Day 9. Exploring Bali

On By Little Miss TravellerIn Asia, Bali 2019, Doha, Jakarta & Bali, Indonesia

It was still dark when we were wakened by the sounds of someone knocking on our bedroom door, and glancing at the time, wondered whatever it could be.  My son went to open the door and was handed a morning newspaper.  Apparently as IHG members we were entitled to a complimentary daily newspaper and the porter was apologising that at the weekend it is only printed in Indonesian!  Goodness me, woken early to receive a paper we could only look at the photos in!  I hope he just pushes it under the door on future mornings or leaves it outside on the doormat.  Disturbance over, we returned to sleep until 8.30 a,m.

Swimming pool themed lobby at the Holiday Inn Express Braun's Bali
The swimming pool themed lobby of our hotel

Breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express Baruna Bali is served on the ground floor with additional tables out on the terrace.  It appeared busy when we arrived but fortunately the perfect table soon became available on the edge of the outdoor section.  There were the usual selection of items on offer plus several local dishes and to our surprise an outdoor egg station.

Holiday Inn Express Baruna Bali
The egg station at our hotel

This was extremely well organised with picture menus displaying numerous egg options, fillings for omelettes etc, and guests just needed to add their table number and tick their preferred option.  So far this holiday I’d eaten omelettes and Egg Benedict so, just for a change, I opted for eggs on toast which were brought to the table and cooked to perfection.  I also helped myself to some fresh guava juice, yoghurt with papaya and last but not least my beloved cappuccinos.

Holiday Inn Express Baruna Bali breakfast menu
The easy to use form ensuring that eggs are cooked to perfection

Whilst we were tucking into our breakfast, the hotel manager came over and introduced himself apologising for the hotel shuttle bus not coming to collect us from the airport the previous evening.  We hadn’t mentioned it at check-in as we had found our own way there, but the hotel must have realised the mistake themselves and insisted on giving us a voucher for IDR 300,000 (£16.94) to spend on food and drink in the hotel bar which was very generous of them.

Holiday Inn Express Baruna Bali view from room
View from our hotel room window

Ready to start exploring, we popped on our sun hats and set off for a stroll along the beachfront just around the corner from the hotel.  It was very quiet and peaceful along this stretch of the promenade but as we approached Kuta it became more active.  The beach near the hotel seemed clean but this wasn’t the case in Kuta as it was littered with discarded food and drink containers along with other debris.

Promenade, Kota, Bali
Walking along the promenade from our hotel towards Kuta, Bali

We turned inland at the Board Walk shopping centre so that we could visit the Ground Zero Memorial in memory of the 2002 Bali bomb victims who were killed in October 2002.  The memorial was dedicated on the second anniversary of the attack on the site of the destroyed Paddy’s Bar on Legian Street and is made of intricately carved stone bearing the names and nationalities of those killed.

Ground Zero Memorial, Legian, Bali
Ground Zero Memorial, Legian, Bali

After viewing the sombre memorial we continued in a northerly direction to the centre of Legian although each place seemed to run into the next and with tightly packed shops, cafes and bars there was little or no difference.

Typical street scene, Kuta, Bali
 
Typical street scene, Kuta, Bali

We then followed what appeared to be a short cut to Legian Beach down some narrow roads which were barely wide enough for pedestrians let alone the numerous scooters which were doing their best to run us over.  Eventually, we just about made it in one piece to the stone archway entrance to the beach.

Stone archway at the entrance to Legian Beach, Bali
Stone archway at the entrance to Legian Beach, Bali

The fine sand here was much cleaner and it was less busy than in Kuta so we removed our shoes and walked all the way back to the hotel along the water’s edge, our feet lapping the incoming waves.

Kuta, Bali
Taking a long walk along the water’s edge

The sea was lovely and warm and the lengthy walk seemed to take hardly any time at all as we paddled our way back.  As it was exceedingly hot, we stopped part way for some refreshing cool drinks, finally arriving back at the hotel at around 4.00 p.m having walked 10.5 km in temperatures of over 30°.

Kuta, Bali
Tranquil scenes on the beach close to our hotel

After resting in our room awhile we popped up to the rooftop bar for cocktails and relaxed on sun loungers watching the beautiful sunset.

Holiday Inn Express Baruna Bali roof terrace
Enjoying the sunset from the rooftop pool at our hotel

After darkness fell we wandered out to find somewhere to eat and for once couldn’t resist Western food so we ordered large portions of roast chicken and chips along with glasses of local beer.  Live music was playing and as the temperature had dropped significantly it was a pleasant way to end our first full day on the island of Bali.

