) and deserts the check ended up at 1 800 000 Rupiah. But that’s still only 600 SEK per person, haha! But it’s impressive to manage such a check on Gili. Normally our dinners end up at 300-400, maybe 600 if it’s been a nicer dish like mahi mahi.

It was good, but more meat-y than crawfish that we are used to eating. The moon was one day away from being full, it was warm as usual, good food (several nice toilets visits) and good company made it a very nice last evening 🙂

Gili T day 4: More diving

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Bali Belly is apparently a common thing and it’s still ongoing for me. But much better today. Now it’s basically just cramps, which is pretty bad in itself, but it could be a lot worse I guess.

This morning was the best so far. The view from our breakfast was incredible, the sky was almost clear and it was really warm at 7 already.

I decided that my stomach was well enough for a dive and we tried the 9am fun dive with Blue Marlin today to Sharkpoint. We had the same divemaster Rahman but got another couple joining us, a 30-year old pair from Australia. We saw the same baby sharks as the other day under the rock but today there were countless other divers (last time it was just the three of us), so it took away some of the amazement. But it was cute that three of the sharks were sleeping all lined up next to each other.

We also saw a couple of morays, one of which were swimming. A blue-spotted stingray. A tiny tiny nudibranch and of course a ton of tropical fishes and corals. I saw no turtles on this dive, first dive here I didn’t see any.

On the way back, my stomach was acting up a bit, but after lunch, we relaxed by the pool for a bit and then went to the second dive today at 14. On Friday’s there’s only two dives instead of three because of the longer prayer from the Mosque.

The second dive today was Bounty Wreck and we were ready for revansch after last time when we had technical issues with my BCD being too big and the current. I don’t think we can call it a rematch yet. This was a stressful dive in other ways but I think everything worked out fine.

So for this dive we had an elder Dutch couple (50 maybe?) Joining us and Rahman. They said they had around 50-60 dives, which would make them fairly experienced. We descended and started the dive as usual but after around half, just when I’m about to swim up to three big turtles lying next to each other on the ground, I see Rahman shoot back and I turn around and see Mikael swimming towards me and behind him, halfway up to the surface is a bubbly mess of one of our diving buddies. Her husband was further down, trying to get Rahman to help him help his wife who kept ascending. For those of you who don’t dive, that’s bad! You can’t get up that quickly from 18m depth without doing a safety stop of 3 minutes on 5m depth. The risk of decompression sickness is much higher if you don’t make the stop. Mikael and I ascended a bit but stayed at least at 10m and let Rahman handle the situation. Eventually she came back down and the dive continued. She signaled she was fine. So we descended again and continued.

We were at the wreck itself for only a few minutes, much air was lost and we needed to end the dive.

Later, she seemed fine and told us that she couldn’t deflate her BCD when trying to maintain her boyancy under water. I hope she didn’t get decompression sickness. Because that’s bad!

When we all surfaced, I panicked a little when I saw Mikael’s face. He had blood all over his cheek. And when he removed his mask, his face was so bloody!! His sinuses had burst while descending after the woman came down from her “accident”. He could feel it then, something warm filling his mask, but he thought is was mucus. So he did half of the dive with a mask full of blood. I’m glad that he had a mask with UV protected glass. I would have freaked out underwater if I saw his bloody face. We would have had to ended the dive. Apparently it’s not too uncommon for this to happen. But it looked gruesome!

After the dive, we went to the hotel, relaxed for a short bit and got ready for dinner. We met up with the Australians and had dinner at Pearl. It was a very nice evening. And in the background, over Lombok, there was an ongoing massive thunderstorm the whole evening so we had lightning lighting up the sky all the time. It was beautiful.

Gili T day 3: Bali belly

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So today was not fun… When I woke up my stomach was cramping more than I’ve ever experienced. I spent the morning sleeping and sitting on the toilet. We missed breakfast because we didn’t leave the room until 10:30. The cramps and dizziness has come and gone throughout the day and my appetite has been zero but I’ve forced food down and eaten light and easy things.

We had breakfast, pancakes, at Blue Marlin Dive right as they were leaving for the day’s second dive. We then exchanged money and went more south to sleep on the beach for a bit. It was completely cloudy today which was nice. We stayed for about 2 hours before the rain came and that’s when we went to Pearl Beach Lounge for some late lunch. Back at the hotel, we watched the latest episode of Rings of Power and then had dinner at Scallywags restaurant by the ocean.

