Bali, a bit like paradise..

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Last but definitely not least, Bali was our last destination in Asia, before we'd leave to Australia.. Well, we've definitely been able to enjoy all the good things Asia has to offer to the fullest in our last week there. Great food, gorgeous art, beautiful hotels and much more things, all very cheap.. Bali is so gorgeous, I'd definitely love to go back once, hopefully in the near future. It's a little paradise, and with the prices over there you can like like a queen.. Yep, Emma and me have really indulged ourselves over there.. It was just a pity we only had so little time, not even an entire week..

Our first and also immediately favorite stop was Ubud, the art city.. Not very big, but full of nice little restaurants, shops, and lots of things to see and do. Our first day we didn't do that much, since we only arrived about 10 pm. However, we did try an Arak (local drink) at one of the few bars that stayed open a bit later and chatted a bit with some ( a bit weird) locals. Next day we were determined to enjoy all the good things of Ubud. We visited an art museum, which was great, I love Balinese art, had an amazing lunch in some beautiful garden (incredible, normally we take pic's of each beautiful restaurant we eat at, in Ubud we decided to stop this tradition since ever one of the places we visited would have been worth a picture.. ), visited some little shops (so hard not to shop too much, gosh, I could have decorated two houses with all the things i wanted to buy), the local markets where the people were trying as hard as always to sell us something (not gonna miss that when we've left Asia, for sure), had a great Indonesian dinner (gado gado, mmhhh..) and seen a Balinese dance show. Sounds like a great day, ey? Well, it was 😊. Next day was just as great, we did a cooking course, so much fun, we first visited the local market to learn about the ingredients and then were taught to prepare some Balinese dishes. We have the recipes, so if anyone dares to, you're invited to come and try some wanne-be-Balinese food when I'm back in R'dam.. 😊 No lunch necessary this time, after trying so many dishes, what a shame.. I proposed Emma whether we couldn't change our daily schedule to have like 4 or 5 meals a day so we would be able to try some more of all the great things, but she didn't seem that enthusiastic about it 😉. rest of the day we've been watching some more shops, relaxing at the pool we had at our guesthouse, having a wonderful meal again (this time Italian, including real wine again, we had missed that!!!) and drinking some Indonesian rice wine (brem, really nice and cheap 😊) at a bar.

Our next destination in Bali, Lovina, was nice too, but not as beautiful as Ubud. It's directly at the beach, but its beach and the sea aren't that pretty. The city itself has some nice shops and restaurants but there's not much more to it, besides a looooooot of tour offices. Have to admit there are a lot of cool tours you can make, but we just didn't have the time to make a day trip in the 1 1/2 days we had in Lovina. However, we did participate in the major attraction of Lovina: dolphin watching! This meant we were supposed to get on a boat at 6 am, so we had to get up at 5.30.. However, when we were still asleep we heard someone knocking on the door... I was afraid we would have overslept, this wasn't the case tough. It turned out that the 6 am was just an estimation, the guy that would pick us up had decided we could leave earlier, so we quickly got dressed and about 5.40 we were off to see some dolphins. But... it was all worth it. Already the view from our little boat in the early morning, with the golden sun, was amazing. But the dolphins, wow, incredible. So many, so close.. Such graceful animals! In a way it was really silly, so many little boats chasing the dolphins so we tourists can try and make a lot of picture (harder than you'd say btw! Those stupid dolphins don't really pose for you..) . But who cares, it was great despite the silliness!! I loved it! When we returned to our hotel we could enjoy some breakfast, and especially the beautiful weather, lying by the pool. Actually besides the dolphins this was the greatest thing about Lovina, our hotel. We stayed in a beautiful villa with only 6 rooms, which had such a great pool. And only for 8$ per night (I'm getting really good at bargaining, even surprises myself..). I mean, we kind of had to spend a big part of the day swimming in and relaxing by the pool, it felt somehow as our duty, we couldn't not use that opportunity. So great, we even swum under moonlight, it was still warm enough.. Like being in paradise, my gosh...

Before flying to Sydney we were gonna spend one last night in the most touristic city in Bali: Kuta. We realized it probably wouldn't be what we were looking for in our journey through Asian cultures, however, we wanted to see experience a bit of Kuta. Well, it was like a Mallorca in Asia 😊. Great beaches, great surfing apparently ( I can't surf, should learn it once..), lots of souvenir shops, lots of bars and clubs and stuff. Fun to be for a while, but not very Balinese and definitely not worth coming all the way to Bali for. However, we did enjoy our night out in Kuta, that had to be said. It was just so funny how much this city resembled our European part-beach destinations. Strange way of saying goodbye to Asia.. 😉 However, we made sure we enjoyed the luxury we could afford to have at Indonesia to the fullest these last days.. We had great meals (like cheap seafood, hmm), cocktail by jug and even a massage, which was indescribably nice.. And then it was time to head off to the airport, by a 3$ cab (gonna miss that!), to leave for Sydney...

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Comments

[Frazzle dazzle ;)]

yay!
SOunds like you're still having lots and lots of fun! Soooooooooooo jealous! especially now you're headed off to Sydney! Be warned though - drinks are EXPENSIVE in sydney - pre drink before you go out, and my favourite cheap beers are Tooheys Extra Dry and Carlton Cold or Draught ... beware of Fosters!!!! ewwww. Write again soon lovely! and miss you!