Bali

Bali is an island in Indonesia and it's tourism in recent years
has been growing to record numbers. It offers travelers
many options from relaxing in the 5 star resorts,
swimming at surfing at the many beaches, Shopping
and Hiking.

Alot of Australia's travel to Bali for the laid back lifestyle,
because it is one of the closest overseas destinations
and because it is cheap. We visited in May which is the
Dry Season until September, October to April is the wet season.

What brought me to Bali was a family wedding,
My cousin got married at Seminyak and my sister,
Kylie and I went for a five night stay for the wedding.
It was gorgeous and i just had to include a photo of
the Bride and Groom~ Linda and Dean.

We stayed in Legian which is the next beach up from Kuta,
the main tourist hub. Our hotel was the Jayakarta which
was beautiful, it was a large resort surrounded by gardens and
had two large swimming pools, a swim up bar and beach access.
It was also within walking distance of restaurants and shops.

We arrived in the middle of the day and spend the rest of the
afternoon in the pool. Later that night we walked the main street
of Legian and haggled in the stores with the friendly locals.
You can find almost anything there from DVDs, Perfumes, Jewelery,
wood carvings and Clothing.

There are a few ways to get around the island.
Taxi-which is the safest way and the price is pay by the meter,
Private Driver- Where you can negotiate a daily price (this is what we did)
Hire a scooter- Looks like fun but you have to be so careful.
or negotiate a price to a destination close by and jump on the back of
a locals scooter. I did this a few times and it was always safe and fair.
Or if your traveling on your own or in pairs you can book on a
day trip to most places mentioned in my blog, ask at reception.

The number one thing i believe is a must see whilst in Bali
has to be a visit to the Bali Safari Park! I am an
animal lover and has been to a few Zoo's around the
world now but Bali Safari park is the best by far.
It is located in Gianyar and opens daily from 9am to 5pm.

The Zoo is home to more than 50 species including some rare
& endangered species. Take a ride on the Safari Explorer,
A bus that takes you on a tour of the park, see Hippos,
Tigers, Crocodiles, Zebras and Rhinos right outside your window!

As you walk around the Safari Park you will have a
unique animal encounter, one of the highlights of my trip
was the opportunity to hold and interact with a baby orangutan!
We were also offered to pat a young tiger cub and even
hand feed a mother and son elephant at their open enclosure!

There is also a chance to ride on a Elephant and a Camel
and have lunch as you look into the Lion's Den.
The animals are all well looked after and the zoo is open
aired and spacious. It was a fantastic day out and something
i will never forget.

If you love elephants as much as i do, you have to check
out the Elephant Safari Park in Ubud. It opened in
2000 and is now home to 27 rescued Sumatran elephants!
Here you can hand feed them, pat them, take photos with them,
and even buy an elephant trunk painting! There is a show
were the elephants do tricks and even slam dunks a basket ball.

But the best thing about the park is you can take a Elephant
ride thought the Forrest, sitting high a top an elephant in a teak
wood chair for two. They were so cute and again very loved and
well treated which is so important.

Another cool thing to see in Bali was a Culture show.
We went to a dinner and the show at the restaurant in our
resort and the show featured native dances and
singers in a colorful ceremony. The Balinese practice Hindu Dharma
which is a combination of Hinduism and Buddhism.

The next day we went to the Sacred Monkey Forest
The monkeys here are called long-tailed macaques and
there are about 350 roaming around the forest.
A guide will walk you around the park and you are encouraged
to buy food and feed the monkeys, but we decided it was
safer not to as they are known to get aggressive around food.

We probably saw close to 100 when we were there,
including a few infants. The monkeys hangout at the temples
and sit up on the stone walls around the walking path.
We got to approach them and most were friendly, a few
even climbed onto us for some photo ops and learn to
cooperate to the local guides commands.

Look up in the trees to see large groups of bats.
You have free time to stop and go and afterwards
the guide take you back to their shop in the village were
you are encouraged to buy something, for my sister
a shopaholic this was an easy sale.

Later that day we also visited Bali Butterfly Park
It's located in Tabanan and is the largest Butterfly Park in Asia.
I was surprised that the cost of admission was 40,000rp.
That’s a bit steep for Bali. But once inside the net covered
gardens we did see lots of beautiful and colourful Butterflies.

There was a hut in the middle of the garden that had tanks
with a variety of butterflies and insects, including a stick insect.
A grounds keeper was also in there to point out all the interesting
ones and had took the butterflies and insects out for us to touch.
There is also a museum and gift shop inside, it was good but
we were driving by, I wouldn’t come from Kuta just to see this.

What is worth the drive is Tanah Lot, the seaside Temple.
It's one of the most popular places of interest in Bali and
can be seen on alot of the postcards. It's located in
Tabanan and best time to visit is in the late afternoon
so you can watch the sunset behind the temple.
It makes for some terrific photos!

You are required to pay to enter the area and will walk
thought a large Market street of stores to get there.
During low tide you can walk out on the rocks to the Temple
and can make a donation to get blessed by the gods.
Tanah Lot is dedicated to the guardian spirits of the sea
and is believed to be guarded from evil by the sea snakes.

We ended up going up to a restaurant on the cliff edge that
directly looked over Tanah Lot and had dinner and cocktails
as we watched the sun disappear behind the Temple.
It was gorgeous and another Best Of Moments in Bali!

Just know that thousands more are also there at the same
time to see the magic moment, Alot of bus tours end their day
at Tanah Lot so can get rather crowded. That was another reason
why the outside restaurant table worked well as it offered a
crowd free opportunity to watch the sunset.

One thing I could not wait to try whilst in Bali,
was to hire a Jet Ski, I have always wanted to try this.
I went to Nusa Dua which is in South Bali and Amazingly the
operators of Bali Water Sport Adventures offers free transfers
from most major beach front resorts, for two or more riders.

Nusa Due is just amazing and was defiantly the most beautiful,
clean and quite beaches in Bali. If your idea of coming to Bali is
to lay on the beach and relax by the pool than this is your place!
The water is crystal clear and there is white sand and palm trees
as far as you can see, it was just so beautiful!

At Bali Water Sport Adventures you can choose from
lots of water sports, There is Parasailing, Banana Boats,
Water Skiing, Wake Boarding, Jet Skiing and the Fly Fish,
This looked awesome!

I hired a jet ski for thirty minutes and the price was negotiable.
After a quick intro i was free to jump on and race up and down
the beach, I even surprised myself at how i was going full speed
and launching up and over the waves. It was so much fun!

My last mention in Bali is Kuta Beach
I went to see the Memorial for the Sari Club,
which was bombed in 2002 and killed 202 people including
88 Australians. The memorial is made of carved stone,
and names of the victims are mentioned on a marble plaque.

Kuta is were most tourist choose to stay and is
known for it's discount shopping on the main street
and it's busy nightlife. I remember going Shopping with Kylie
in Kuta but haggling and trying to politely say no to everything
the shop owner pushed you too, got exhausting and was worst
once they learnt my name haha I ended up going for a massage
instead. Kuta Beach was nice and has a cool street vibe!

Picture-The Rice Fields in Ubud.