My first time in Bali ❤︎

So following my 2017 resolutions (click here if you haven't read my 2017 resolutions blog !) , I planned a trip with one of my lifelong friends - my bff - Mod (she will be starting her vlogs soon ! Stay tuned !) and Bplar (celeb DJ, and of my partners at GOJA Gallery Cafe ) to Bali ! Let me give you a brief background on how this trip even started.

Mod and I have been friends since high school and one day made a bet. This is how it went down...sorta :

Mod : Dudddeeeee can you imagine that we will actually get married one day ?

Me : I know right ? I mean right now all we think about are how to survive through classes, boys, how braces suck, why we have to tuck in our shirts (my school had uniforms), who is dating who, and did I say boys ? Can't imagine how it would be like in in 10 years. We will be so oldddddd !

Mod : Old ? No way I'll never let myself go. I'm always gonna be hot and have my six pack (girl six pack)! You cannot let yourself go too !! You gotta stay hot !

Me : Yah !!! I have a feeling we'll be hot grannies living next-door to each other in the future...

... then a few more minutes of stupid "hot" nonsense stuff.... and then finally the main point of this whole conversation ...

Mod : Hey do you wanna make a bet ? Whoever gets married first will take the other one on a trip !

Me : Ok it's on !! Haha.. totally it's not gonna be me !

.....And after 10 something years later, guess who lost the bet ? Yup - you guessed it - ME. The funny thing is that Mod had always remembered this bet and kept on reminding me about it foreverrrrrrr. I honestly thought it would be forgotten after a couple of years, but I guess I was wrong ! Haha....

Anyways as it had been long delayed, I decided to take her to Bali with the company of Bplar- our beloved sister and homegirl :)

OK by now you are probably rolling your eyes and hoping for me to start writing about Bali already. Please be patient it's coming up now ! Since I wanted to make this blog as concise as possible, I decided to just share some experiences I had and some tips that may be useful for you to know while planning/ traveling to Bali ❤︎ So here we go !

Planning your trip

Best time to be in Bali

So we went to Bali in February which was more of the low season and also the "wet" season. We didn't know why it was the low season but when we got there it wasn't hard to guess why. Although it rained short periods in the daytime and wasn't that bad, We were able to go to most of the spots that we planned. In any case the best time to be there would be May - September which is the "dry" season. FYI - wet season is from October - April.

Which area of Bali to go to

At first I thought Bali was small, but was I wrong. It is actually a huge ass island and there are many parts of it I wished I had time to explore ! This time we decided to go to 2 areas - Ubud (mountain area) and Jimbaran (beach area). I highly recommend Ubud if you are interested in culture, art, green sceneries. So depending on the purpose of your trip you can check which areas are more suitable for the type of activities you are looking for. You can read here for some reference.

Arriving in Bali essentials

SIM card

When I arrived at Denpasar Airport, my friends and I realized that we needed a SIM card. When we got out of the arrival gate there was a SIM card booth so we just rushed to the counter and got one for 350,000IDR with 4G internet only. Well what we learned from this was that never to buy many things especially a SIM card at the airport ! According to our driver, a SIM card outside of the airport would cost approximately more than half of this. So please if you are not in a rush to connect with your social media - buy the SIM somewhere other than the airport !

Transportation

Since we were traveling to Ubud from the airport (takes approximately 2 hrs - 21/2 hrs drive), I decided to hire a hotel car to come pick us up. Our driver costed around 350,000IDR. If you plan to take a taxi from the airport to Ubud it should cost around 230,000IDR, however if you don't want to be stressed out about bargaining the price or checking out the way then I think hiring a hotel driver would be best. Another option would be to rent a car to drive on your own which would be pretty convenient if you decide to go to many places, make sure to have your phone fully charged and have internet !

Communicating with locals

Either we were just lucky or everyone is actually nice, it was so easy to communicate with people although not all of the locals could speak English. Although most of the people that we have met are really honest and absolutely nice, when shopping or hiring a car/taxi - make sure to research on the standard price of the service or item before paying and make sure to bargain if necessary. We were lucky enough to have a nice driver who was nice enough to provide us with approximate price information. Also having natural Thai bargaining skills was a plus for us as well hehe...

Did you know ?

Predominant religion in Bali

Although more than half of the people of Indonesia are Islamic/Muslim, however in Bali the dominant religion is actually Balinese Hinduism - this accounts for 83.5% of the population in Bali. As the majority in Bali are Hindus, you may find more pork on this island, since in Hinduism beef is not allowed in their diet. On the other hand, most of Indonesia are Muslims and therefore pork is not allowed. That does not mean there is no meat for you to eat - there is pork and lots of chicken, fish served at restaurants in Bali. But of course, if you are already vegan, eating in Bali will be a breeze for you.

