A fortnight in paradise - All you need to know about Bali #baliinphotos

We had a late evening landing in Bali so by the time we checked in it was almost 9pm. But unlike most places, BALI is all awake at night! Our home for the first two days was Sol Lila. It is a boutique villa with unique infra and a stunning open bathroom with a bathtub and rainshower! We fell in love with Bali already!

After settling in, we changed into our nicer clothes and headed straight to this crazy party place called 'La Favela'. The party goes on all night there! The place itself is a beautifully decorated maze flooded with people dancing and having the time of their lives.

Food Tip: If you feel hungry in the night, there is a place just opposite to La Favela - Natys. They serve food even when La Favela is out of it! So load up here and party there! They serve some vegetarian options too!

So we hired a scooty, and went to shop around the Seminyak Square. You will find plenty of street shops as well as high-end branded showrooms. The choice is yours! We personally shopped at both kinds!

Shopping Tip: There are some nice shops around Kuta as well (so I have heard). Though we could not personally visit them to comment, but you can try!

Our lunch party today was at Mrs Sippy! And oh what vibes! Sip on their crazy good cocktails, eat the yummy food, groove to tropical tunes, swim in Bali's largest salt water pool and get soaked in top notch hospitality!

Oh! not to forget their cool triple tier dive tower! You can jump right into that crystal clear pool. This is where I tried it for the first time!

Next we went to the Seminyak beach and walked along the shore. There is a nice swing by the beach. Just grab a BINTANG (the local beer in Bali) and just hang by the beach!

Bintang Tip: Try the Bintang Radler, it tastes like Lemonade!

It was Christmas Eve Today, so for our X'mas dinner, we changed into our X'mas clothes and visited the much heard of Potato Head Beach Club. Believe me, I have never seen such a grand entrance to a club! Even though people think of it as more of a day club, but the vibes at night are as amazing! If I could use one word to describe it, it would be 'Grand'. And the bonus is that the beach is right in front of you. Just climb down 5 steps and you're at the beach for your late night stroll!

Since we were staying at 'The Nusa Veranda' in Nusa Ceningan, the boat company provided us a drop to the yellow bridge (the bridge connecting Nusa Lembongan with Nusa Ceningan). From there, our villa guys picked us up on scooties!

The villa itself is so very beautiful with direct views of the ocean. A very simple, cozy, clean and happy place to be at with lovely people as your hosts! It also has a pool facing the ocean!

So coming back to the itinerary, we first visited the Blue Lagoon (it is actually soooooo blue and beautiful!!!). There was wonderful wind blowing. We popped open a can of BINTANG and had a chill time! There is a cliff jumping point very close to Blue Lagoon for the adrenaline seekers!

Then we visited 'The Sand' for our lunch. This place has been on my list since ages! With swings and hammocks in the ocean and yummy cocktails served right there, you just don't wanna move out of this place!

After spending I don't know how many hours lazing around at The Sand, we headed to Lembongan (by crossing the yellow bridge). There are plenty of things that you can do here (Mangrove tour, Snorkeling and Diving, Mushroom beach etc.) and honestly you need a full day or more to be able to cover the island (Lembongan is bigger than Ceningan) but due to lack of time we chose to visit the Dreamland Beach (we hardly stayed there for 10 minutes) and The Devil's Tear point.

After a beautiful sunset, we decided to dine at 'Sea Breeze Ceningan' . This place is very close to 'The Sand' and is very nicely decorated with swings and hammocks and a heart shaped dance floor of sorts and great music! They have a hanging hammock by the edge above the ocean - so you might wanna visit it during day time for a nicer picture.

First we went to Angel's Billabong. It is a very beautiful pool formation between cliffs. Unfortunately due to the high tide, it was not advisable to swim at that time but you can experience a mini version of the Devil's tear here as well.

Right next to Angel's Billabong is Broken beach and what a beautiful beach it is! It is not one you can swim in but one you marvel at. A beautiful arched tunnel in between two cliffs with the ocean water flowing freely under it. It a sight to behold!

