Bali, Indonesia

Despite the long flights, I am still happy to have visited Bali, Indonesia. It was like stepping into another world with such different beliefs and cultures. From exotic tropical forests and flowers to verdant green terraced rice fields mingled with temples of all shapes and sizes. It is truly a spiritual place to escape to. I travelled with my cousin through a Travel Best Bets package (@travelbestbets). I can’t say enough about the quality of the Holiday Inn Resort in Benoa (south Bali) where we stayed for two weeks. We felt we were treated like royalty. The staff was so attentive and such graceful people. Arriving in the early hours of the morning we were greeted with warm wet towels and a refreshment. From the front entrance a series of pools led to the beach behind with tropical trees and shrubs throughout.

Holiday Inn Resort, Benoa

It took us a couple of days to adjust but we soon discovered places of interest to visit. There were a few excursions included in the travel package but in the end my cousin and I preferred being independent and found a very accommodating taxi driver.

We booked a trip to Lambongen Island in the hopes of doing some snorkeling however the sea was very rough that day due to a full moon. We ended up relaxing on the beach and were treated to a barbeque with many different varieties of food. Apparently Lambongen Island is a popular destination to travel to if you truly want to get away from it all.

Lambongen Island

Another day we ventured to the turtle sanctuary where turtles can recuperate after being entangled in plastic. I couldn’t believe the size of them. Once recovered they are returned to the sea.

Other places of interest were the Tanah Lot Temples where you can watch the sun go down. We also ventured to Jambaran Beach where we watched our fresh snapper and prawns being cooked. You share your meal with many other nationalities sat at tables along the beach.

Tanah Lot Temples

We had plenty of opportunities to visit markets in both Kuta and Ubud. (Ubud market has been made famous from the movie “Eat, Pray, Love” as Julia Roberts was filmed at this market). It takes a while to get used to the intense traffic with scooters coming at you from all angles.

There were plenty of open front restaurants to eat at offering a large range of food. From Indonesian, Thai to Western style. With it being so humid, we were happy to stay in the cooler areas and watch the world go by.