We had another nightmare experience with Scoot but finally made it to Bali! Temples, dances, monkeys, rice paddies - welcome to the Island of the Gods!
We have both agreed this is the last trip we will fly budget long haul. Unfortunately we had already booked our return flights on Scoot before our first experience, otherwise we would have definitely considered another airline! Our flight out of Athens was over two hours delayed due to passengers who had checked in, checked their bags but decided to just never show up for the flight! Five passengers' baggage had to be offloaded which meant we missed the runway window and ended up stuck on the plane for hours waiting for runway clearance.
I had the unfortunate luck to get the worst seat mate ever sitting next to me for 11 + hours. For starters, I think she bought a whole snack store on board with her - I’ve never seen someone fly with so much food! She kept trying to take over my seat and my leg space and kept flicking her scarf in my face. She also couldn’t sit still which is awful when you’re trying to sleep and realign yourself to time zones! To top it off, she was one of those passengers who had to immediately get up as soon as the plane landed to get her carry-on - which she then proceeded to drop on my head!
We knew when we landed in Singapore we had missed our connection flight but were disappointed when we saw we had been booked on flights 9 hours later! We were directed to go to a transfer desk in another terminal which turned out to be for Singapore Airlines. The agent was surprised to see us and even more surprised we hadn’t been rebooked on an earlier flight as there were seats available. As it was Scoot who booked the new flights on Singapore Airlines, he wasn’t able to override the flight booking as it had been locked! He tried his hardest for us but unfortunately we had to resign ourselves to the 9 hour layover. Although he did hook us up with lounge passes which made the wait a lot easier! I particularly enjoyed the massage chairs!
Singapore Airlines was an absolute luxury compared to Scoot - so much leg room and such amazing service! Power plugs, movies, free food and drinks! It definitely sealed the deal that our Scoot days are behind us. While sitting in the lounge Sam did some internet sleuthing and learnt that, as our flights were EU originating, we had a case for a refund under EU laws, as the 9 hour delay constitutes an unacceptable delay. He submitted a legal request to Scoot requesting compensation - and was successful! We are getting €600 each back (around NZD$2,150 total) which is nearly the cost of our flights!
Our landing into Bali was rough! On the day we landed Bali had been experiencing torrential rain and thunderstorms so we skidded a little on landing. Bali airport was confusing! We had done our e-visas and customs declarations online so it was relatively painless clearing border security. Our bags were some of the first off the plane so we were out looking for our pre-arranged driver fairly quickly! However we couldn’t find him! I wandered up and down the row of about 100 drivers, looking for our names on the signs. Meanwhile I was getting harassed as I had my backpack on so the taxi drivers were all yelling at the “backpacker”. Sam eventually managed to get in touch with the driver and we made our way towards our accommodation.
Traffic in Bali is an experience! I’ve been to Bangkok where the driving is insane but Bali was a whole new level! Lane markings aren’t a thing and intersections are mostly uncontrolled. If you want to go straight through you put your hazard lights on! It took us over an hour to get to our accommodation which was a saga in itself! I had read a recent review for the Airbnb which stated it was hard to find and the address provided was incorrect. We ended up at the wrong place the first time and the driver had to ask for directions. The second place Sam walked in and thought it wasn’t the place but it turned out it was after much confusion. The hosts have since updated the listing address, although it’s technically still wrong.
Our Airbnb was a large villa with a beautiful pool in Seminyak. After dumping our bags we escaped to grab some water and snacks before having an extremely well overdue shower. It was quite late at this stage but we had some extremely important guests to welcome - our parents! Sam’s parents arrived first and my parents, after some passport issues and problems finding the place, finally arrived at 3:30am!
Suffice to say our first day in Bali was a write off with everyone exhausted and adjusting to time zones! However what better place to be tired and exhausted than in a beautiful villa with your own private pool! We did leave to run a couple of errands - to the tailor, the money exchange and the grocery store for supplies. My mum made us a home cooked meal and then we went off for a massage to finish off a lovely evening!
The following day was another relatively quiet day - we went out to explore Seminyak Beach - it wasn’t at all what I expected! The sand is almost black and the waves were breaking quite ferociously on the beach. At least a couple of us were taken unawares by larger than expected waves. We ended up wandering into the W resort which was very lavish. I was slightly jealous until I looked at the prices!
After lunch by the beach, we wandered back to the villa for an afternoon swim and some local Bintang beer. We then went out to an extremely delicious BBQ meat restaurant where we had an awesome dinner of BBQ pork ribs! I then went out for another massage - honestly it’s so cheap here I could get six massages for the price of one back home and I intend to take full advantage of that!
The next day the driver picked us up early to go see The Barong & Keris Dance, a traditional Bali dance and story. Thankfully they gave us a sheet with the story in English otherwise I wouldn’t have had any idea of what was going on! It wasn’t anything amazing but well-priced at IDR150k (~NZD$15).
