Bali Trip - Day 1

Byt the time Layla got back with her food our flight was boarding. She managed to eat her noodles while I kept our place in the queue. For reference, she didn't really rave about the noodles and was a bit disappointed that they weren't full of flavour.

The flight was only 2hours 50 mins and the meal was the same choice as we had on the last flight so I had the chicken and noodles this time instead of fish and rice. We landed in Denpasar and our luggage came off quite quickly. There was a bit of a scramble to fill in the immigration forms but then realised it was the online one we had already completed at Heathrow. So we skipped the queues and just let them scan the QR code we had. Top tip, just get your immigration form filled in online and then take a screenshot of the QR code just in case you can't get a signal to get online. Nobody asked for anything to do with Covid, even though a lot of people in the airport are still wearing face masks. You had to pay for a Visa form which was just a case of handing ov er your passport and paying with either cash or card. Very straight forward and now extra forms to complete.

We went through passport control and used the ATM to get some local money out. As soon as you come out of there is a taxi company called Blue Bird, which we had read about on other peoples guides etc as being reasonably priced. the good thing is you get a set price for the journey before you set off, which we paid for on card. I think if you got one outside the airport they might put the meter on and you would be open to being ripped off.

Our driver Heru was really chatty and spoke perfect English. He even took Layla to a sim card shop to get a local sim only. In the end, she didn't bother as she needed to check first how much data she uses normally. Partway through our trip Heru asked if we liked coffee and wanted to stop at a place that made their own coffee. The host walked us round this small path where they were growing various herbs and coffee beans. They introduced us to the little animal that is part of the process. Here is the actual description:-/

Kopi Luwak is the world’s most exclusive (and most expensive) coffee. The main factor of its high price is the uncommon method of production. It is produced from coffee beans which have been partially digested by the Indonesian palm civet and then excreted. Yes, it sounds kind of gross, but not to worry! The outer layer of the coffee bean is removed during processing and the remaining beans are completely cleaned before being roasted and sent to you.

This is the little guy responsible for picking and eating the beans. Apparently he knows when the coffee berries are at the right stage to be eaten. He eats them but his stomach only digests the outer shell and pops out the beans.,

After the beans have been cleaned they are roasted in a metal drum thing by this woman whos about 100, and then 'ground' into filter coffee. I say ground they are beaten with a big stick which I got to try (free labour lol)

We were invited to a tea and coffee tasting which was free and you just paid for a full cup of the expensive Kopi Luwak which was 50,000 rupiah (Doo dah's as the local currency will be now be known as I won't remember how to spell it lol). it was about £3 but w knew it was going to be expensive as it's the most expensive coffee going.

Before we did our tasting we spotted a jungle swing that swung you out really high over the jungle. This was in my book to do as I had read about it, so CHECK another thing ticked off the list and we haven't even got to our resort yet. I went first and then Layla decided to do it too after I didn't die lol.

It's a lot higher than it looks when you are held on with a piece of rope and a prayer lol. To be fair you are clipped into a harness and so even if you fell off you ain't going anywhere :-)

Layla is fearless so didn't need talking into it/. As soon as she saw me doing it she said "Yeah I've got to do that" no hesitation.

After the jungle swing, we did the tea/coffee tasting which was free but the idea is you will like one of them (or several in our case) and buy some from the shop.

The teas were lovely and needless to say we bought some. I opted for the Avacado seed coffee which had a really nice nutty taste. I felt it was meant to be as we had only been talking about the health benefit of avocado seeds before we came.

We continued our drive with Heru to our accommodation which was the Adiwana Bisma in Ubud. I can't imagine for one minute that a UK taxi driver would be happy to make a stop on the way to your destination so you could experience and jungle swing and tea tasting and not expect to keep the meter running. He didn't seem to mind and was more concerned about making sure we had a good time in his country.

When we arrived at our hotel we were given a warm welcome. They immediately took our luggage, put it to one side and asked us to take a seat. They brought us a lovely cold lemongrass, lime, and honey drink and a cold towel to cool ourselves down with. The drink was so refreshing, we will definitely be ordering one of them when we go out and about.

After checking in we were shown to our room. I could see the paddy fields from the reception area and they seem to wrap all the way around the hotel. The back of the hotel had a view of the jungle from the rooftop infinity pool.

We had been upgraded to a Bisma room with a private garden view. Very nice.

As soon as we had taken a few pics and videos of the room before we messed it up, we headed up to the rooftop pool just in time for the sunset. There were people sat around the pool when we went up so we felt a bit daft doing a full-on photoshoot, so just managed to grab a few pics. This was the best one we captured..

After taking some pics we headed out for a bit to eat. The street that we are on has lots of small bars and food places so we had plenty to choose from. We popped into Lily's spa to book a facial and massage for me tomorrow and for Layla a mani, pedi and massage. More on that tomorrow.

We found a lovely place to eat just a short walk down our street called Lemongrass Bisma and had a lemongrass, ginger and lime drink followed by a bite to eat.

I had chicken fried rice with satay sauce with a fried egg on top (I will find out the name) and Layla had a fried chicken dish but then after seeing mine decided to have that too as she was hungry. I don't know where she puts it.

After dinner we headed home to get an early night (9pm) so that we can get a good nights sleep and still be fresh for the morning to see the sunrise.