After not sleeping for two days, we finally arrived in Bali. It was nice to finally be on holiday, but we were keen to get to Gili island. We hung around Kuta beach for a bit only to find a whole lot of rubbish had been washed up due to the wet season. December-January is not a good time for the beaches of Bali! We still made the most of it by meeting some of the locals.
Catching up on a lack of sleep.
Once we hit Gili, relaxation really kicked in. Gili is a really slow island, there are no motor vehicles and you can ride a push bike around the entire island in 2 hours. With stops. Gilis number one bar is Sama Sama. Otherwise known as the reggae bar. We went there every night for some barefoot, reggae dancing! It was a great place to make new friends and- if you're lucky enough- be shouted many drinks!
Sama Sama Reggae bar.
Another great place to meet people is the nightly food market. Lot's of fresh seafood. Lot's of incredible deserts. And lot's of people to meet! It starts every night around 6pm or so and is one of the top spots for a cheap feed. It is also vegetarian friendly- not everything is seafood!
Some fresh seafood at the night market.
One night while eating at the market, we met a girl from Finland (who shall forever be refereed to as Finland) who was interested in doing the same snorkelling trip that we were thinking about. The trip was $11AUD and went for most of the day. You got taken out on a boat to some different spots that have fantastic snorkelling. Gear hire is included in the price so all you need is yourself, an underwater camera (if you wish to take photos of the beautiful fish, coral and turtles), and some sun screen! Always bring sunscreen!
Snorkelling in Gili.
Why you should always wear sunscreen!
Gili is an awesome little island that is worth while visiting if you are in Bali. It is way more chilled and there aren't as many Australians!
After our short time on Gili, we headed back to Bali for NYE. We had the whole day to kill on the 31st so we decided to head to Ubud. It was super easy and cheap to catch a local bus. Just ask your hotel for a bus to Ubud and they will point you in the right direction. Just be at the bus stop/ticketing office 20 minutes before the bus leave and you're on.
We had only a few hours until our bus back to Kuta so we decided to head to the monkey forest. It's a lot of fun if you like monkeys.... just remember to keep your belongings close to you as they can get grabby.
Once back in Kuta, we started our preparations for the night which consisted of trying to find a bottle shop that wasn't a rip off! After much searching we finally found one and headed back to the hotel with some booze and street food!
The street food in Bali is to die for and is extremely cheap costing us $1AUD to feed two people. $1 each if you are really hungry.
Whilst eating our dinner on the balcony of our lovely hotel, we noticed that it started to rain for the first time on our Asia adventure! It really did bring a nice cool change to the hot and humid air. We were very intrigued by the rain and ended up dancing in the rain and picking some of the beautiful frangipanis that had fallen off the tree.
Balinese rain dance.
0 comments:
Post a Comment