Before heading to our next stop, a temple, the driver took us to a traditional Balinese Batik store. Batik is an illustrated Indonesian fabric that is made through the use of wax to illustrate the design and colored using dyes. It was interesting to look at the designs but as a bit of a tourist trap, the prices were just a bit too high for me. I did buy a nice little fan and Sam’s Mum bought a beautiful tablecloth.
I think our next stop was based on us mentioning to the driver that I was looking for jewellery. He took us to a silver jewellery store which did have some lovely pieces but I wasn’t too keen on the prices as some of the items were not silver stamped. We did get to watch a silver ring being made and see a jewellery workshop in progress. My mum purchased a set of beautiful silver dragonfly earrings.
Most of the temples in Bali aren’t open to tourists but there are a few that can be visited. The main one in the south is Uluwatu which we didn’t make this trip but our driver took us to one in Batuan called Pura Puseh Desa Batuan. There are three types of temples in each village. The Pura Puseh is the Temple of Origin that is built to honour the God of Creation. The other two are dedicated to the God of Life and the God of Death and Reincarnation.
We had to make a donation to enter of NZD$5 each and were each given a sarong to wear. It was a very beautiful and tranquil space filled with lots of incense. The stonework and carvings were fascinating.
After the temple we headed towards lunch but had a quick stop at a local art store. The driver obviously gets kickbacks for taking you to these kinds of places - I was just so exhausted after all our travel and from planning I had kind of left it to everyone else to sort what we were doing but it seems everyone else had the same idea! So lesson learnt! You have to tell the driver specifically where you want to go and stop and check where he tells you he’s planning to take you! Most of the time, the places we were taken were very highly reviewed and he was very good, happy to wait and do whatever you asked. For the equivalent of NZD$50 a day per driver we really couldn’t complain!
We had a lovely lunch in the rice paddies! It was a little on the expensive side for Bali prices but the scenery was lovely. Mum didn’t check her order and they misheard her so unfortunately she got the wrong dish. After lunch Judi spotted a roadside fruit stall which my mum had been pining for, so we made a quick stop to grab some local fruit!
From here we made our way into Ubud towards the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary. The driver said there’s lots of monkeys around but the monkeys in the sanctuary are well-fed so less aggressive then the monkeys around Ubud. The sanctuary is actually part of a Hindu temple complex set in the jungle so not only were there monkeys, there were various temple points of interest! It was IDR80,000 (NZD$8) each to enter. The monkeys were very entertaining - there were a lot of baby monkeys around and some very cheeky monkeys. Sam even saw one trying to pickpocket a man in front of him, who swung around to accuse Sam, but then realised he had a monkeys hand in his pocket!
We popped into central Ubud to check out the street market. The first stall we found we had great success and managed to bargain for two rings for IDR100,00 (NZD$10)! I also managed to score myself a new hat (my old one has got a bit sad from being squashed in my bag) and a new dress!
We were supposed to go to a waterfall before heading back but a few of us were tired so we decided to call it a day! I can see why Ubud is popular! The jungle and feel of the area has more of what I imagined Bali would be like! However it’s very obvious it is a tourist mecca - it was like turning a corner and all the local people vanished and it was just a sea of tourists.
After our mega day out exploring, we had another quieter day in Seminyak. We went out shopping and found some knock off Birkenstocks which Judi haggled down to NZD$30 after they started at NZD$60. Afterwards we stopped for pizza and a beer in well needed air conditioning! On the way back we stopped to have our nails done. So far we’ve found services in Bali extremely cheap, food relatively cheap to on par with Australia and NZ, beer cheap but wine and spirits - expensive!
The following day we had to check out of our accommodation and move to our new place in Sanur, another district in Bali. Our driver and his brother and law picked us up and transferred us to our new accomodation. However, we were too early for check-in so we headed out to Nusa Dua for lunch.
Nusa Dua is the fancy resort end of Bali. When you see pictures of Bali with white sandy beaches, it’s usually of Nusa Dua! On closer inspection though you realise all the white sand isn’t natural and has been trucked in. Getting to the waterfront in Nusa Dua is incredibly difficult as all the resorts block access to the beach. We ended up at Gerger Beach which is one of the few public beaches but had to make a donation to the temple to access the road to the beach. We had a very lovely lunch before we had to head back to the tailor to pick up some very important clothes!
After checking in, we went out to explore the streets of Sanur. The men decided they needed to get pedicures which then ended up with them getting massages while the mothers got manicures and pedicures. We ended up spending a lot at this particular spa place as the ladies were so wonderful! In fact, Sam and I went back the next day for the full spa treatment!
It was honestly ridiculous what we got for our spa day! We had a hair spa, deep tissue massage, pedicure and facial for the equivalent of NZD$70 each! I even convinced Sam to get his toenails painted! 🤣
For dinner we went out for seafood on Jimbaran Beach. We just missed the sunset as we had to stop at the tailors again but had such a lovely evening. The restaurant had their own live band who were so good I even left them a tip! It was a perfect way to end the day!