Not the most exciting day. But I’m hoping more than anything that my stomach will be fine tomorrow so we can go diving again!

Gili T day 2: Diving, snorkeling, bicycling

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Since I think that I got something with my stomach and sun stroke, I am too tired to do this tonight. I will post twice tomorrow instead 🙂

But until then, WordPress started working again and I could upload the last pictures from yesterday. Link to the post is here.

2022-10-06, 15:00

So the stomach bug is pretty bad. Dizzy, nauseated, stomach cramps, faint, and weak. And still we prepared for this with vaccinations. Maybe it would have been worse. The sunstroke was really bad last night, I was freezing like I’ve never frozen before. I got a fever and in combination with the stomach cramps, I was not feeling very strong. It’s getting better though. The fever has gone down, but my stomach is still pretty bad. Mikael lucked out on the sun stroke, but also got stomach issues, not as bad as me though.

Yesterday morning stated with a dive with Blue Marlin Dive at Bounty Wreck. The worst one so far because of the gear not fitting. My BCD was too big, the straps of my mask kept sliding down onto my ears, my regulator didn’t really seemed to stay in my mouth, the visibility was only around 10m, and the current was annoying. We had to swim against it at several times and it was tough. It was a pretty cool dive still though. We saw two octopi, several turtles, nudibranches and the wreck itself, a sunken pier full of corals, was really pretty!

We decided we would skip on the second dive to Halik since we did that one already and wanted to relax for a bit. So we rented bikes and rode up north to Turtle Beach where we had lunch at Laguna Beach Resort. Mikael had the tuna sandwich and I had the Mie Goreng (fried noodles with vegetables and egg) and as soon as we finished we both got super dizzy and nauseated. It was so weird. We took a couple of sunbeds and lied down. Went snorkling for a bit and saw three turtles. We were feeling a bit better and decided to bike around the island to watch the sunset on the other side. It took us an hour in total to ride around the whole island, and we were not going fast. Up north, there were only sandy paths and so many sketchy places that sold sketchy things.

The west side of the island was unexploited, much land for sale, very empty, many hotels under renovations. Our agency told us that side was quieter than the east where we are staying and yes it is quieter but I didn’t want to stay there. Also, the beaches were rocky and you couldn’t be in the water because of the rocks.

The sunset was was unfortunately not visible behind clouds. I imagine them being quite amazing here! We were planning to get up at 5:30 to watch the sunrise this day, but decided to take that another time. Those I know can be amazing!

We jumped in the pool before going to our room, I was freezing and used the little hot water we had. Mikael brewed me a cup of tea and I lay in the bed for a long time before managing to get up and get dressed so we could have dinner on the beach. My stomach was really upset but I managed to get a nacho plate down which did me great!

Back in the room, I fell asleep instantly so the episode of Rings of Power that we started will have to wait.

Gili T day 1: Diving

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Today was all about diving, we managed to get in 3 dives and that’s basically all we did today. No, wait, I did manage to get a bit of a sunburn on my nose as well. Even if we stayed under water all day, haha!

Breakfast today was served on the beach. Bacon and pancakes and pineapple juice. Great start of the day. Then we packed our bag and walked four minutes to Blue Marlin Dive. Like I said yesterday, we had signed up for all three fun dives today and wow, we were definitely in for a treat without even being able to imagine beforehand.

I’ll give you a spoiler before reading on, these were the three dive sites:
* Halik Reef
* Turtle Haven
* Sharkpoint

I can say that it only got better and better with each dive. And I’ll let you know why. All of the dives were from a boat and we were several small groups going. One group consisted of up to 5-6 divers and a dive master. Our first dive at Halik, we were three divers and one master. Mikael and I had the same dive master on all three dives and on the first one we had a guy, Alex, from Switzerland.

