Four days in beautiful Bali

This week we went to Bali. Two nights in Seminyak and two nights in Ubud. I can say without hesitation that Bali is the most beautiful place I have visited in Asia and four days was definitely not long enough. Every Balinese person we spoke to was friendly, warm and welcoming; every restaurant or bar we went to served scrumptious (and cheap) food and fun cocktails; the two villas we stayed in were perfect and both towns had this wonderful dichotomy of old art and architecture mixed with the new, trendy and modern. 

Seminyak has such cool places to eat and everywhere was buzzing at breakfast, lunch and dinner. We had three stand-out meals in Seminyak - the first was brunch at Sisterfields which a couple of friends had recommended to us, and if we had more time I'm sure we would have eaten there again.

Braised short rib, brisket and black
bean chilli @ Sisterfields

We also had a great brunch at a place called La Lucciola which had beautiful views of the ocean and the morning's local fisherman casting their rods from the shore.

Brunch with a view

The final one I have to mention is the dinner we had at La Laguna. Getting there requires a short taxi ride as its not on the main strip, but well worth heading the extra distance. Phil and I had never been to a restaurant like it - the place was right on the lagoon with lots of floor seating, old carriages, statues, bridges and rivers running through the middle. We had a great cocktail there called 'Herb & Spiced' which we need to recreate with vodka, chilli, lemongrass, basil and lime. The Balinese seem to use basil in almost everything and it's something we are definitely going to take away with us - especially as we now have a little herb garden growing on our balcony in Singapore!

We only had one full day in Seminyak which we used to lie on the beach and surf. Phil was amazing and stood up almost immediately, I on the other hand was not so good, and probably managed to stand up for about half a second in the two hours we were out at sea...

I annoyingly wacked my head whilst surfing and got a bit nauseous and headachy after that - was then very unwell when we reached Ubud the following day. Popped in to the medical centre (as now seems to be tradition whenever I'm on holiday) and was prescribed some meds to get me better. A day was wasted, but luckily I felt completely well again for our final half day in Ubud so Phil and I hired a taxi driver and went to the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary, the Tengenungan village waterfall, and the Jambe Asri coffee plantation. 

Being in the Monkey Forest felt like being in The Jungle Book. The trees and ancient statues were amazing and we are really glad we went.

The coffee plantation was also well-worth the visit. We each tried lots of local teas and coffees before having a cup of Luwak coffee. Luwak Coffee comes from beans which have first been eaten and excreted by a mongoose, before being dried, roasted and ground. Sounds a bit gross but something about the fermentation in the mongoose stomach makes great coffee, and it was one of he best cups of coffee I've had.

Luwak Coffee 

We want to spend more time in both Seminyak and Ubud, and also head to the Gili Islands and do some more diving. It's a fairly short flight from Singapore (2.5 hrs) so we are hoping to find a weekend in the next few months to pop back!

It is such a beautiful, relaxing place and there is so much more we still need to see.