Jimbaran and bye bye Bali

I woke up early and excited, I have enjoyed my second visit to Gili T but now I have finished my Scuba certifications and had a couple of days to relax I am ready to move on to Jimbaran. Rachel my Japan tour guide lived in Bali for a year so I had messaged her a few days back asking for suggestions on where to go before my flight to Oz which is on the 18th. I have a week before I am leaving Bali and I want a place to relax, catch up on some blogs and get ready for my final tour and start of a new adventure. As such Rachel suggested the Uluwatu area in south Bali. I ended up booking myself a room in a property just down the road from Balangan beach. Anyway I wake up early, probably a little too early, my ferry doesn’t leave until 12:45 with check in only an hour before. So having checked out of my accommodation at 10am I have time to kill. Luckily I am able to check in early for my ferry and leave my big bag with them, so I find a nice beach front cafe and kill some time having some breakfast and watching YouTube videos. When it is finally time to board the boat I am pleasantly surprised. This will be my fourth time doing this crossing and I have tried a different company every time. This time it seems I have unknowingly booked in with one of the smaller ferries. This means not so hot and sweaty, yay! I am chuffed the crew actually turn on the working AC, although it isn’t all great news. A smaller boat means we really feel the waves, which I don’t mind but it gets a bit annoying when some of the passengers make a rather loud and melodramatic fuss every time the boat rocks, I’ve said it before and I will say it again, thank god for noise-cancelling headphones. All in all a pleasant boat trip across the clear, turquoise Bali sea and a chance to take a photo as we pass Nusa Lembongan, a lesser known tropical island off the South Eastern coast of Bali. Once I am at the port I am a little worried as I am unable to see any taxi’s waiting for me even though this booking was supposed to include a transfer to my accommodation. After a little think and having brushed off the tenth random taxi drivers advance I, through a quick google, find that the ferry company has an office just around the block.

Once I get to the office it is clear that they have lost my booking stating that yes, it was explained to me when I checked in with my friend on Gili T with the female receptionist that I would have to pay extra to go to my accommodation. Only problem with that story is I am travelling alone and checked in with a male receptionist. After a little back and forth it is agreed they will take me to central Jimbaran but not all the way to Balangan Sea View Bungalow where I’m staying, close to Balangan beach (unsurprisingly, given its name), they say that it is possible but will cost an extra 250,000 rupiahs. I decide to take the free drop off and get a Grab to my accommodation, which ends up costing me 40,000 so quite a bit cheaper. On the drive from central I start to see why the company didn’t want to come where I have booked. Seems a little far off the beaten track. The journey takes us away from real roads and to be honest for the final ten minutes I am not sure I see a single restaurant or shop, just the occasional villa. Once I arrive though the place seems lovely and I am happy to have a large room to myself with a double bed. I arrive just in time for dinner and order a local dish, it was impressive looking and rather tasty. And the signage offered world advice which I felt inclined to take! Full of food and tired from the journey I head to my room nice and early and excited for the chilled week ahead.

Nusa Lembongan Island

The rest of my week was filled with a fairly steady routine I would wake up at 8am and slowly get myself up and showered although it took me a couple days to realise the shower was capable of hot water it just took several minutes for it to come through. Once up and showered I would head to a table near the pool with my iPad and start writing a blog accompanied by an iced honey banana frappe. I am not a coffee person really but the frappe tasted more like a banana milkshake than their banana milkshake did so I rather enjoyed it. I would write until I was hungry and then order lunch. The food at the restaurant varied, not just in what you could order: western, local and other Asian dishes, but also in quality. Everyday became a bit of a hit or miss when ordering. I even ordered the same meal on two separate occasions and the quality was completely different between the two. After eating I would then head to my room to shower again because even if sitting in the shade, if I was outside for a few hours at a time I became sweaty and needed a rinse off. After eating and showering I would often treat myself to a short nap – turns out relaxation, somewhat decent food and sun tires me out, who knew, or maybe it is just the first real chance I’ve had to catch up on sleep in the last several months. It was also a time to catch up on all my laundry, which was a lot more fun this time due to the open fire drying machine, something I’d never seen before. The rest of my time was spent between Netflix and Amazon Prime watching a variety of different shows and movies including Oz, 1932 and Oppenheimer which my dad kindly bought on prime. It was a nice relaxing week and I rather enjoyed it although now sitting here writing about it I realise I really didn’t do much and before I knew it the 18th had arrived and it was time to head for Oz.

Real fire Dryer
(click on the top right hand icon)

I wake up early, excited to get to Australia, which is a little annoying as I was hoping to get a bit of a lie in today. Still I manage to keep myself busy getting ready and packing all my stuff up until I check out at mid-day. One thing my father has taught me over the years is how to faff! Once checked out I order a Grab, it takes a few goes before I find a driver that isn’t on lunch break but still accepting fairs and then expecting people to wait at least 30 minutes while they finish their food! Finally I get a driver and head to the airport, it is not a particularly long journey, less than hour, but it does take a while to get back on to real roads so it is a little bumpy. I get to the airport at around 1pm, not too bad but my flight isn’t until 9pm so checkout isn’t even open yet. I find a nice café, order some tea and finish writing one of my remaining blogs. Once check in is open it all goes rather quickly there are no long queues and I have a call to my dad and then people watch to pass the time before my flight. It is a busy flight and my insistence on being a person who will not rush to join the queue for a plane means my bag ends up at the front of the plane while I’m at the back, but no big deal. My plan for this flight is eat and then sleep. So after take off I get my meal and drift off ready to wake up in a new country. Oz here we come!

Good food...

...and sound advice

The sea view at Balangan Sea View Bungalow

A double bed and AC

A table by the pool