Well, Halik was a really cool dive, but I guess I have to say that it also was a great experience in my still young diving career. It was a current dive, which neither of us has even done before. And today, the current was really strong! What that means, is that you just lie there, letting the current take you along. It was scary, but afterward, we heard we did great. Alex, the Swiss guy with over 80 dives, said it was the toughest dive he’s ever done. So I guess it was for us as well as it was our number 11 and 7, haha. The first thing I saw when we descended from the surface, was a turtle grazing the bottom! That’s when I knew it was gonna be a great day! I saw another turtle on the reef side while drifting by. Mikael unfortunately didn’t see any of them. We also saw a puffer fish, sea cucumbers and lots and lots of tropical fish.

Our second dive was to Turtle Haven. Mikael and I got the same dive master, but three new companions, three girls from Brazil I think. No current on this dive which was great! But there were however about 10 turtles, a few of them really massive!! Our dive master said they might have been as old as 80 because of their size. It was hard using the GoPro with these three girls with us as they were chasing the turtles. Not okay behaviour according to me. Why not just look at them from a distance that’s not disturbing their peace? On this dive, we also saw two nudibranches.

The third dive, it was just Mikael and I with the same dive master. This was an incredible dive as well. Because this was the first time I dove with sharks! But that was not all. We saw 3 octupi, one was a really big one! We saw a blue-spotted stingray, a rare leaf scorpionfish, a moray eel, many turtles, and a sleeping trigger fish which was cute. In total we saw 6 white tipped reef sharks. All babies. Four of them were sleeping under a rock, one was swimming next to them (these were maybe 1m big each) and the last one was swimming out in the open when we left the sleeping babies. It was a little bit bigger, maybe 1,2m. It was soo cool! And we were calm and everything was just peaceful. Now, I wanna see the big ones!

On the way up to the boat on the last dive, Mikael got stung by something. Probably just manta ray food (can’t remember the name), or a jellyfish. Either way, not dangerous, but it burned quite a bit.

The water temperature at the surface was 30C and at the bottom, at 18-20m was 29C. Not bad at all! ❤ I had my own 3mm full wet suit, but the dive club only had shorties to rent, that’s why I didn’t get stung by anything, but Mikael did.

I somehow got burned in my face today. I don’t understand why. But apparently I did. We have been diving all day, and been on a boat with a roof. Oh well.

We had mahi mahi for dinner with a fruity drink on the beach right outside our hotel. It was windy today, but clear sky so we could see the moon. Tiny cats, not more than 2kg each were running around begging for food. We miss our 5,5kg ones at home. And we’re so happy that mom sends us updates all the time <3.

As I have my job computer with me, and not any good tools for screenshots from the videos today, I won’t be uploading too many photos today. So stay tuned for the rest (or at least much better photos) when we’re back in Sweden! 🙂

The camera took photos every 5 seconds during filming, here are the best ones:

Halik Reef


Puffer fish.

Large sea cucumber.

Turtle Haven


Black nudibranch with white spots on the right side of the white coral.

Black nudibranch with white large spots/spikes just below the round coral in the upper middle part of the picture.

Photo bomb.

Shark Point

The rest of the pictures will come tomorrow. It doesn’t seem like WordPress wants to cooperate anymore….


Sleeping trigger fish.

Baby sharks under the rock!

Another baby shark.

The black in the bottom middle is an octopus.

The shark is exavtly in the middle of the picture.

The shark is in the far right middle.

The shark is in the exact middle of the photo.

Low middle.

Down right corner.

Clownfish.

Blue spotted stingray.

Black clownfish.

Hello Gili Trawangan

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Wow! That’s all I got to say.

No, just kidding. But seriously. What a great first impression this island gave us. Well, not the first first, because it was raining when we arrived. But what a nice rain!

Okay, let me start from the top. This morning we had to check out from Taman Harum Cottages in Ubud. It was rather cloudy and we were so ready to go and see another place. Ubud was cool, much to see, but the diving on Gili T has lured us. And also, the weather is slightly less wet on Gili than Bali, so that was something to look forward to as well.

We got a really nice driver to take us to Padangbai Harbor from where we took the speed ferry out to the islands. We stopped on the way at his favorite local restaurant so we could try local Balinese food, suckling pig. He was even so kind as to talk to the waitress to not make it so spicy. We took takeaway and ate while waiting for the ferry. It was good, but I do understand why the Balinese like to add spices. Not sure that I liked the crunchy skin pieces which he said was his favorite. But it was great to try some real local food.