Next we visited the famous T-Rex beach - Kelingkin Beach. To be honest I thought I might not find it as attractive in real because I had seen soooo many pictures of it on instagram, but believe me, in real, the beach is mighty. The ocean here seems much larger than general from the top (hence the mighty look) and the structure of the huge T-Rex rock with the hues of blues of the ocean hitting it is so magnificent! Most people stop by at the top from where you can view the whole beach, but if you have the time and energy, you can walk down to the beach to actually relax by the sand. The trek can be an hour or longer (even longer to come up as it is a steep one!) so wear shoes if you wanna go that path. It's a tough walk, but I am sure it is worth it! The beach has a cave like feel with very less people down there.

Next we went to Crystal Bay for sunset. We hired snorkeling gear and dove into the water. The water is so clear that you start spotting fishes right as you enter! After that, we relaxed for a while on the beach, had a Bintang, clicked some nice sunset shots and headed back to the hotel.

Our resort, The Angkal, as I mentioned earlier, was located on the other end of the island. We chose this as you can see a beautiful sunrise from here, plus we wanted to touch the eastern end of the island as well. They have a beautiful infinity pool in front of the rooms and a lovely bar where you are served breakfast. In short - I recommend!

So we hopped on in our Grab and started our journey. On the way to our hotel, we visited the Grand GWK statue on the way and boy its huge! It doesn't take much time to visit the statue and infact you can easily spot it from many places outside as well if you don't want to go inside the park.

We picked up some groceries from Nirmala Supermart, hired a scooty on the way and checked in to 'La Joya Biu Biu II '- to our ocean front private pool suite room. We had planned to go to Ulluwatu temple but as soon as we entered, we knew we are not moving out of the room for a long while, so we cancelled the temple trip, because who wanted to struggle in between a thousand people when you had a private pool with that view.

After a lot of relaxation in the room and the pool, we decided to visit 'Rock Bar' as it is considered the best place in Bali for sunsets! It is a part of Ayana Resorts so if you are staying there, you'll get a great seat for sure!

Sunset Tip: If you are not staying in the resort and you want a good seat, reach Rock bar by 4pm. They do not take sunset reservations and the queue can be rather long.

Rock bar is one grand place to be at! The management is too good with that amount of crowd. The food is so tasty (they have an Indian papri dish too!) and the sunset? The hype is every bit worth it! I have never seen such sunset colors in my life! Like what even! You just can't miss this one!

After a lovely breakfast at La joya (their restaurant has Greece like feels) and a late check out, we chose to visit Dreamland beach. I don't know if it is in the name but the beach does have a very dreamy feel to it. With logs of wood on the beach and surfers surfing in the blue water, it is a great spot to hang out! (Since this is a surfing beach, you can't really swim here, the waves are rough).

Next, we headed on our scooter for lunch and some day-clubbing at Omnia. Boy! I am in love with the feels of this place! Tasty drinks, a sassy pool overlooking the Indian Ocean, great music, fancy entrance and the BEST FOOD I HAVE HAD IN BALI! A must must must visit place! Not to forget the hospitality - a cherry on the cake!

We had booked the best room on their property and *pause*, *gulp*, OH! MY! GOD! This place is PHENOMENAL! The private deck, private gazebo, private pool, simplistic interiors and 180 degree uninterrupted view of the Indian Ocean. It just wasn't real. The bedroom itself was so modern and fancy with a huge round canopy bed. The place had such homely feels (no room service, though the kitchen was walking distance away). If I had to choose a place with the best view and feels in Bali - this would be it! We of course did not go anywhere else for the rest of our day!

We were staying at Le Pirates beach resort which had really cute beach huts with a pleasing blue and white theme. So after getting off the boat, we hopped on a horse cart and reached our resort in 10 minutes.

We were served a refreshing welcome drink and wet towels (very much needed in that scorching heat!) at check-in. We hired bicycles from our resort itself and headed towards the harbor.

Since we had missed the 1 pm deadline for the public Snorkelling trip, we grabbed a quick lunch and chose to go for a private snorkelling tour on a glass bottom boat (which costs considerably more than the public tour. Also, the glass bottom is not on the whole boat, it's a section of the boat).

You can walk along the harbor and negotiate / haggle with different vendors. There are plenty of them. The tour covers four to five diving spots around the three islands and also allows you a stop for lunch on any of the other Gilis so this way you can cover another Gili island! The ocean is beautifully blue and clear, you can see wide variety of fish and you can swim with huge turtles! I had never seen turtles before! And then there is the iconic underwater circular statue structure - The Nest! Its beautifully surrounded by fishes and is a marvel in itself.

