Bali, Indonesia. Part 1 ; A visit to the island of paradise & Gods

26.01.23-30.01.23

This adventure of mine was a special one as I embarked on this trip together with my best friend, Jane. Our journey began with a promise made back in our secondary school days, where we often dreamt of exploring the world together. Years later, we turned that dream into reality with our first trip together! It was truly special.

Upon landing at Ngurah Rai International Airport, line after line awaited for us, or perhaps just me. Jane, holding a Thai passport, enjoyed visa-free access to Southeast Asian countries. Meanwhile, as a Taiwanese passport holder, I had to endure the lengthy process of getting a visa on arrival. The wait was crazy and was barely moving. As I recalled, it took about 2.5hr of wait time and poor Jane, she couldn’t even contact me as I had an Internet issue. Patiently waited for the entire duration, the lengths friends go for each other! 😄

As we finally cleared the immigration point, we called for Grab and made our way to our accommodation for the next 5d4n. Oh, by the way, one good tip to get around from the airport is to opt for the Grab app instead of a traditional taxi service. More often than not, taxis tend to quote fares almost double what Grab offers.

Upon reaching our resort, the evening was drawing near. After a brief rest, we had finally decided on our plans for the evening. Despite not being much of a party-goer throughout my life, we decided it was time to venture into the nightlife scene of Bali. We thought it would be an interesting experience to explore a beach club in Bali on our own. We chose the Finn Beach Club, and to be honest, I found myself more impressed by the quality of the food than the club itself 😄 After savoring a delightful meal, Jane and I each ordered a cocktail and took to the dance floor. Feeling a bit out of my comfort zone, two friendly girls extended a welcoming hand, encouraging me to join the dance. It was fascinating to witness the inclusivity of the environment. Shortly after our cocktails, we headed back to the resort and went for a swim in the pool to end off the night. 

The following day, Jane had a craving for a famous Balinese dish, Babi Guling. It is always served with lawar (vegetable mixture) and Babi Guling varies across Bali itself. Its savory flavors certainly piqued our appetite, which was why we ended up ordering satay as a side dish as well. And you definitely will be missing out if you have your food without a fresh coconut! I have to say, Indonesian food is hands down one of my favorite cuisines. I look forward to indulging in more authentic Indonesian dishes in the time to come.

Following our lunch, we decided to walk back from the restaurant to our resort, considering it a great way to explore the island. We didn’t have much planned for the second day as more of our activities were on the third and fourth day. But still, we relished every moment of our walk and stumbled upon some cool shops along the way. 

Upon our return to the resort, we went for another swimming session. Intrigued by the mention of a beach in our booking description, we decided to explore it and potentially spend the afternoon there. To our dismay, we discovered that while there was indeed a beach near the resort but… it was off-limits for swimming. Nonetheless, we made our way back and enjoyed the resort pool. No complaints here, as we still got to enjoy a refreshing swim! 😄😄

As for dinner, we were in the mood for seafood, so we opted for an Italian restaurant with a promising 4.8-star rating on Google Maps. Naturally, our expectations were high. I ordered seafood pasta and I can’t quite recall what Jane had ordered. Our final verdicts were that the watermelon juice was the best among everything that we’d ordered. Unfortunately, the food turned out to be just average, and we felt it was quite overpriced for the quality. I suppose not all reviews are entirely reliable, huh? 😛 

The next few days were when things started to take an interesting turn. As there were too many events that happened for the next 2-3 days. So, this is only part 1 of my Bali stories, part 2 is in the making. Stay tuned & thank you for reading 🙂 

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