Billie Besos

Part two: Bali

Yup, it’s been a long time coming but my Bali blog post is FINALLY here! In all honesty, my trip to Bali feels like a lifetime ago because so much has happened since then… but my memories are still clear as day and I want to share a bit more about what I got up to during my time there.

So, to refresh your memory, I went to Bali during the last two weeks of August with my sister and two of our friends. We only had two weeks there so made sure we packed in as much as we could. This means I have lots of fun things to talk about and recommend.

Our first stop was Ubud, a beautiful town inland, famous for its rice terraces. Ubud was like nowhere I had been before; the streets were lined with temples and little Buddha statues, and I have never seen more brunch options before in my life! I knew I was going to like this place. We stayed in the cutest Airbnb which basically ticked all of the boxes when you picture Bali, and one of my first activities was a Sky Yoga class. I had never done Sky Yoga before but for anyone that has ever seen silks, it’s pretty similar to doing that! I went to a place called Radiantly Alive, and this was one of the most challenging exercise classes of my life. Not only were we made to do lunges, squats, yoga poses and more, but we had to do it mid-air. It’s safe to say I was aching the next day.

Ubud was also home to the Monkey sanctuary where we witnessed monkeys acting like humans (chewing gum, pulling hair etc.) and the sweetest little pool bar called Folk. I would recommend Folk to anyone for a nice pool in Ubud when you want to escape from the heat of the day. You can just buy a cheap drink or snack and then lie by the pool all day. One of the highlights of Ubud was our personalised day tour. We had booked this in advance through Instagram and our tour guide was called Puturv (@puturv.bali on Instagram) and he was a recommendation from Healthy Chef Stef on Instagram. He was such a lovely happy guy and he tailored the tour to what we wanted to do, all at an amazing price. We went to the rice terraces in the early morning which was amazing because they were so quiet and peaceful, then we went to visit a coffee plantation which was home to one of the famous Bali swings. We had an amazing lunch over some rice terraces and also visited a water temple, and a waterfall. It was a tiring day, but it was incredible and SO worth it. We went to Kanto Lampo waterfall and although it was beautiful, I would recommend trying to find a smaller waterfall because yes, it made for some beautiful pictures, but it was really busy with tourists.

Monkeying around

The beautiful rice terraces

Kanto Lampo waterfall

The next stop on our whistle stop tour of Bali was Uluwatu. Unfortunately, we didn’t have very long here because we had mainly planned on coming here to visit a beach club, but we liked what we saw. We spent a day at Omnia Beach Club which had the most stunning views down over the cliffs and of the waves crashing against the shore. It made me so desperate to go surfing again. We also visited a beautiful restaurant looking over the ocean where we watched the sunset (it was called Mana Uluwatu) and ate amazing tacos and the most delicious corn on the cob of my entire life. Despite our visit to Uluwatu being fleeting, I still managed to have a quick catch up with my lovely Spanish friend Edu who I had met in Costa Rica back in January. He was spending some time in Uluwatu to surf and it was so nice to see how much we had both changed since meeting at surf camp. Travelling had made us both so much more certain about our goals and had just generally helped us develop as people.

Shots at Omnia Beach Club, Uluwatu

Sunset from Mana Uluwatu

Our next stop was Canggu, the place that brought me the fondest memories of Bali. This may have been because we spent the longest time there, or maybe just because it felt like such a nice community. We stayed in Tropical Hostel which was the BEST choice because we met the most amazing group of people. Having spent such short periods of time in each place before this, we hadn’t really had the chance to really meet people. Staying here reminded me of what it was like to solo travel. There were some amazing restaurants in Canggu, ‘The Loft’ being a personal favourite.

I barely got any photos in Canggu so here’s one of my highly aesthetic bowl of food at The Loft

Next up was Nusa Penida. We decided to stay on the island for two nights, but this wasn’t actually necessary. Most people stay on a different island and then travel over for a day trip, but we were lucky enough to find such cute little bungalows with a restaurant attached for next to no money! It felt nice to support a small local business. The island was poor and there wasn’t much going on, but we were lucky enough to stumble across an abandoned beach club down the road. It was technically still running but there was barely a person in sight. We spent the day here in peace, lounging by the pool and enjoying some cheap snacks and drinks from the pool bar. The following day, we arranged our day trip to all of the sites (we only booked this the night before through someone called Sony) and it was incredible. The highlight was by far our visit to the famous Kelingking beach (that point that looks like a dinosaur) even if the hike down to the actual beach was a bit of a death wish…

Our final Bali stop was the Gili islands which everyone raves about. By this point, you can understand that we were pretty exhausted from a full-on month of boat rides, mosquito bites, sunburn and exploring. We had planned on travelling to a few of the islands but ended up spending the entire time on Gili Trawangan. It provided us with the most beautiful sunsets of our entire trip; it was especially beautiful from Pink Coco restaurant.

Bali was a magical place and one that I would love to return to. I need to go back there for the surfing!

I hope this post was informative.

Kisses x

Sunset from Pink Coco