As the sun was setting, it was the time to party now! Gili T is famous for its crazy parties - it is in-fact called the 'Party island'. It has a pub crawl culture which means everybody on the island gathers together at one pub which hosts the party for the night. So tonight the party was luckily at Sama Sama Reggae bar! I can say this with full confidence that this is the best party I have attended in the whole of my Bali trip! Unlike most places, there is no entry and exit culture. You can walk in and walk out and walk back in any time without anyone checking your bags or stamping your arm. You can even just stand outside the bar and dance to the music as it's so open! They have a live reggae band, such chill vibes, people from all cultures sipping on yummy cocktails and dancing to the live songs. I had a wide grin on my face for all the hours I was in that place. (They stop serving food late night, but just walk on the street and you'll find many options next door)

Our scuba dive was a beautiful experience! As I mentioned, The water of Gilis is so clear that you start spotting marine line the moment you dip your head in. We saw so many huge turtles (some can be more than 100 years old) and a vast variety of fish.

We had the rest of the day free to us - we could have chosen to do the water sports, hop on to a ferry to visit the other islands, cycle around, take a horse ride along the beach etc. but we chose to relax at our beach hut. For lunch we headed back to Le Pirates and discovered Nasi Goreng (Indonesian fried rice). It became my staple food from then on!

The villa we booked for today goes by the name Kampoeng Saya, which by the way looked very pretty on all booking websites but in reality, it was more like the architect stopped working on it mid way. It was spacious, but everything about it was incomplete and uncomfortable. In short, I do not recommend staying here unless these people plan to undertake some serious repairs.

Anyway, after some rest and dressing up for new years, we arranged for a scooter and planned for a club hop around Bali. We planned to check-out Canggu area first, so we drove down and found such cute cafe's and shops along the streets. There are plenty of vegan options in that area. We stopped by at a few of them and tried on random stuff. Next we decided to check-out Finns Beach Club. Unluckily, they had a hefty entrance fee (not cover fee) due to new years and the music was mostly electronic (which was something we weren't too fond of. We wanted more of live acoustic / reggae :p). Even though this place is a wonderful beach club (and I would recommend anyone to visit), we decided not to enter and headed towards Seminyak

To be honest, on new year's in Bali eve almost every nice place had a huge entry fee. Some with cover and some without cover. Plus most of these places come without promise of a place to sit.

We chose a place for early evening snacks to spend sometime. After some more hopping around we finally decided to spend our NYE at KuDeta. They had a live international singer performing and some Nu-disco music so we decided this was it!

Even though we could not find a proper seat, this place had a platform to sit on facing the beach. We found solace there, ordered some drinks and snacks and sat there observing the waves for hours. Such a peaceful way to end 2018!

When it was 15 minutes to 12, they had a special drumroll performance which seemed more like an African themed drum retreat. Must say that was real good.

We stayed at one of their Beachfront Suites and I must say this was one of its kind. A very differently designed suite with a modern touch, a private pool area in front of your room and the beach right in front of your eyes. There was a beautiful in-room bar area as well! We were back to luxury and ah! it felt good!

So first we visited the Blue Lagoon Beach which was a pretty drive in itself. The beach was actually so blue and clear. You can hire Snorkeling gear from the shop there and go free snorkelling into the water! We chose to chill, swim and eat ice-cream!

Next we headed to Singaraja Waterfall (which is apparently same as Tegenungan waterfall). Unfortunately it started raining heavily and it went on for about an hour. We had to wait at a bamboo structure (which was also fun to be honest) and then slowly started heading down. We had lunch at a cafe overlooking a side of the waterfall. Then as we started moving further down we noticed the water of the falls was all muddy and dirty maybe due to the rains. We thought it would be unwise to go all the way down to only discover dirty water which we won't swim in, so we decided not to go and rather move back to Komune and make the most of our stay!

So as planned, we grabbed some bintang and munchies on the way and as soon as we entered we dove into the pool and had the one of the most relaxing evenings overlooking the ocean. We went down later to the beachfront club for an early dinner, enjoyed some food (the chicken was good, though the vegan black burger I ordered wasn't that great), walked on the shores of the black sand beach and explored the lovely property to end our day.

