For years….7 years, to be exact, I’ve heard Michal’s Bali stories. I can recite his experiences almost word for word. I’ve heard them that many times! It’s his favorite place on earth. I always knew we would have to visit for his sake of loving Bali to bits, and for my sake of actually seeing what all of the hype was about.
Once we moved to Jakarta, our Bali travel plans came to fruition sooner than we excepted they ever would. Flights cost about $50USD (and that’s for seats in the first row š ), and travel time is 1.5 hours. It was a no brainer that we would head east as soon as we could, and what better time than for a birthday celebration? I hate the thought of getting older, but I love spending a birthday in paradise!
We flew in last Saturday and enjoyed a day & a half of soaking up the sun, sticking our toes in the sand and swimming in the beautiful water. Even though it’s rainy season, we really lucked out with minimal rain & several sunny days throughout our week’s stay!
Michal bought a timeshare for this resort 7 years ago before it was even built! Young and dumb, I’d say, BUT seeing how expensive they are in the States, I have to admit that it was a rather smart investment for a lifetime of fun. I was in heaven upon arrival. You just can’t get pretty water and palm trees in Jakarta. This little slice of heaven is definitely our home away from home.
Our first full day in Bali was nothing short of interesting. A taxi took us down to south Bali so we could beach hop. Before going to our first beach, we stopped at a tea/coffee shop and tried a dozen samples!
Bali is known for Luwak coffee,Ā or civet coffee, which is said to be the most expensive coffee in the world ($700USD per kilo)!Ā In case you didn’t know, it comes from a civet’s #2. Yes, you read that right!
Producers of the coffee beans argue that the process may improve coffee through two mechanisms, selection and digestion. Selection occurs if the civet chooses to eat cherries. Digestive mechanisms may improve the flavor profile of the coffee beans that have been eaten. The civet eats the cherries for the fleshy pulp, then in the digestive tract, fermentation occurs. The civet’s protease enzymes seep into the beans, making shorter peptides and more free amino acids. Passing through a civet’s intestines the cherries are then defecatedĀ and collected. Then, viola! After a bit of cleaning, you’ve got Luwak coffee beans! š
I can’t help but wonder who tries foods/methods for making foods (or coffee for that matter), and decides that it’s a good idea?
After that pit stop, we set back out to find the beautiful beaches! I guess it’s more secluded down in south Bali, so taxis are not allowed past a certain point, and you cannot have one called to pick you up if you’re really far down south. So, we got dropped off as far as the cab driver would go, which was luckily right by a beach.
To get to this beach, you had to walk down a stairway that was through the side of a cliff. So awesome! Talk about great cardio, too. I couldn’t suck in air quick enough for my burning lungs! It was hard to believe how steep some of the stairways were and how far down the beach actually was from the street.
You can’t exactly see the stairs behind us in the photo below, but needing a breather=photo op time!
I wish pictures did the stairs and steepness justice! We watched a woman carry down a HUGE, long block of ice on top of her head. Once we got back up to the street, there were 4 more blocks waiting for her. I don’t know how she did it, but kudos to her and her stamina.
Padang Padang beach was truly amazing! Nothing beats crystal clear water. I could stare at it for hours…simply mesmerizing!
I wanted to be one of the “cool kids” and sip out of a coconut, but I’m not going to lie…coconut water may be healthy, but I’m not a fan!
After leaving Padang Padang beach, we set off by foot to see what else we could find in south Bali! We came across a sign for a beach bar (or so we thought), and ended up in a little beach resort community with a bar overlooking a temple. Unfortunately, for photo-op purposes, it’s having work done to it, but it was still super neat to see. Not to mention, we had some great views!
I know that Bali is mainly Hindu, and there’s many temples, but I did not expect to see temples virtually everywhere! Every home, or walled off “compound” more like it, will have one home or several on the property, if a large family lives together, as well as their family’s temple. It’s amazing to see all of the architecture, especially when you realize how old some of the temples are.
We also noticed that at the entrance to every home, temple, store and inside small shrines outside of buildings, there would be a canang sari.Ā Canang sari is one of the daily offerings made by Balinese Hindus to thank the Sang Hyang Widhi Wasa in praise and prayer.
Once we quenched our thirst and were done marveling at the scenery, we waited 15-20 minutes for a taxi to get us from the resort. Wishful thinking! The cab driver from that morning was right! Cabs will NOT come get you. So, out of the two directions that we could choose from to walk back towards the “line” where cabs are permitted, we ended up going the wrong direction…. It was quite comical.
Thankfully, we somehow found a cab that was in the “cab danger zone,” and made our way back to the resort. Of course I had to document this trek!
Once we were back to Nusa Dua, our part of town, we enjoyed happy hour 2-4-1’s and had a bit of street entertainment. Two things I’ve learned in Indonesia, is that it takes a village to work on a project (look at everyone standing around watching one guy – no disrespect to them, they just like to work in large groups, apparently) and everyone wears flip-flops. It doesn’t matter if they’re welding, building something, chopping up a tree, riding a moped – they’ll have flip-flops on. They have really tough feet, no fear or maybe both!
Finishing off our evening by sipping on Bintangs, an Indonesian beer, and fruity cocktails was a nice way to jump into vacation mode before all of the real Bali sight-seeing took place! Temples, waterfalls, rice paddies and many other adventures are to come!
Stay tuned….
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