23
May
2015
0

Bali: Four Day Itinerary

Flying to Bali from Mumbai takes over 9 hours each way. Not many people decide to go to Bali over a long weekend. Well, we took a day off from work, made a three day long weekend to a four day long weekend and set off to to Bali. There is plenty to see and do in Bali and we would have loved to spend a couple of days more on the island, but the four days that we did spend were enough to relax and recharge us.
Bali Airport

Surf, sun, sand …and loads of culture!

Our previous trip to Iceland was fairly hectic, with a day-trip planned every day and aurora watching scheduled for every night, we barely managed 8 hours of sleep everyday. It was cold chilly Icelandic winter with temperature slightly under 0 degrees Celsius. Having spent a week in Iceland, we came back happy and excited : we had walked over glaciers, tasted ice bergs and watched the Northern Lights dance.

Six beautiful days in Icelandic winters

However, next on cards, had to be a beach destination where we could relax every muscle and nerve of our body and feel rejuvenated. That was our agenda for Bali! So, here is what we did when we were there for four days…
Day 1: Exploring Nusa Dua
We boarded a Malindo Air flight, via Kuala Lumpur, which departed at mid night and got us to Bali at about noon. With the new bridge that connects the air port at Denpasar to the tourist hubs like Nusa Dua, it took us about 30 minutes to get to our destination – Grande Mirage Resort and Thalasso Spa in Nusa Dua. We reached just in time for lunch.
Lunch was followed by a siesta and then obviously, a super relaxing therapy at the Thalasso Spa. One hour in the spa and no longer did we feel the stressed muscles after a long flight… our body and mind seemed to be at ease. Maybe that is what Bali does to you…puts you at ease!
Bali Grand Mirage

View from our poolside lunch table at the Grande Mirage… Let the vacation begin!

We spent the entire day in the resort and wanted to explore a couple of restaurants that served local Balinese food. Bumbu Bali, within walking distance from our resort was highly rated and we had a sumptuous dinner of local specialties along with some wine, which made us happier, literally!
Bambu Bali

Wining and dining ….the Balinese way!

Day 2: Canggu, Ubud and Kuta
Day 2 was all about exploring the island, as much as we could in just a day!
Canggu: Canguu is not on the cards for many tourists. There was a very special reason that we went there… to get a photoshoot done at the Canggu rice fields, that are close to the beach. I was pretty bored of having standard shoots of us and had been wanting to get this done for over 3 years. There are more reasons to it, which I will dwell on in a later post. As we did not know any photographer personally, we connected with Flytograher. And we are glad that we did! We spent a couple of hours on the rice fields in Canggu getting the photoshoot done, which was fun experience. Here is one of my favourite pictures from the shoot.
Bali Flytographer

Candid Camera.. Our Flytographer buddy, Gusmank was great behind the camera

Temples: Next on cards was getting ‘templed out in Bali’. We visited the Tanah Lot temple and the Taman Ayun Royal Family temple before reaching Ubud, and ended up visiting a lot of temples there.
Ubud: We reached Ubud at about 1pm in the afternoon and loved the green rice fields around us. As we had lunch, with the swaying paddy fields in the back drop, we wondered why we stay in Mumbai? We spent the rest of the afternoon in Ubud – shopping, exploring more temples, sitting in coffee shops and running through the paddy fields.
Ubud Rice Fields

Rice fields in Ubud

Devdan Show in Nusa Dua: We had booked the Devdan Show for the evening and had to be back at our resort in Nusa Dua by 6 pm. We made it just in time to enter the the show. We totally loved the show – it took us though the cultural dance forms across Indonesia… arts that we would have never have explored had we not seen the show. The acrobats in the show were excellent and performed tasks that left us with our mouths wide open.
devdan-slideshow2

Devdan Show (picture courtesy- Devdan)

Later in the night, we decided to kindle our dormant spirit of the of the ‘party animal’ and headed to Kuta. We reached Kuta at about 10 pm on a Friday night and it was buzzing with activity. The buzz continued and reached a higher level by about mid-night. If partying is your thing, Kuta is your place!
Day 3: Luxury in Nusa Dua
Day 2 had been quite some action for us and we wanted to do nothing on Day 3. We were in Bali to do nothing, except sip on cocktails and watch the sea waves kiss the beach., weren’t we? We headed to the Samabe Suites in Nusa Dua, which is amongst the most luxurious resorts that we have ever stayed in.
Welcomed with garlands at the Samabe

Samabe Suites

With a private pool, 24 hour availability of breakfast, a chef that spins magic, we wondered if this is what paradise looks like!
We very busy on Day 3… busy being lazy… busy relaxing… and busy pampering ourselves silly.
Day 4: Back to Mumbai
Our flight from Bali departed at about noon, with a few hours layover in Kuala Lumpur. Considering that we had a valid visa for Malaysia, we stepped out of the airport at KL and had a nice hot lunch…Malaysia sure is a food heaven for vegetarians!
Roti Canai Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia, Truly Asia…especially for the foodies

All good things have to come to end….so did our trip to Bali! We were back home in Mumbai by mid-night on Day 4.
More posts on Bali coming up this month…stay tuned!

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18 Responses

  1. upasna

    Hey Sonia …the holiday photo shoot is such a great idea . was wondering what to do for attys first holiday overseas. More details on Bali awaited ��

  2. Gurudas Pai

    Very enterprising of you guys to plan Bali for an extended weekend!
    I am sure you would have liked a couple of more days there. Keep travelling!

    1. Totally agree! Would have loved to spend at least a day more in Ubud! Too short a life…so much to see….cant let any long weekend go by idle :-)!

  3. Oh how amazing! I love Iceland – but have yet to see the Northern Lights … and Bali is on my bucket list (I have several friends heading there this year). It looks amazing – can’t wait to visit myself now!

  4. Lisa

    I’ve been a few times now to Bali and it never disappoints! Your photo with Flytographer is wonderful, definitely one to keep. I think Ubud is still one of my favourite places there, always a good energy about the town.

  5. How cool that you went for a long weekend! I love the rice field photo, I’ve been really wanting to go to one for the same reason and now I know where to go. It looks like you had a great trip!

  6. I’d love to go to Bali. The Grande Mirage Resort and Thalasso Spa looks fabulous, no wonder you were relaxed after that. The photo shoot sounds fun- good to know about that service to find a photographer.

  7. I’ve never visited Bali but I can see why it’s high on travelers’ bucket lists! I am also curious to find out more about your Flytographer experience. Was it affordable? Was he/she a local?

  8. Julianne

    Looks like you hit two things on my bucket list — Bali and Flytographer! No joke, I’ve heard about Flytographer for a while, so it’s great to see that you had a good experience. Impressed that you took a 9-hour flight for a short getaway to Bali, but hey, it’s BALI. I’d travel for hours just to go there 🙂 Props!

  9. omg, those pancakes at the end look so delicious my mouth is watering. You and your sig other look so adorable in that last pic! It made me think that you were on a honeymoon or something. Totally jealous about going to Iceland btw. I have always wanted to go to Bali & appreciate you confirming that it is as relaxing and magical as I have always imagined. The split temple looks really interesting, I bet the art there is really unique and fantastic

  10. eazynazy

    Bali is definitely on my bucket list and I like the way you put everything together in this post. I loved your pictures too , specially that food made me drool lol

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