Bali! Woohoo 4 full days of delicious Indonesian food, lying by the pool, drinking cocktails and not having to drive come at us!
Our trip to Bali was for a number of reasons, but if you have never been there is a lot to love about the place. Except many many many Aussies… It is as if you are walking down a street in Australia. We have invaded Bali! But other than that, all those things above including the beautiful Indonesian people make Bali a nice place to visit.
Our flight left Darwin quite early in the morning, as we took the redeye, however we were going back in time an hour an a half due to the time difference. So we arrived only an hour later based on the clock, when in reality it was just over a three hour flight.
When you land in Bali you are welcomed by a sea of Indonesian men either waiting for people with their signs, or taxi drivers waiting to offer a ride. As we had not read our hotel booking email correctly we missed out on our courtesy pick up and were stuck with having to pick a taxi driver. One man spotted us and followed us around, just waiting in the background…And he was a sneaky man at that. It was 2am and we just wanted to get to our hotel so we agreed to a price of $35 AUD converted. We questioned other taxi drivers later who mentioned $10-15 AUD was the average cost for the trip we did…sneaky man indeed. In saying that in reality what is $35 for a taxi for a half hour where we didn’t have to drive!?
We arrived at our hotel, Hotel Mutiari in Seminyak, and all the lights were off. We assumed that the staff were asleep. But no they were there to check us in and they even brought us a welcome drink, which was so sweet! We felt bad they had waited up for us and gone to so much trouble.
A few hours sleep in our first bed of a month, with air conditioning was wonderful! We woke up and started the day with Indonesian Nasi Goreng of course, because while in Bali eat Indonesian!
We then had an important task to complete before anything else, however our hotel Internet was not loading quick enough for our needs. Because of this we ventured to the café Grocer & Grind for a drink and their free Wi-Fi. In no time our important task (Alex applying for his next Aussie visa) was complete and we could official relax for a few days.
That first day in Bali we spent wandering around Seminyak, having a drink at about 4 different cafes. Why not walk around and have a drink here and snack there to get accustomed with where you are?!
We then went back to the pool and enjoyed the afternoon sun. In the evening we decided to have dinner at Bambu, a restaurant we had tried 2 years prior with Alex’s parents. It was amazing then and it was amazing this time round. Funny enough my love for food photography paid off, because I had taken photos of the meals we’d had 2 years ago and had them on my phone. Even funnier, or in our favor, the menu had not changed significantly. So from memory and pictures we worked out what we had loved last time and ordered a selection of things.
As you can see the food looks amazing and oh my goodness it tasted just as we remembered, delicious!
After our amazing meal we went to catch up with my friend Janelle who was awesomely also in Bali. We met at a champagne bar where we witnessed a small fight, which then prompted us to wandered over to Café Batik, which I recalled from my last visit to Bali, served delicious espresso martinis.
Three martinis turned into six and we had a great time talking about embarrassing stories, Balinese magic oil and laughing incredible amounts.
That was all just our first day in Bali, I know we did well didn’t we?! After so much exploring and relaxing we needed sleep!
anda_ontour 
Love Bali! The food is awesome xx
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