So when it comes to rafting, Bali has two major options:

1. Ayung Rafting

2. Telaja Waja Rafting

Though they say both are equally fun, I chose Telaja Waja over Ayung for the extra thrill factor. Ayung has rapids upto grade 2 only whereas Telaja Waja has upto grade 4. Plus there is a 4m free-fall over a dam at the end of the rafting which I was really excited about. Most people choose Ayung because it's must closer to Ubud, takes less time and is pretty, but I wanted the added difficulty and thrill!

We close Alam Adventures for the rafting experience. Our rafting group was a mix of lovely people from different nationalities (USA, France, Libya) and we became friends instantly! The whole journey takes around 2 hours. You cross beautiful rain forests, scenic rice paddies and random waterfalls (even get to bathe in one!). It just feels like you're suddenly in Jungle book! The trip ends with the thrilling fall over the dam and a hearty delicious lunch!

After the rafting adventure, the driver dropped us to Mara River Safari Lodge which was our home for today. The lodge is built on a safari theme and the reason we chose it was that you can see and feed animals (zebras, rhinos, etc.) right from your balcony! We checked in and hopped on to the safari bus for our day safari.

The safari is more like a simulation of a natural environment where each animal is free yet constrained in a particular area. It is not like the typical national park and is more of a guided tour. If you have kids along they can have a lot of fun! That being said, you do get to experience wildlife very up close! Lions, rhinos, giraffes, zebras, bears etc. freely roaming around. So that was the fun bit for us! After this we visited the Komodo Dragon Habitat in the compound and this was the first time I ever saw these interesting creatures!

Today we had a breakfast at the Tsovo Lion Restaurant within the lodge. It is a unique experience where-in you can eat with the lions roaming around right outside the restaurant. As you sit and eat, the lions would walk around the glass panels and the experience in itself is very cool!

The first stop was at Ulun Danu Temple in central Bali which is located on the shores of Lake Bratan near Bedugul. The temple is made in the typical Balinse architecture with the tiered shrines. You can even ride a motorized boat to have a nice view of the temple from the middle of the lake!

After the fun swing, it was waterfall time! North bali is home to multiple waterfalls, and each one seems to be as beautiful. We had time to visit one, so we chose what people believe to be the most beautiful (and tallest) waterfall in Bali - Sekumpul waterfall.

The waterfall requires quite a trek down with over 400 steps (some quite steep ones too) but believe me you, every step is so worth it. Up close, you actually feel how tall the waterfall is! It is surrounded with beautiful green climbers and leaves and has a fresh water pool which you can bathe in. We spent a long time here just marveling at the beauty.

After the waterfall, was our time to check-in to the majestic Munduk Moding Plantation - the place with the spectacular infinity pool that you see on most instagram pictures. It has started raining heavily by the time we reached and got pretty cold as we were in the hills now and completely surrounded by deep plantations.

I will start describing the resort experience now, because for the rest of the day we did not even think of going anywhere else at all! Upon arrival, we were served hot Ginger Tea as a welcome drink - just what we needed in that cold! We received the warmest welcome and services in this resort. We were allocated a private Butler who was there for all our needs. We were escorted to our room which had a private temperature controlled pool, a private hot water jacuzzi, a library and a fireplace!!!!! (Excuse the extra exclamation marks). The roof of the bathroom has a transparent dome so you can look direct at the sky!

And that's not it, they had a fruit basket, FREE mini bar (yes, FREE! it is the only place ever that I have stayed in with a free minibar, and oh, you can also refill it once a day!) and FREE laundry. After 10 days of trip and so much time on the beach (so many clothes required washing) this was a dream!

I forgot to mention, they give you a personal cellphone to communicate with the reception / restaurant / your butler for all your needs!

Aling Aling is the place to be for adrenaline rush. The walk down is a beautiful one and not that difficult. This is where you can jump off 5m, 10m and 15m high cliffs and even slide on the waterfall! It is actually a cluster of four waterfalls - Kroya (5m jump and slide), Kembar (10m jump), Pucuk (15 m jump) and Aling Aling (holy water). I myself did the jump and the slide and it was soo much fun! Even if you do not want to do the activities, you can spend some quality time around the waterfalls for they are so very pretty!