Everyone has the same names

This fact was such an eye opener for all of us. Our first driver was named Made and somehow our next driver was also named Made. We made a joke and asked our 2nd driver if everyone in Bali was actually called "Made". Our driver laughed and explained that In general, Balinese people name their children depending on the order they are born. The names are the same for both males and females. The firstborn child is named Wayan, Putu or Gede, the second is named Made or Kadek, the third child goes by Nyoman or Komang, and the fourth is named Ketut. If a family has more than four children, the cycle repeats itself, and the next ‘Wayan’ may be called Wayan Balik, which loosely translates to ‘another Wayan’ (info from here ). Wow interesting huh ? It is a complicated system I say - to learn more read here.

Places

Ubud

Eat, Love, Pray - familiar with this phrase ? Although Ubud was already a popular destination for many tourists, it became even more popular when Julia Roberts filmed the movie Eat, Love, Pray in Ubud. Our driver mentioned that if you want to find love you should go to Ubud since Julia Roberts found love there. Our driver was right, we did fall in love...we fell in love with Ubud ! Ubud is not only known for the popular movie, but it is also known as the arts and crafts hub - you can find many galleries and craft workshops here.

Before getting there, we thought it would be like Phuket , Thailand but It's just a different place all together - the green-natural-artsy atmosphere, pure-humble people, and interesting culture. It is an amazzzzinnggg place !

Without further due - here are the places we visited during our short stay in Ubud :

Tegalalang Rice Terrace : The most popular fields with a spectacular panoramic view
Puri Saren (Ubud Palace) : Ubud Kingdom Palace where it was the residence of the Ubud King.
Traditional dances: There was a dance theatre near the palace. Every Wednesday there would be a show from 6:30pm onwards.

Monkey Forest Road for shopping : This is a long strip with many small shops. Pretty popular and I did get my souvenirs from here.
Coffee/tea plantation : Honestly I forgot which plantation I went to but there are a couple. You get a tour of how the coffee is made and get to taste and see the Asian Palm Civets that produces Kopi Luwak. Also there is a large tea/coffee testing set prepared where you can enjoy while seeing the beautiful view of the fields.

Places to eat :

Warung Fresh Cafe : This is one of my favorite cute tea house /cafe/restaurant. Situated across from a wide green fields you can enjoy the traditional Balinese tea and some food.
Bambu Indah Restaurant/resort : Amazing experience here ! The food is mostly vegan but the atmosphere is nothing to be compared with. They grow their own ingredients right there. The resort is known for having those who are interested in slow life and it is mostly booked.

Of course it was raining a bit so we weren't able to go to all the places we planned. So if you have a chance please visit these places as well :

Monkey forest
Ubud traditional art market
Puri Lukisan Museum

Jimbaran

After 2 nights in Ubud, we headed down south to Jimbaran area to enjoy the beach. As for Jimbaran beach - it was alright for us, we felt similarities between Jimbaran beach and Pattaya Beach in Thailand. What made our beach day special though was that we were able to have some of the staff at the beach drive out and buy stuff for us (we were looking for particular incense sticks but didn't know where to get them ) while we were doing some Henna on the beach. People there were so nice to go find what we were looking for and bring it to us ! All in all, we had visited one place and decided to relax at our fabulous resort instead (Check out the resorts website if you are interested - La Joys Biu Biu Resort ).

Uluwatu Temple : So this was the only place that we visited during our very short stay in Jimbaran. When we went here it was raining but the view was beautiful ! Be sure not to wear glasses/ sunglasses as there are tons of monkeys who may want to steal them. Seriously !

So was my best friend - Mod and Bplar satisfied with this trip ? I hope so because I surely was ! So much in Bali (or should I say Ubud) has given me inspiration towards life - especially the peoples' way of life there - their support and unity towards their community/family (uber or taxi is prohibited in Ubud as to support local drivers for hire, locals help locals to cross the street, etc.), how people treat each other with respect and dignity, their positivity towards life (funerals in Bali are like a happy parades instead of a sad event), their love and respect for their natural surroundings (there is actually a "no electricity day", so by 5pm the whole town is dark) , their genuine smile and honesty, and the list goes on and on...

Although it was a great trip, the only thing I regret is not to have more time on this beautiful island. I think we only saw less than half of the island. There is still so much to explore ! Looking forward to discovering more of beautiful Bali ❤︎