Bali : A Dreamy Bachelorette Vacation

What's the first thing you do when your best friend calls you with the news that she is getting married? Well the travel-bugs that we are, we started planning The Bachelorette trip immediately! Considering all my friends are in India, and we had very few days to spare with the marriage prep going on, we selected few options near India, and well Bali made the top of that list. Lavish private villas with amazing pools, rice fields filled with greenery and sun-kissed sandy beaches! What more do you need for a relaxing pre-wedding vacation? So here's a recap of our short but wonderful Bali trip.

When we searched for flights from India to Bali, most of our flights had connection in Singapore. Since none of us had ever been to Singapore, we decided to add 2 days there to make most of our money. I will post another short article detailing our short but sweet Singapore getaway soon.

Day 1:

We flew from Singapore to Bali (flight duration 3 hours) and reached Bali airport at night. Since Indians don't need travel visa for Bali, our immigration was quick. There was a queue for customs even late at night, but we were out in 15 minutes. We had already made arrangements with the villa owner about pickup from airport and as promised, a driver was ready at the airport exit. We arrived at our villa in Seminyak where we planned to spend the first two days of our vacation. There are a lot of options for some lavish but affordable villas on airbnb. We read the reviews for each villa before booking, so we knew what we are getting. Here is the link of the villa we booked. The only problem we had was that the pool was too deep for us non-swimmers, but we still enjoyed the rest of the villa.

We got up very early the next day to head to our pre-booked Nusa Penida day trip. If anyone searched for Bali on social media, the image of Kelingking T-Rex Beach from Nusa Penida will surely come up. A driver picked us up at 6:30am from our villa and dropped us at the Sanur harbor where few boats were waiting to take us to the island. Once we reached the island, we were greeted by another driver who showed us the beauty of Nusa Penida. We chose to explore West Nusa Penida since the T-Rex beach was a must for us, but they do have different options you can choose from. If you have time, you can even spend a night on the island and explore more. Our first stop was the famous T-rex beach or Kelingking Beach. Even after seeing countless photos of this beach, we were mesmerized by the deep blue beach and the T-rex shaped structure. You can climb down to the beach, but since we were in a time crunch, we didn't opt for it. Our driver was amazing, and he became our photographer of the day! He went an extra mile to take the perfect shot. Beware of the monkeys, we found this cute little fella giving us a look.

After filling our eyes with the beauty of the beach, we headed to our next stop, Angel’s Billabong. The spectacular rock formation here gives the feel of your own infinity pool. Next, we reached the broken beach. The sound of waves crashing was soothing in the afternoon heat. After a quick round of the surrounding areas and some relaxing time at a nearby rocky beach, we came back to the parking lot. Lunch was included in our tour package, so we stopped at a hotel on our way back to the port. We came back to the Sanur harbor by boat, where we met our driver. We reached our villa just in time for dinner. Surprisingly Bali has a lot pizza places. Along with traditional Balinese food, Italian food is available pretty much everywhere. We spent the night with some bachelorette festivities, dancing till we fell asleep!

Day 2:

After the first day's tour, we were all tired. We decided to relax at the villa for the first half of day 2. After breakfast and some pool time, our driver picked us up for the famous Uluwatu Temple tour. This is one of the most famous old temples in Bali, built in the 11th century. Nowadays it's more famous because of the Kecak Dance performance which takes place at 6pm. Before entering the temple, you have to pay a fee of IDR 30,000. If you want to enjoy the Kecak dance performance, which is highly recommended, you can get the tickets for IDR 100,000 from 4:30pm to 5pm. We reached the temple at 4pm, so our driver had enough time to get us the tickets for both the temple and the dance performance. For most of the temples in Bali, only Balinese people can go inside the temple. But everyone can roam around in the surrounding area and take in the spectacular architecture. Also, be respectful and wear full clothing covering arms and legs. They provide a sarong at the temple for a small fee. The temple is at cliffside, boasting a view of endless sea. At around 5:30, we went to the open stadium where the Kecak dance performance takes place. Get seated early here to avoid sitting on the floor, or standing throughout the performance. The Kecak dance show is based on Ramayana, and it was the highlight of our day. The performers were amazing, specially the one playing Hanuman was hilarious. As the show goes on, you also get to enjoy sunset over the endless sea as the backdrop. After a short meet and greet with the performers, we headed out to dinner. We chose to have authentic Balinese dinner at a restaurant our driver suggested.

After dinner, we wanted to see the night life in Seminyak since it was our last night there. Seminyak is a known party place in Bali, and has a lot of beautiful nightclubs. Instead of going to the most popular ones, where we were bound to face crowds, we decided to go with our driver's choice. The club was lit with string lights and had great ambiance for our party mood. The drinks were expensive, but that was kind of expected everywhere. After we had our fill of dancing, we returned home late at night.

