Bali Ballin'

   In late November/ December, Jess and I took a spontaneous trip to Bali and Lombok. She joined me in Melbourne and then we hopped on a plane to start our second adventure together this side of the world!

 We arrived at our luxurious hotel (on a great deal) - Agung Raka Resort in Ubud - late into the night. and once we arrived, were golf carted to our room: here is where the story begins!

Day 1 | My birthday! | Jess

We woke up and had our included breakfast in the hotel overlooking the pool and the weather was lovely - cue snapchat to make people jealous.  

 The hotel provides free shuttles at certain times to anywhere in ubud so we took one to our destination for the day - the spa! We had booked in a 4.5 hour treatment day (no more no less) at Shangrila Spa. The staff were so friendly and took care of your every need. Ally and I parted ways for the entire day to enjoy a sound table treatment, reflexology session on entire body, neck back and shoulder massage, 1 hr oil massage, body scrub, facial and pedicure divided up by various ginger tea and fresh melon breaks. 

It was glorious. You didn't even know your knees still bent by the end of the day. Then we had late lunch and walked home, getting lost along the way but we eventually made it back to enjoy a bottle of rosé in the pool. We then went for dinner at Fair Warung Balé together with Seb and Vince who go to Monash with ally. We initially didn't realise there was an accent on the e so spent a long time telling our shuttle driver to take us to Warung Bale as in hay bale which sparked a lot of confusion. The restaurant was so cute and we sat at tables cross legged and got a bit merry on more wine. The restaurant's profits all go to charity so it was for a good cause.

Seb, Vince and Jess

Day 2 | Market and Monkey Forest | Jess

We knew what we were doing with breakfast on day 2 so had a continental round, fruit round and egg round - like a well oiled machine.

Then we went to the market which is huge! It was so hot and sweaty so our first purchase was a pair of fans - sound investment. The first sale of the day in the markets here is considered lucky so morning prices are actually better than any other time of day. We each bought a dress and I also got a FRIDGE MAGNET! So happy! We then went to monkey forest down the road.  The monkeys are everywhere and always jump up on people to get bananas and water bottles but we were a bit weary of rabies. Ally was terrified of the monkeys.

Riskay statue

Terrified

In the afternoon we chilled in our hotel pool and in the little wooden gazebo with the boys whilst it rained and a lizard pooped on Ally. Then we had a lively dinner again with the boys at a lovely restaurant before heading home. 

Day 3 | Rice Terraces, Luwak Coffee and Temples | Jess

We bartered with our taxi driver from last night to take us round ubud for the afternoon for 250,000 rupiah (£10-15). And at 2 he picked us up for our day trip starting at the rice terraces! The weather wasn't great but it was still really pretty.

Then we went to a coffee plantation where we tried luwak coffee (the really expensive coffee where this animal poops out the bean and it then gets cleaned and turned into coffee and is meant to be super tasty) and to be honest it takes like Greek coffee so isn't really worth the 900,000 rupiah price tag for a tiny bag.

Poo coffee

Then we went to two temples. The first was called Tirta Empul Temple which is a holy spring water temple. We were given a sarong and sash to wear round the temple and it was again very beautiful.

We attempted candid shots like the Londoner too - didn't really go too well (It is SO much harder than it looks).

Then we went to the rock temple called Gunung Kawi where we were attacked by two women trying to sell us sarongs - it was funny looking back - but very overwhelming at the time!. The rock temple was carved into the cliff face of the valley of the river (down many many stairs) and it was just us two looking round.

Then we saw a kecak fire and trance dance which was really cool. There is no music - just a male chorus who chant the whole way through. There were a number of dances they performed and the last one a guy danced on fire! He even sat in it! It was great but we were being eaten alive by mozzies - the girl next to us had 5 on her thigh at one point so we were a tad paranoid and spent the majority of the performance swatting them away.

Fire dancer on the right

We then went to the melting wok for dinner which was AMAZING. It's a little restaurant on a little side street and is so popular we couldn't get in the previous day. It's run by a sweet French lady and the menu is curry or curry with coconut milk and it was delicious and so cheap! The lightning was also amazing that night but ally kept on getting annoyed because it was behind her and I kept on getting distracted by it but she couldn't see. The whole meal including 2 desserts cost us 180,000 rupiah (=£9.53)! 

