Blogs from Indonesia, Asia - page 4

Last day in Sanur so decided to wake up early 5.20am for sunrise. Arrived at the beach at 5.50 and could see the golden light just starting to break through. We both managed to get some nice photos as the sun rose above clouds on the horizon. Went back to the hotel for a leisurely breakfast before going back to our room to pack for our move to Ubud. Daisy managed to fit in one last swim in the pool, while I went through the morning's sunrise photos and planned our next week in Ubud. 12.30 we decided to walk down the south side of the main Sanur street which is much quieter. Had lunch at an Italian restaurant called Riviera Restaurant and Bar which was quite good. They actually make their own pasta. It was ... read more

Relatively early start for our day at The Bali Safari and Marine Park. Got a Grab car for $11.70 and arrived there at 9.15am. Took the Jungle Safari ride which took us through open areas with animals from Indonesia, India and Africa. The whole park is very well designed and you really felt like you were in the jungle at times during the 30 minute Safari drive. After that there were a series of shows. First show was an Animal Show which was really well done. It started with Indonesian birds flying across the stage and groups of Guinea pigs, rats, cats and dogs scurrying across the stage on cue. Then presentations of other animals. We then moved to another area where they presented a show featuring tigers. They were able to demonstrate how the tigers ... read more

Late start to the day. Decided to walk along Sanur beach, which was similar to yesterday's walk along Nusa Dua but not as 5 star. Quite a few cafes and restaurants just around the corner from us and we picked out one for lunch as we strolled along. Towards the end of our walk after passing some nice resorts, we saw some fancy privately owned properties, which were huge. We stopped at Bamboo Eatery and Bar and we both had a yummy crispy fried whole snapper. Food is so cheap here that you really never have to worry about prices. After lunch we thought we'd better get over to the GWK Cultural Park , our planned activity for the day. I'd read that you only needed 2 hours, so the plan was to head over to ... read more

Today’s activity was a visit to see the sunrise on Mt Batur. Woke up very early this morning for our 3.00am pick-up (although they were 15 minutes late). I figured that this was the best day to do this because our bodies hopefully were still on Sydney time which meant 5.00am. Seemed to work although we didn’t get to bed as early as I had planned so we only got about 5 hours sleep. It was a 1.75 hour drive to the jeep pick-up, so we both managed a bit more shut eye before then. It was a 25 minute drive in the jeep, 5 minutes on a sealed road, then 20 on a steep, bumpy dirt road. It was actually a lot of fun. We reached the viewing area at 5.25am, along with about 200 ... read more

"Which countries have Visa on Arrival for Indian citizens?.." -- this question was the starting point of our trip to Bali. Rolling back a few months - we had made our grand plan with a few childhood friends in family to have an international vacation this year. Started with Turkey as the destination of choice, and then Portugal - then Egypt and Jordan. For reasons best left for another blog (and a long frustrating one!!), here we were in early May of 2023, without a destination we could all visit at the same time. Ergo, the question of "Visa on Arrival" - as we simply did not have enough time to plan AND wait for a visa. To top that, most of the SE Asian region was already approaching rainy season. Finally, it was a toss ... read more