Padangbai: en route to the Gilis

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Whilst it’s Melbourne Cup Day in Australia, it’s time for us to bid farewell to Ubud. It has been such a pleasure spending a week here and we will definitely be back. Next time, we may stay out near the rice fields. We plan to take an Indonesian cooking class and visit the Subatu Water Temple, the Sungai Ayung river valley, and the Gunung Kawi temple/tomb complex.

Apparently when you hire a driver in Bali they don’t always turn up. Luckily our second driver showed and were on our way to the beachside town of Padangbai. Most tourists only stay here for a night, en route to/from Lombok or the Gili islands. The same went for us as we had booked a boat to Gili Meno the next morning.

When we arrived at our little family-run guesthouse in Padangbai, they upgraded us to their ‘honeymoon room’ for my birthday. It was simple but clean and with a lovely view from the adjacent top floor terrace. The owners were very friendly, accommodating and went out of their way to make us welcome. As it turned out, one of the daughters got married on the day we arrived which explained the street decorations that we noticed when we drove into town.

Padangbai is hectic only when the boats depart and arrive at the harbor. That’s when the tourists are ambushed with all types of wares for sale. Otherwise, it is a very laid back town. We went for a walk to the Bloo Lagoon beach, a tiny tucked away beach on the other side of the hill.

We had dinner at The Colonial, a lovely looking resort by the beachfront. Sadly the food didn’t live up to expectations and we wouldn’t recommend it to fellow travellers. Instead, we’d highly recommend Kerti, a lovely Warung also on the beachfront, with a great view over the harbor.

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