Day 4 | Gili Trawangan | Ally

The next day we took the fast boat over to Gili Trawangan. The wind was whipping around us as the boat flew across the sea to our little bit of paradise. Classic us, we packed the suncream in our main bags and hadn't put any on, so after basking on the top of the boat for over an hour in the midday sun we were just a little burnt. And then we arrived at Gili Trawangan, pulling our dresses up above our knees as we waded onto the white sand beach. It was bloody beaut I tell you! We had already booked our hostel (Gili Hostel) so pottered down the main street to find it. There aren't any cars on the island, just very malnourished horses pulling wooden carts. We were so lucky with our roomies, there was a couple called Rich and Laura who had just graduated and were on their gap yah, then a couple of 29 year olds Matt and Georgie who quit their jobs to go travelling and were absolutely hilarious, and a lovely guy called Josh! We ended up spending all our time with them, going out for dins and diving and all that, we were very lucky to have such gems! 

Day 5 | Gili T snorkelling | Ally
For our first proper day in Gili T we decided to do a snorkelling trip, as we had heard there were loads of turtles around the island (and what self-respecting gal would pass up the chance to see a turtle eh). I charged up my underwater cam ready to take that turtle selfie, only to not close the hatch properly and so it broke :'( I shed a tear... Within minutes of that fateful moment WE SAW OUR FIRST TURTLE and I cheered up immensely. The whole snorkelling group kicked and splashed and raced to get close to it, in classic turtle style, he wasn't phased a bit. Then there was another, and then another! It was just so cool.

Day 6 | Chillaxin
After going out on the taan the night before we were feeling a little ropey so took advantage of the sun and surroundings. We visited the baby turtle sanctuary up the road, and spent the afternoon on bean bags on the beach with a bintang in hand. In the evening we went to the local food market and had some freshly caught fish and a bit of cake - a day well spent.

Day 7-8 | Diving | Ally
On days 7&8, I started my open water diving course. I had had some reservations about it, thinking it would probably be just the same as snorkelling but a whole lot more expensive. But Georgie in our room had just started her course too and raved about it, so I thought blow that for a game of soldiers Ill do it! And it was just the best decision I have made in a long time. I was really lucky because the dive school was quite empty so it was just 1 on 1 with the hunky instructor. Also because the waters were calm we went straight into the sea to do skills instead of the swimming pool like you normally do. Jess did her advanced course too which meant she could go much deeper than before. The reefs around the island were amazing, and when you are down there it is so calm! Its like being in a completely different world and I was mesmerised. On my first dive I saw an eel, turtles, cuttlefish and loads of other fish!

Day 9 | Diving and Ally's night dive | Ally
On our final day on Gili I had booked in 3 dives! Madness! The first two were gorgeous but the last one was just amazing, gobsmacking, incredible - genuinely one of the best things I have ever done in my entire life, if not the best thing EVER. As soon as I had completed 4 dives I had my open water qualification, which meant I could do a more advanced dive - A NIGHT DIVE. Jess had done one the day before and said how amazing it was and I just had to try it for myself, so Jess and Georgie came along with me! We were all equipped with torches and we went down, it was pretty dark but there was still some light from the moon. It should have been scary, and I was definitely a bit nervous but the instructor was right with us so I felt safe. He would shine his light on these amazing little jelly things around us with multicolour flashing lights pulsating up their sides like something from deep sea David Attenborough. It was awesome! Then we went down further and held onto this anchor -  he told us to turn our torches off so we did and for a minute or so our eyes acclimatised to the dark. Then he let go and started waving his arms around and all the bioluminescent algae lit up around him like fairy dust! It was so magical!! I was just in heaven, I could have stayed down there forever dancing around waving my arms and legs around with it all lighting up around me. On the way back we saw sleeping turtles and a thunderstorm above kept lighting up the sky and sea - it was just amazing.