The ferry (which was just like an airplane on water with seatings) was not too bad. Not too bumpy and was over pretty fast. Gili T was the last stop and it took exactly three hours. It would have been more fun to have been able to be on the ferry that left at 9am instead of 1pm. But oh well.

What was not so much fun, was that after our second to last drop off at Gili Air, it started to pour. The AC was maxed in the boat and looking out at the grey wet was not nice. But honestly. When we got off the boat, it was the best rain I’ve ever experienced. It was still 28C something and the rain was really warm. I loved it!! So walking to the hotel was not too bad at all. And definitely not when the horse-drawn carriages ran past. So what’s pretty cool about this island, is that they don’t have any vehicles except bicylces, the occasional electric moped and several horse-drawn carriages. They all wore bells and it sounds lika Santa’s reindeer sleigh is coming when they are near. So cute!

We checked in at Scullywags Resort south of the harbor, pretty much in the middle of it all. We have definitely understood that this part of the island is the party island. I think we’ve gotten 5 proposals of buying organic party enhancers (=mushrooms) in the short amount of time when we took a walk. Our room is incredible! We have a front yard, the room itself and the bathroom which is mostly completely out in the open. I thought it was cool that our last hotel had an open slit in the bathroom, but this is fully open over the shower. It’s like taking a shower in the jungle.

The very first thing we did, was walking a few minutes to the most popular diving club, Blue Marlin Dive and booked not one, not two, but three dives for tomorrow! We are so excited! We then went on a walk to the south side of the island, we walked a little bit in the water and we both fell in love right there I think. This place might be the best place I’ve ever been! The water was almost 30C according to a website. That’s insane! I look forward to spending a lot of time under the surface tomorrow.

We walked back, tried the outdoor shower and then walked to Pearl Beach Lounge to have dinner. That salmon was incredible. So was the pina colada and steamed brownie. Wow! And the mouse falling from the ceiling, passing out until the waiter shoveled him up and went downstairs and he darted away, was crazy! The evening was pretty much as warm as the day and nothing else than a thin-striped dress was needed while eating outdoor. What a place! We’re in love. And I think I can speak for Mikael as well. I already feel that 4 nights and 3 days here won’t be enough…

rpt

Ubud day 2

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Three hours of sleep and a day full of events has taken its toll. We are so exhausted now. But wow, we’ve seen some things!

  • Mount Batur sunrise hike
  • Batur Natural Hot Springs
  • Tegallalang Rice Fields
  • Tegenungan Waterfall
  • Pool
  • Teba Rasi Resto

The day started at 1:30am when our alarm went off. Our driver would come pick us up at 2am at the hotel, to go to Mount Batur, hike the 1,7km tall volcano and watch the sunrise from the top. The weather gods were on our side today, no rain, a good amount of clouds and no wind. It couldn’t have been better.

There were tons of hikers and guides, each group of around 6 people had two guides, one in the front and one in the back. It was Mikael and I, two girls from northern England and a couple from Canada. Two hours to the top and one and a half on the way down. Up was not too bad. Except that it was pitch-dark and you had to have a flashlight and if you looked away from the path, you stumbled. It was a great hike and not too bad for me. One in our company had troubles with her cardio though and we didn’t quite reach the top top to watch the sunset, but we watched it while hiking the last way. Which definitely wasn’t too bad either. But a time-lapse video from the top of that incredible sunrise would have been awesome!

We were told there would be stealing monkey’s on the top and that we had to be careful with our food and things. My brother told me that he lost his breakfast egg up there to a monkey when he did it a few years ago. BUT. We didn’t see a single monkey. I was disappointed. I know they are annoying and might have rabies and we told ourselves beforehand to stay away from them. But I would still very much like to see them. They can be both annoying and cute at the same time.

Up there, we had steamed banana sandwhiches which was surprisingly good. We watched the sun rise next to the other two mountains on Bali. Can’t remember their names.

We took an easy way down, not so steep, and not so rocky. Which was awful for my knees. My left one is kaputt now and I really hope it isn’t anything worse than just after this hike down.

Right after the hike, our driver took us to Batur Natural Hot Springs. At first we thought it was weird to go to hot springs on Bali, but we withdrew those thoughts immediately. It was like a spa facility, with many pools and very warm water outlets. The water was warm, but those were really warm and great to ease the shoulder muscles. We only stayed for an hour and a half, and I probably would have wanted to stay longer. It was incredible. At the bottom of the big crater, right next to the lake. So worth it after that hike.

