We have had a fabulous time in Bali. Our fourth time here- the first was nearly twenty years ago! How it has changed since then. This year we spent time in Seminyak, very busy with tourists, great beach and shopping, and Ubud, which is known as the art and cultural centre of Bali. It is a little cooler than the beach areas, we appreciated that! Each day was up to 30 degrees. One day in Seminyak it felt more like 40. Thank goodness for the pools in each place we stayed in.
This time we stayed in a great hotel in Ubud, near the rear entrance of the monkey forest, so that was really convenient with a walkway beside the monkey forest to get to the shopping area. Those cheeky monkeys – doesn’t pay to have bananas or other fruit in your bag. They are liable to jump on you and take them out! Can be a little scary – one jumped on my back, and another on our little one’s side! Lucky it didn’t pull her down, but it did leave a bruise. One time when we were in Malaysia a monkey took my friends ice cream out of her hand. Cheeky!
A new experience for us this time was staying in Airbnb’s. In Bali these range in price for a whole house from NZ $50 to $1000 a night. Our first night in one was in a fairly typical Balinese house which had bedrooms you could lock but an open kitchen, dining, lounge area. It was surrounded by a high fence with a gate with a padlock. The bedrooms didn’t have ensuites so so you had to leave your secure room and go through the open area if you wished to go to the bathroom during the night. Noisy too with the path outside being a shortcut for motorbikes and dogs barking and cats fighting. Not much sleep to be had! The fence wasn’t that high that it couldn’t be climbed over so we weren’t very comfortable with it – especially as someone was banging on the gate late that evening! Probably drunk Australian’s our host said!
We decided to leave the next day, and what a fantastic place we stayed in that night. It was brand new, $240 for 4 of us, . beautiful and also secure. We loved it. Absolutely amazing. $240 a night for 4 of us, our own pool, and everything else we could desire. Lots of fruit, eggs etc there for us to make our own breakfast. That worked well, a couple of other places we stayed they came in and prepared breakfast in front of us. That was a new experience too, a little strange with us there in our jamas, but that was okay.
All up Bali was fabulous, we loved it. We had a great regular driver – NZ $50 a day. Good value, not only a good driver but also terrific when translation was required. He also had GPS (not all drivers do) and sometimes it can be very difficult finding places. Lots of experiences and things to learn for us. Great food too.
Enjoying Our Retirement 