It was around 10.30 p.m. when we left the restaurant and on our way back to the hotel we stopped at an ATM for some more cash as there had been few opportunities to pay by card either in Jakarta or here in Bali.  We’d arranged a private car and driver through the hotel for the following day and had been advised that we needed to pay the driver in cash.  Would you believe it that we had to try five different ATM’s before we managed to get one to work!  One had a broken button which we we needed to press, two others cited ‘technical error’ and the other one wouldn’t work at all!  Having finally succeeded we returned to the hotel rather later than expected!

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49 thoughts on “Day 9. Exploring Bali”

  5. Pingback: Day 11. Exploring Seminyak, Bali – Love Travelling Blog

      1. You are making me want to go to Bali. My friends and I planned to go last year August but ended up going to Victoria Falls rather. We stayed at a wonderful hotel that had something similar to an egg station. Maybe Bali will be the next travel destination.

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        1. Victoria Falls must have been a stunning destination. I keep thinking about where I want to go next but it really comes down to which countries will accept us and what will be open. Hope you’re having a good weekend. After a week of rain, it’s actually quite nice here.

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  10. It’s been 5 years since my last visit to Bali, and I’d really like to go there again. I live in the island of Java, which is just next to Bali, but it’s quite expensive to go there so I haven’t had the chance to do that. Did you visit the Pandawa beach and Bedugul Lake? Those two were my favorite places in Bali 🙂

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  12. Yes its been a long time since I had my last visit to Bali. Have attended a couple of conventions and just enjoyed personal vacations there when I lived in Singapore. I liked the pace and the people though they tell me its quite commercialized and has a different feeling now. They have always delivered a complementary paper in English to us. They kind of missed the ball there didn’t they? 🙂

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  14. Silver

    What a beautiful place ❤ and how clever to have the tick-box menu! And that's great service that they gave you the money to spend, when your ride didn't come.

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    1. The tick box menu was brilliant. So many times Ive had my breakfast spoilt with over cooked eggs when the staff didn’t understand what I meant. The hotel were kind to give us money to spend on food and drinks – a good example of goodwill! Thanks for your welcome thoughts Silver. Marion

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      1. I have to confess I have never had the inkling to go there. Many Australians do. Some of our friends used to go in big groups in their day. They’d come back with T-shirts and fake watches. I’d ask what cultural sites they’d seen. Invariably, the answer was none. A lot of haggling with the locals for what to an Aussie was a dollar, but to a Balinese was food for the day. Not my scene at all.
        Similarly, I’m not a fan of Pacific Islands, even though, for people from the northern hemisphere, that would sound like the epitome of heaven.

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        1. I know exactly what you mean Gwen. It was fun for a first visit but it wasn’t our usual type of destination and if we’d stayed any longer we would probably have run out of things to do. Now we’ve experienced Bali I think we’d zoom on to Perth instead!

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          1. Interesting city. Sun sets over the water. That’s really screwy for an Aussie brought up on the east coast. A trip to Kings Park is de rigueur. Also the gorgeous botanic gardens. Compact and beautiful city centre. Can take river trips. I loved going to Sandalford Winery in the Swan Valley, but then again, I love their Elements Late Harvest soft sweet wine. Fremantle, too, has a lot to offer. Maybe even more than Perth. Easily accessible by train or boat. Working class made good. A visit to Fremantle prison a big eye opener. Last person hanged as recent as 1964. Suggested reading Tim Winton or Robert Drewe. Then you need to cast further afield. But BIG day trips. A lot of miles to cover. South to Margaret River and Cape Leeuwin is one suggestion. Also I did a trip north-east to the Benedictine Community of New Norcia. I see they even offer accommodation now.
            My blog series on one adventure that way start here:
            https://garrulousgwendoline.wordpress.com/2016/06/25/day-4-of-the-the-indian-pacific-sydney-perth-arrival-day/

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            1. Brilliant, I’ll have a read with my afternoon cup of tea and start planning for when this is all over. We’ve visited Australia five times (all pre blogging days) but there’s a lot for us to explore and revisit. Probably one of the safest places right now if they let us in!!

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  20. The Ground Zero Memorial looks striking and reverent; I can see it pays homage to the lives lost beautifully. You’re really the trooper for walking over 10 km in 30°C heat– I guess when you’re so passionate about traveling, nothing stops you at all! Can’t wait to read more of your adventures in Bali. 🙂

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  21. Looks beautiful. I find that the drivers are really good tour guides and very flexible. Crazy getting money out isn’t it, you have to take so many notes out. US dollars are widely accepted though. We always use cash as there is a lot of card scamming over there. Looking forward to seeing where your driver takes you

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