We switched driver after the hot springs and also got our local guide with us for the rest of the afternoon. We had decided that we wanted to see rice fields, waterfalls, and Monkey Forest and she came along for all of them.

First, we went to Tegallalang Rice Fields, which I thought would be just beautiful rice fields, but instead we ended up at a day pool club. And that place was all about Instagram and getting the perfect picture from swings to infinity pools and photo places. It was cool, sure. But I would have been happy just seeing the fields. We had lunch there at the restaurant with the great view. We had Satay which is a spicy course here on Bali, compared to back home when Satay is more sweet and peanut-y. We saw two Luwaks, the civit animals who are picky coffee bean eaters, who later poop out fermented beans that are then ground down to coffee. We tried a cup there and then and it was not as sour as the coffee we drink back home. Not too bad!

We had lunch with the guide and she told us that we were her first travelers since 2019 since she had a stroke then and was in a coma, wheel-chair and walked with a cane up until a month ago. It was sweet of her to share. When we were leaving, the rain began to fall.

Our next stop was the  Tegenungan Waterfall. It also had a day pool club with party music and soooo many shopping stands with souvenirs and stuff. I can only imagine how tough it must have been for so many people on this island when it shut down for 2,5 years. Our guide told us about this as well.

Our last stop of the day was supposed to be Monkey Forest. But the rain had gotten so heavy that we decided to head back to the hotel instead. The guide told us that we did not want to go there and see angry monkeys, they’re bad as they are, haha! SInce we’re leaving Ubud tomorrow, we might as her to set up something else for us when we get back to Sanur on four days. Going all the way up to Monkey Forest when we are staying in the south might be too much of a hassle. But I also don’t want to be here for 2 weeks and not see a single monkey!

Back at the hotel, we were so tried that we fell asleep for an hour before we took a dip in the pool in the still drizzling rain. And then we decided that it would be worth going out for a real dinner our last night here in Ubud. So we called a taxi which took us to Teba Sari Resto, which was a restaurant in Ubud close to a Koi pond. It was a bamboo construction and the pond had huts with tables in them. We didn’t get a pond table, but we still had a nice view. We tried fried duck and friend banana for dessert. Their drinks, Mango Berry and Cosmo Colada, were really good as well.

It was a long day, but such a fun one. We are both really excited to go to Gili Trawangan tomorrow and start our diving adventure together!!

Ubud day 1

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The first day of our vacation is over and it was great!

It started with the sun shining and a dip in the pool. In the light of day, we saw how lush and cosy the hotel is.


The view from our window.

We had Indonesian breakfast: fried noodles/rice with vegetables, egg and chicken at the restaurant in connection with the hotel. Weird to eat hot food at breakfast, but it was delicious.

The rest of the day was all about walking around in the center of Ubud, the cultural capital of Bali. It was touristy but still much enjoyable. And since it is the wet season right now, apparently there aren’t too many tourist. That’s good. But that also means that there is rain. But not as much as we dreaded before coming. The morning was amazing and the rain didn’t come until 1pm, which was the perfect time to sit down and have lunch anyway. So we took the first we found, Miro’s Garden and had Pancake Raja, a potato pancake. It was so nice sitting there under the roof, while it was raining quite a lot and the thunder roared. The freshly pressed banana and pineapple juices added to the experience positively as well.

The last stop, before heading home to the hotel, was at the Saraswati Temple in the middle of Ubud. We didn’t enter the temple but walked around outside. It was beautiful. Ponds full of lilypads and extremely intricate statues. Apparently, you are not allowed to enter the temple while on your period. I wonder why.

Our driver recommended a nice restaurant not too far away from here. But since we are getting picked up at 2am tomorrow, and it was already 5:30pm, we decided to have dinner at the hotel again. Not super fun perhaps, but we will make up for it on Gili and in Sanur later on.

We also took an evening swim in the pool and had something flying very close to our heads above the water. It took us a while, but eventually we realized we had a bat that was chasing us, haha!

So, tomorrow is a day full of adventures, starting at 2am. I hope the adrenaline and thrill of the agenda will keep us awake :D.