Day 10 | Kuta Lombok | Ally
In the morning we hopped on the local boat (a teeny tiny wooden boat crammed full of people) and headed over to Sengiggi, the main port on Lombok (the next big island along from Bali). When we got off a man was like can I carry your suitcase and I said no (more than once) and then he did it anyway and then when we got to the top of the beach he demanded money and I said not a chance (sassy Al came out) and had a little argument with him and then he got his manager over and I had some stern words to say to him too then they left it. WOO ALLY GOT MEAN! From there a taxi man met us (we booked all of this in a chaotic booth in Gili, but somehow it always seems to run smoothly) and drove us down to Kuta Lombok in the south where we stayed at Same Same bungalows where Matt had recommended. Our room was really sweet and the Belgian man who owned the place (with his wife but shh..) was absolutely godly. He was bearded and muscular and tanned and wore a man sarong and was just heavenly.  Highly recommend a visit. We pootled down to Kuta beach in the late afternoon then went for a cheap and cheerful dinner. Little kids kept coming up to us and trying to sell us things, saying that they needed the money for school books and we felt so evil but had to say no, then there was this really nice lady staying at the same hotel and she was talking to them all and looking at all their things and bought something and we felt like terrible human beings. Its really hard to know when to say no! Coincidently we bumped into a couple of girls from Monash - english from warwick uni - at the same tiny hotel as us. Small world!

Day 11 | Lombok Mopeds and Beaches | Ally
On our second day in Lombok, Jess managed to persuade me to rent a moped (after much worrying and deliberation I reluctantly agreed). I was convinced I was going to die, but instead we had a bloody lovely day and I didnt even nearly die (such a relief)! We rode through the countryside up these green hills that overlooked the beaches and the bays, to go and discover completely deserted beaches with golden sand and warm turquoise water.  They just got better and better, the first one was pretty lovely, the second was a bit jaw dropping and the third we just wanted to stay there forever. We bought really trendy beach towels/ sarongs from a lady named Linda on the third beach (Mawi). It was a great day, and we topped it off by going to the Chilli Crab restaurant. Jess found her crab rather hotter than anticipated...

Day 12 | Sengiggi Sunset | Ally
The next day we headed back up to Sengiggi, to get our boat back to Bali the following day. We found a really nice bungalow hotel and our mini bungalow had its own outdoor bathroom! Although it sounds magical and The Londoner and the like rave about showering outside, they clearly have forgotten about the times when they have been having a quiet moment on the loo when nature got too close and making a quick escape was not an option. Large insects and geckos are not the one.

We were both feeling a bit rough that day so spent most of the time in the room. We perked up a bit in the evening and headed off to the beach for a quiet, romantic sunset. However, when we were sitting there happily a boy comes over to Jess (about 19 years old) and asks if she has a lighter. We politely say no. Then a few minutes later all his pals come over and ask if they might practise english with us. They were really sweet, so we couldn't really say no but it was really hard because they weren't very good so sustaining a non-awkward conversation was really difficult! They nodded a lot when you asked them questions and didn't really understand what I was saying. I asked them where in the world they would go if they could go anywhere in the world, and they said that maybe one day, in their dreams they might go to australia (2 hour flight away) or maybe Europe but it was only in their dreams. I felt so humbled, Jess and I had just popped over to Bali  for a holiday from our fun year in australia, and leaving Lombok wasn't even in their reality.

Day 13 | Sengiggi to Ubud | Ally
In the morning, we hopped back on the fast boat (with a lot of suncream on) and jetted back to Bali. On the way we saw a pod of dolphins which was pretty damn cool. We headed back to Ubud to do some last minute shopping in the markets and ended up staying in a lovely little traditional hotel/ bungalow. After spending quite a lot of our money we headed to a really cool little restaurant that was motorbike themed and had a delish curry for next to nothing! Even the most upmarket trendy places are so unbelievably cheap! That day, Jessie also persuaded me to go with her on the Mt. Batur Volcano climb the next morning. Needless to say I was not overly excited. Exercise as you may know is not my ting.



