This was our first real trip to Asia. We couldn’t wait!
We flew to Kuala Lumpur and took a connecting flight to Bali, with the layover in Kuala Lumpur it took us 17 hours to get from London to Bali… we were shattered but as soon as we landed in Bali we were very excited even though we were so tired. During our flight to Bali we saw Mt. Merapi – the volcano that is active at the moment and it puffed smoke every few minute and we took pictures!! It was unbelievable and quite scary! 😉
The first leg of our holiday which included Bali was organised only by us and I have to say it worked out perfect! 😉 We had two different locations in Bali; first 3 nights we spent in Nusa Dua and further 4 nights we stayed in Ubud.
We hired a driver called Dean, he was brilliant, it was the best decision we made, he showed us so much, took us where other tourists would never get to, and he was so much fun… he took us to a market with wood carvings in village called Tegallalang, completely empty, no tourists at all, we couldn’t believe it. We bought so much, we had to buy an extra suitcase and it was soooooooo unbelievably cheap, we were running around the shops like crazy not knowing where to start first. Lucky that he took us there on our last day otherwise I think we would have to buy 5 suitcases or container to ship back to England!!! ;-)))
We pretty much covered most of Bali’s main sights (e.g. Uluwatu & Kecak dance, Monkey forest, Batur lake & volcano, Tanahlot, Pura Taman Ayun, Jatiluwih, Bedugul, Lake Bratan, Git-git waterfall, Candidasa, Amed, Jimbaran seafood dinner etc), but still we hope we can come back. It’s our kind of place, very spiritual; you can smell insents sticks everywhere – lovely, Bali music – just beautiful, food was soooo good and soooo cheap, but mainly the Balinese people – we have never met friendlier people, so happy and helpful always smiling…. I could just go on and on…
The only thing that we didn’t enjoy as much were the elephants; the ride was ok but the whole park was more like a circus stage and as soon as we finish the ride we just watched the ‘elephant show’ but left in the middle of it coz we couldn’t stand it, we felt sorry for the elephants being chained and looking quite sad…
In total we did 7 days in Bali and we both wished we stayed longer. But one thing about Bali – it is definitely not a beach destination; some people on Tripadvisor were saying that Bali is like the Caribbean but NO WAY!! So if you are into white sands beach don’t expect it here, the beaches are brown sands and some places have black sands or pebbles. Dean took us to a little cove and that beach had white-ish sand but it is so hard to find it and no guide book mentions this place so we were there with only 5 other people!!! Fantastic! 😉
Moving onto Malaysia; this was organised by a travel agent and we both agreed our next holiday will be arranged only by us! There were many mishaps but I won’t be going into details as it didn’t ruin anything it was just generally annoying and we should have known better and do it ourselves… 😉
Kuala Lumpur – mad city, too hot and sticky, spent 3 nights and we thought it was too long, very modern – maybe too modern for our liking, the sights are crammed in between skyscrapers so that’s not the kind of look we were going for… but if you love shopping that’s the place to be, KL is packed with endless shopping malls. On the second day we hired a taxi for 4 hours and he took us to some places outside of KL and that was enjoyable, we went to see Templar Park, Batu Caves, butterfly park and bird park. Food is more less the same as in Bali, also very tasty and cheap.
After KL we flew to Kuala Terrenganu and then were transferred to Redang island . Very nice beach, hotel could be better but we were put up in a nice cottage so it was ok with nice view of the beach and palm trees.
Jon surprised me with a cake and fruit basket he organised as a pre-celebration of our first wedding anniversary, he had other plans as well but the hotel management forgot/didn’t do it/coldn’t be bothered… We organised few things together instead, we had a joint spa session – ooooaaaaahhhhh wonderful! 😉 the weather was brilliant, all we did was just resting and relaxing. We ate at the hotel once and that was also our last time, it was so expensive and so horrible. We ventured outside of the hotel to a local village and found a fantastic little restaurant which was around 1/6 of the price that the hotel charged and the food was so much nicer!!
Day before our flight back to England we were transferred to a different hotel on the mainland – The Aryani, we didn’t get picked up by the company organised by our travel agents so we had to find a taxi and get to the hotel on our own. But the hotel was amazing (I chose this hotel!), Malay style, only around 30 chalets, infinity pool, gorgeous beach totaly empty. This hotel was similar to the hotels we stayed at in Bali, family run and unique with traditional touches and décor.
Flight back – never-ending! ;-), saw Phuket Island and Thailand from the airplane – our next destination! 😉
All in all a great trip and can’t wait for our next trip in January/February!!!! 😉
Eyes On The Cloud 