376. Travel diary. Bali.

Semiyak A small town right next to Kuta, this is a nicer and less commercial place to stay in comparison to the Aussie filled Kuta. This is the best place to start and end your journey. Being a £4 journey to and from the airport it's cheap and convenient. I would recommend staying in an airbnb if there's a group of you as you can get gorgeous places with swimming pools. Otherwise stay at M hostel. It's the most well known hostel round there and the guy who owns it is quite helpful. There's lots of good places to eat round the area and if your staying in the hostel there's a supermarket right next to it. We took a day trip to Tanah Lot, one of the sites not to be missed. It's gorgeous floating temple made of natal rock formation. Kind of hard to explain. But cool and rather spiritual as you'll find bali to be. It cost roughly £2 to get in and a taxi there (1hr long) costs about £5 but to get back is double as there aren't any taxis around and you have no choice. A cool place you'll definitely have to visit is potatohead you could spend the whole day there. Expect it to be more expensive than average bali as is is rather an upmarket place to hang out.

Ubud This is one of he nicest parts of bali, it's the most rural and out the tourist spots and has a real sense of bali. We headed to the monkey forest. This too was about £2 entry. It's a gorgeous spiritual forest which feels like your in the jungle. There are monkeys everywhere! They are quite forthcoming especially if you have food. Bring your own bananas if you want to feed the because they rip you off a bit inside. They will climb on you but don't worry there are people about to help you. We saw lots of baby monkeys which were so cute, sitting on their mums back or just being cuddled. I definitely recommend this place it was a fun place to be. After we walked into the central of Ubud, there's a rather large market which is great to pick up little presents and test out your haggling skills. I bought a pretty sarong for he equivalent of a pound. The lady started off at 75k but I eventually got it down to 20k. What a bargain. I also got a pretty crochet tie up crop top for £1.50. This too started very high but I just haggled it down. It's worth doing. It's such a colourful market and has lots of art and souvenirs.

Tabanah If you're wanting more of a romantic get away to somewhere secluded in the countryside then Tabanah is your place. We found a gorgeous place to stay on airbnb which was expensive for bali but affordable if you want to pay for a little luxury. I would highly recommend where we stayed. It was idyllic. We had our own private infinity pool, outdoor bath tub and a shower that made me feel like I was in a herbal essences advert.

 

Gili Islands

This by far has been one of the most beautiful places I've visited. However the Gili islands are made up of three islands in total. When booking your ferry I would advise you to do it at the port as this is where you'll get the best price. For our journey from Padangbai -> Gili T and Gili Air-> Padangbai shouldn't be more than 500k. The boat journey isn't the funnest if you wanna pay that little, you can probs upgrade to a nicer boat for double the price but the journey is about 2 hours. Not the one hour they tell you. 

Gili T - Known as the party island, we only stayed there for two swift nights as this wasn't the best place to relax and was definitely the most built up and the busiest. With lots and lots of restaurants to choose from, they surprisingly don't mark up the prices compared to mainland that much at all. All the food is pretty damn tasty and when you're in Indonesia you won't be able to stop eating the chicken satay with peanut sauce. 

We went snorkelling and within five minutes saw giant turtles about 5 meters away from the shore line. It was amazing! So many fishes too. Try and take your own snorkelling kit if you plan to do loads as they do rip you off with renting the gear on this island.

I highly recommend stayed at Happy House, this was a really lovely homestay. Working out at about £15 a night it's best to stay there if you're a pair. You get a big double room with air conditioning and a lovely little mosquito net canopy around your four poster bed. Your ensuite is outside and is pretty nice, even get breakfast included and an ulimited supply of tea and coffee which is incredible. If you plan on getting the scrabbled egg for breakfast it's pretty bizarre as they put parmesan on it and kinda ends up tasting like carbonara. 

They also rent bikes, don't pay more than 50k (£2.50) you should be able to haggle. And you can use them for the whole day, we ended up cycling around the whole island, stopping off along the way for a nice little dip as it was sweltering hot. 

Gili Air - Getting from Gili T to Gili Air is about a 30 min boat journey and will cost you 40k. No haggling involved as you should buy it from the port on the island from the information desk. 

Gili Air is noticeably cleaner and quieter. The vibe is a lot more calm and you'll notice it's also a little cheaper. We stayed at Banana Bungalow which was recommended by a friend. This was the same price as Gili T for a similar kind of set up. Really pretty area, and its right next to the beach. We stayed here for three nights. There wasn't lots to do but it's perfect for relaxing, swimming, snorkelling and lots of eating. Our favourite place to eat was Zipp bar, the food was incredible, cheap and you got amazing views in the evening. If you're wanting something western they do really good pizzas too. 

TOP TIPS FOR VISITING BALI

1. Don't let taxi drivers mug you off - Make sure they put the meter on and you only pay what the meter says. Alot of the time they will start driving and say a price, when really it's a fraction of the price.

2. Make sure you have small notes at all times. - Taxi drivers and market traders will try and mug you off as they never have small change. So always try and pay the correct amount.

3. You can do things last minute - Booking things last minute is totally fine. They seem to always make it work.

4. Haggle - Haggle absolutely everything.

5. Cycle around Gili. - Careful your butt hurts.

6. Bug spray - Where shit loads of it.