Day 14 | Mt Batur and Hot Springs | Ally
At 2am, day 14, the alarm went off and we packed up our things and got taken to the base of Mt Batur, a couple of hours drive from Ubud. The plan was to climb the volcano in the early hours when it was cool, then get to the top for sunrise which was supposed to be spectacular. Jess and I picked out our Gandalf sticks and got going, led by a tiny balinese woman. Our group had a couple of french fitties in it, so we tried to look cool and not sweaty but alas it was to no avail. We were panting, sweating, wheezing and Jess almost hyperventilated from over-doing her inhaler. Jess only fell over 3 times which was good going for her! As we neared the top the clouds descended, and so as sunrise came we saw absolutely NOTHING. didly-squat. I could hardly see Jess let alone the sun. I wanted to kill Jess a little bit. But going down was far better, and our moods perked up and we sang and marched and were happy little bumpkins when we returned to the bottom. From there we decided to treat ourselves and go to the hot springs we had heard about, with special healing powers. We arrived at about 8am as the climb had been so early, only to find out that it was an overpriced warm swimming pool. We found a cosy spot under a shade and curled up and napped for a couple of hours. Jess got sassy with the woman when she wouldn't let us swap our wet towels for new dry ones - that lady was a stinker. After we bathed our aching bones we headed to Lovina, in northern Bali. Here we ended up signing up for a little package of diving, massages and dolphins (who could say no to that?!)

Day 15 | Lovina diving at Menjangan Island
So the very next day we woke up and hopped onto a bus to take us to Menjangan island, apparently famous over the world for its amazing dive sites. When we were on the boat the instructor told us that the previous week he had taken someone out for their very first introductory dive and when they went down they saw a WHALE SHARK?! How amazing would that have been! Unfortunately we didn't see one but the reefs there were just unbelievable - I didn't think it could get better than in Gili but it was! It was so colourful, just how I imagined the GBR to be from finding Nemo. We saw black tipped reef sharks! And this huge school of mackerel that all moved together like chainmail. It was so so groovy! We did two dives that day, and when we docked up at the beach for a spot of lunch there were deer just chillin there! How cool! When we got home we were treated to a lovely massage by a couple of ladies who came to our room - such princesses.

Day 16 | Dolphins, Waterfalls, Markets and home
At 5.30am the next morning, we heard a banging on our door and I hopped out of bed to see a little man asking us if we were ready to go and see the dolphins! We weren't obvs, still comatose but we popped on our clothes and darted out the door. At the beach everyone was hopping on wooden fishing canoes, and Jess and I were alone on ours (except for the driver). We headed out as the sun was rising (much better than the volcano) and were the first boat to spot the dolphins! We zoomed alongside them and all the other boats soon followed. For the next hour or two we basically chased this pod of dolphins but it was so lovely! There was a little baby dolphin that flung itself out of the water whilst all the adults gracefully dipped in and out. After the dolphin watching we headed to Gitgit waterfalls! We frollicked in a little pool at the bottom of the waterfalls and I saw Tula Vintage (if any of you follow her?!) she has the longest legs EVER.  After Gitgit we went to the temple on the water which is quite a famous touristy temple, Jess and I kept getting asked for photos (5-6 times maybe??) which was really weird, must have been our hair colour. After the temple we went to a little spice and fruit market. A lady let us try all these fruits we had never even heard of - one of them was green but had flesh like a cross between a peach and a banana! After that we headed to the airport a mere 6 hours early, the flight was delayed by an hour and Jess was feeling really really poorly. Luckily when the plane did come it was mostly empty so as soon as the seatbelt sign went off we leapt out of our seats (hunger game style) and fought for our own rows in the back. We succeeded, and slept all the way back home to Melbourne.

Tasmania

Freya and I have just got back from a week in Tasmania and it was so good! We originally planned to go to see our housemate Pancks who lives in Hobart and spend Easter with her fam - I am so glad we went because boy is tas a stunner!

 

So on Sat we flew to Hobart where Pancks' dad picked us up from the airport, he then gave us a driving tour around hobart before she actually arrived home (she had a later flight) and he is just such a babe! Her mum had stocked up on the chocolate for easter, and when I say stocked up I mean I physically couldn't eat any more chocolate which is pretty big news for me. We were completely spoilt by her fam, they took us out to lunch and on little tours around Hobart - we went to this really nice apple farm where they brew cider and we had a taster pallet (cherry one was lush) and we went on dog walks and went to the top of this mountain overlooking Hobart where it was freezing and really reminded me of home.

