Live Your Dreams -

Bali

Published 2014-07-06 12:06:00 in Asia

This was actually my second visit to Bali. My first visit was in the beginning of year 2003, which was only a couple of months after the terrible bomb attack that destroyed a nightclub and killed a lot of people in Kuta. It was raining a lot when we were there and because very few tourists visited Bali during that time the local people were desperate for money and didn't leave us alone for a second. After that I thought that I would never return to Bali again.

You never know what will happen in the future and this time I was travelling together with my friend Linda and she had not been to Bali before, so she wanted to spend at least some days of our Indonesia trip there. I decided to give Bali a second chance because I have many friends that like the island. Now I'm very happy that I decided to come back.

Bali is an allround destination that suits most people. Bali has tourist resorts with all the shopping and restaurants you can dream about. There are also a lot of activities for the active tourists. There are some nice scuba diving sites to explore, you can go hiking on vulcanoes and Bali has a number of beaches with good surf breaks. If you want to relax and reload your batteries you should visit one of the SPA resorts in Ubud.

I spent the first night in Bali in a touristy manner at Hard Rock Hotel in Kuta. The following day I had a morning walk along Kuta Beach before I took a taxi to the temple Tanah Lot. The temple is located on a rock in the sea. During low tide you can walk out to the temple.

Kuta Beach.

Hard Rock Hotel in Kuta has a huge swimming pool!

Strawberry Margarita at Hard Rock Café.

Tanah Lot temple.

After visiting Tanah Lot I continued to Ubud. Linda had been out on a scuba diving trip and I met her at Kamandalu Resorts and SPA where we had decided to stay. That showed out to be one of the best hotels I have ever stayed at! As another tourist I talked to said: The whole hotel area looks like a botanical garden. I went to the SPA and there I had the best massage I have ever had! :-) I definitely want to come back to Ubud for a SPA holiday!

Outdoor shower.

Since we wanted to see more of Bali we decided to rent a car with a driver for a day and he drove us around on the island. We started our round trip by visiting the Monkey Forest in Ubud, where a lot of macaques are living. After that we continued to the beautiful green rice terraces in Tegallalang.

Our next stop was at a coffee house along the road where we were shown how they roasted their coffee in a traditional way. We also got to try some different types of coffee. We continued to Lake Batur surrounded by the volcanoes Gunung Batur and Gunung Abang. There we had lunch at a floating restuarant. Our last stop was another lake, called Lake Bratan, where we visited a temple located on a small island in the lake. The round trip took us the whole day and we both agreed that it was definitely a very convenient and time efficient way to see more of Bali.