Post the waterfall adventure, our trip to Ubud began. The first stop was the Rice Terraces of Tegallalang. Even though these terraces are beautiful, yet I would recommend that you rather visit Jatiluwih rice terrace or the rice terraces in Karangasem / Sidemen (we visited these on the last day of our trip) because the one's in Tegallalang are now highly commercialized. Everything feels like a paid photo point and I personally do not prefer such locations. (Not discouraging to visit though, to each his own).

We then stopped for Coffee tasting. Kopi Luwak a.k.a. Poop coffee is actually produced in an unorthodox way. The coffee beans are chosen and eaten by civet cats who then partially digest them and defecate them. It is considered that these Asian cats have a taste for coffee and they only choose the best beans out of the lot for their consumption. We were offered free coffee tasting of 15 varieties of tea and coffee and they were all so yummy!

After coffee tasting, we went to visit the Monkey Forest! This is a place we were really excited about (but unfortunately we had very little time - the park closes at 5.45 pm). It is a huge sanctuary with so many monkeys playing around. The monkeys can be very interactive. They climb on your shoulders, imitate what you are doing and just play around with you. I recommend spending at least an hour and a half or more hear to actually have fun!

After the forest, we checked into Villa Awang Awang. We had booked their eco villa - villa Pererepan which is a unique open villa close to the nature and comes with a private pool. The villa was extremely beautiful with the dim lights and bamboo structure (it is actually built according to the golden ratio so it has a very pleasing natural look).

Villa Tip: If you are not comfortable with the open environment, this place is probably not for you. There are lots of spaces in between doors for insects and geckos to enter. Even though they are all harmless and there is a mosquito net on the bed which keeps the bugs out, only stay here if you are comfortable with this.

Today, we had a special dinner planned in Ubud with the friends we made during our rafting trip. To our surprise two of them were staying in Villa Awang Awang itself! What a coincidence! So we planned to have dinner at Laughing Buddha bar. The place was pretty cool but the music was too loud, so we decided to find another place.

So we walked down the street which by the way was bustling with cozy cafes boasting pretty decor and live music! We found this little cute open restaurant where a pretty girl with a pleasing voice was singing some of our favorite songs and we instantly decided to dine there!

We had a lovely dinner with our mates at Maluku Restaurant. The most fun part was when the girl invited us to perform. My friend happened to be a guitar player and another one of us volunteered to sing! We had so much fun having our own live band entertaining people from different places in the world!

We planned to visit Tukad Cepung waterfalls locate inside a cave in the early hours to beat the tourist crowd but I guess we got a little late (we reached at 8.45 am).

This waterfall instantly became my favorite waterfall in the whole of Bali for the unique landscape it had to offer. The hike down is not as hard as Sekumpul but still a steep one. However, you won't regret one step of it! You cross forest like trails and head into a cave from where the water is falling down. Gosh! its so beautiful and magical!

Our next stop was at Lempuyang Temple for the iconic gates. It is a short uphill walk to reach the temple (a lot of drivers on two wheeler vehicles will offer you a ride for a nominal amount, but honestly it's not that far, you can easily walk).

For our stay today we had booked Alien Bubble hotel which is a unique stay experience in a transparent bubble on the edge of a river. However, luck had other plans for us.

Before coming to Bali, there was one specific place (my dream place) that I really wanted to stay at during my Bali Trip. The name of that magical place is Camaya - located in Karangasem (which feels more like Bali countryside). Since this place was totally booked out (till september next year!) there was no chance that I could have booked this place for this trip (unless I planned it in beginning of 2018). So I had stopped dreaming about it. However, I had signed up for their auto cancellation alerts. So this morning, I received a message that there was a last minute cancellation for today at Camaya!!!! Like what!!?? This was a dream come true, nothing short of a miracle for us!

So what did we do? We changed all our initial plans of going back to Ubud and Campuhan ridge walk and ofcourse we went ahead and booked Camaya! (We even got a 50% discount as we were foregoing our non-refundable booking at Alien bubble)

The way back to airport cut across the East Bali roads, the same roads that we travelled on our scooty while we stayed at Komune. Nostalgia hit us and we sipped on our last Bintang (though I did hoard some more from the airport to make sure I don't feel Bali sick at home :p). It started raining again and we left Bali with a smile and hope to be back!