We also took a cheeky trip to MONA - the museum of old and new art which is apparently really famous. It is completely funded by a professional gambler and has the most amazing exhibits although the one I really wanted to go to was closed for refurbishment :( That was the poo factory, where they have 4 chambers and feed one chamber and then a few hours later it has digested the food and it poops it out (heartbroken). They also had the vagina wall which was fun and they drop the C bomb a lot in the descriptions- maybe thats an arty thing to do. You could even by C*** soap from the shop which were little soaps of plaster cast vages. Weird.

Back at Pancks' house we played monopoly with chocolate on the properties that you could bargain with (great addition to the game) and my competitive side really came out - I don't think Freya had seen it before and it shocked her a little when I did my evil cackle when she was losing. Got to work on that. We also played frustration and cluedo and I didn't win anything and was feeling rather hopeless so we moved on to a jigsaw.

After we left Hobart on the tuesday we rented a car and drove up to Coles bay. I hadn't got a clue how beautiful Tasmania was, it is just jaw dropping. A few minutes out of the city and the road goes past long stretches of completely empty beaches, white sand and bright blue water - bloody amazing!

So when we got to coles bay we decided to do the walk up to the lookout point over wineglass bay. It was only an hour and a half return trip but we hadn't really thought it through and realised with dismay that we would have to be walking up a hill. Needless to say, we made it, and the views were lush. Embarassingly we got to the first lookout point, thought it was wineglass bay, slated them for having a rubbish name because it looked nothing like a wineglass and wasn't all that great, sat on a rock taking victorious 'top of the hill' pictures for 15 mins, then realised we were only half way and had to keep going... 

Victorious photo

I made freya pose with a bottle of water because I thought it made it look like we had climbed a massive hill and were really tired and sporty, I reckon it pulls off that effect perfectly.

The actual wineglass bay... 

Just up from coles bay was honeymoon bay, where we, along with various other romantic couplings, watched the sunset. It was really really beautiful, the rocks we were sitting on went all orangey red and it was just gorgeous. 

That night we stayed in a little hostel in Bicheno, it was all wooden like a chalet and the temperature dropped so much overnight it really felt like a winter holiday! On wednesday we drove up to the bay of fires. Honestly, I have never seen such amazing beaches! We stopped off in the morning to one on the way and were like 'well this is just about my favourite beach in the world' and then mere hours later we found another one even better! Binalong Bay had the whitest sand I have ever seen, it looked like snow so I proceeded to make a snow/sand angel..

After binalong was the bay of fires, a long stretch of beaches and bays off one long road. All the beaches were completely deserted despite being Easter holidays so we frollicked until our hearts were content. 

This was where we found our absolute favourite beach, and decided to come back the next morning with flasks of hot chocolate, hats, blankets and jumpers. It was so lovely, completely empty bar Freya and I, in the middle of nowhere- it was so quiet. Just a perfect spot!

That night we stayed in St Helens, and the next morning took our final trip inland towards Launceston. It was all rolling green hills, forests, windy little roads, cows etc. reminded me a little bit of english countryside! First stop was a cheese factory (hold up, it was not for me alas but Freya, I have not changed my anti-cheese ways as of yet) where we had delish burgers (courtesy of the farm's cows) in the sunshine with a yummy cider coincidently from the apple farm we visited in hobart!

Further along our route we had to go through this windy road through the bush and there WAS A BUSH FIRE! You can kind of see the smoke in the picture above, it looks like dark cloud but it was quite scary. The smoke was clouding over the sun and made this amazing orangey light, it felt like the sun was setting but it was only 2 in the afternoon. I've read so much about bush fires I was cacking my pants because it definitely felt like we were moving closer to it but we were fine! When we were further up we could see it down in the valley and it wasn't too big (phew). The best bit of the day was just driving through the countryside - Freya let me be DJ! (which was brave of her as I am well known for my crap music taste, but she said I did alright! Wahoo!!).  Next stop was the lavender farm, I had seen pictures on pinterest of it and it looked amazing so we went 20km off our road to go, only to find that they had recently harvested it so there were just little stumps of lavendar and loads of wasps (I wasnt happy at all, Freya even got stung). Not our finest moment!

Got roped in with this one...

Bloody normal field isn't it

Finally, we headed into Launceston for our last night and flew home the next afternoon! Short but very sweet, and one of the most gorgeous places I have ever been.