Day 2 night:

While researching Bali for our trip, I came across Mt. Batur sunrise trek, and as an avid hiker, I was hooked. Mt. Batur is an active volcano, and this trek is every hiker's dream! Since my friends didn't want to join for the trek, I decided to go alone after our nightclub adventure. Our driver friend helped me arrange my travel at a bargained price. He picked me at 1am and dropped me at the trail head. I had a quick snack here before heading out for the trek. A guide was provided for every 6 hikers and everything was very systematic. As a women traveling alone at night for this hike, I was never afraid since they made sure I was with a guide at all times. We started climbing the mountain along with other groups. Our guide was checking to make sure we are fine throughout the climb. The uphill trek wasn't as dreadful as I imagined, maybe because of the number of people hiking with me. We reached the peak just in time for the sunrise. The view was covered in fog initially, but cleared up quickly. I cannot describe the view in words. I was speechless! I tried to capture the beauty in front of me, but the photos couldn't do it justice. After resting for about 30 mins, we got a boiled egg sandwich and some tea. You can buy additional food for a price. We enjoyed our breakfast with a mind-blowing view, before starting the descent. The decent was a bit harder because of the volcano ash. Our guide was making sure that we don't slide down. The roundtrip trek was around 4.2 miles with an elevation of 1,742 ft. Once we reached the bottom, I called the driver to pick me up.

Day 3:

My trek package also included a visit to the coffee plantation. We visited the Bali Putina plantation where they showed me how the famous Balinese coffees are made. The coffee tastings included 10 sampled coffees. I also ordered an additional cup of Luwak Coffee. Kopi Luwak is the famous Balinese coffee made from coffee beans plucked from civets' feces. It's the world's most expensive coffee, and was worth a try!

After the visit, the driver dropped me at our Ubud airbnb, where I met my friends who came there directly from our Seminyak airbnb. After the sleepless night I spent trekking, I decided to take a nap while my friends decided to enjoy the pool. We spent that evening relaxing, and enjoying the wonderful pool.

Day 4:

We got up very early in the morning to enjoy our last day in Bali. I had booked a driver for first half of the day. To avoid crowds, we decided to visit the Ulun Danu Beratan Temple for sunrise. This was my most favorite place in Bali. While you cannot enter the temple itself, the surroundings of this temple are heavenly. At 6:30am in the morning, there were barely any people around, and we got the entire place to ourselves for about an hour. After a very long photo session (what else do you expect on a girls trip!), we headed to the Handara gate. Balinese gates are famous photo backdrops and we had to pay a little fee to take photos here. There was even a wedding photoshoot going on when we reached.

Our next stop was Wanagiri Hidden Hill, a treat for all photographers! They have developed 10 different photo props for tourists to take some out of the world photos for a fee of IDR 100,000 ($7). They even have light reflectors and assistants providing perfect lighting to take amazing photos. We spent close to 2 hours enjoying this place, taking hundreds of photos. Next, we headed to Tegenungan Waterfall. The visit was quick as we didn't have a lot of time to spend here. On the way back to Ubud, we visited the rice terraces, and the famous Bali Swing! Since there are multiple versions of this swing throughout Bali, we decided to visit the less crowded one, thanks to our driver's suggestion. I decided to just watch (thanks to the headache) while my friends enjoyed the swing, and from the looks of it, they enjoyed it a lot!

At around 4pm, we reached the famous Ubud market for some shopping. Ubud market is popular for unique Balinese accessories for a cheap bargain price. From dreamcatchers to the famous woven bags, this market was a treasure! Keep in mind that most of the street shops close at 6pm so make sure to give yourselves enough time to shop. We shopped so much, we could barely carry everything in our hands. Bargaining is the key here! We ended our adventurous Bali vacation at a relaxing spa. Bali has variety of affordable spas starting from $5. I would recommend to avoid the $5 ones, and go for the above $15 ones. We chose Sedona Spa in Ubud. The experience was wonderful and a perfect end to our trip.

We got back to our villa after dinner and packed our bags to return. Our flight was n the afternoon next day, so we enjoyed a good night's sleep before heading out to the airport next day.

We had designed this trip to give enough time for both sightseeing and relaxation. Bali is a perfect combination of beaches, culture, shopping and spa! There are a lot of places you can visit throughout Bali, but keep in mind that it takes time to go from one location to the other. I won't recommend to stuff your day with so much sightseeing that you end up spending half of your day in the car. Balinese people give utmost importance to hospitality as most of the population is dependent on the tourism business. Our villa owners got us groceries and arranged for us to get in contact with the drivers. I bargained with every driver to get the lowest price and got the car with driver for 8-10 hours for as low as $35/day. I tried to keep the same driver for multiple trips, and asked for their suggestions while preparing the next day's itineraries. Our drivers helped us take photos, buy tickets, choose restaurants to eat. In short, just ask for help, and they will provide it! I look forward to visit this paradise again!