Long vacation in Bali

I took this trip with my parents and I wanted it to be more relaxing - no stringent sightseeing schedules, no running for tubes/trams and no stressing out with visa processing. I analyzed countries providing visa on arrival to Indians and shortlisted Maldives, Bangkok and Bali.

One of my friends, who already visited Bali, highly recommended it. After going through loads of travel videos/blogs on Bali and it seemed like an ideal place to visit, especially when travelling with parents 🤓.
Flying to Bali: since the duration of flight is not too long, I opted for more economical airlines. We had layover in Kuala Lumpur, both ways, for about 10 hours and thought of taking a Transit tour. However, I read that they don't give permit while going from India but we can get one while coming back from Indonesia 🤔. They have some tour package options in airport too, but my mom lost her passport in Bali and travelled back with EC which didn't allow her to go out of the airport 😪. I was instead content with duty-free shopping in Kuala Lumpur airport.

Accommodation: choosing the hotel turned out to be the only major decision I had to make and, since we will be staying there for more than a week, I was fixed on the requirements and listed the expectations.

1. it has to be spacious so we don't feel conjusted especially since it wasn't a short stay.

2. it should have a kitchenette - my parents would be open to, and might even enjoy, local cuisine for couple of days but I was quite sure they want home cooked meal pretty soon.

3. I wanted a swimming pool as I didn't swim in a while.

4. Provide airport pickup as we will be reaching late in the night.

While booking the flights, we got few deals on hotels from the website. After checking up the reviews, I chose a Villa style hotel in Seminyak - the main tourist area. It's bit tucked away from center but it suited all my requirements.
Commuting in Bali: local transport isn't established and tourists have to rely on taxis - many travelogues mentioned that they overcharge tourists and how to handle them, but we avoided the hassle and booked the hotel van. That means we paid a lot on transport, but I felt it's better than spending time dealing with local taxis.
We went sightseeing alternate days (full day for van costed 600000IDR) and other days just roamed around in nearby places. Most hotels offer one way shuttles​ to nearby popular places like a beach or a shopping complex.
Better to get a sim with internet and use Google maps for nearby places - it might give an idea on taxi fare, but in airport or major centers they only have options with 5-10GB packages and charge about 200000IDR. I got one in a smaller street for ~65000IDR with 2 GB data and 20 minutes talk time (I got it half way through our stay, if found sooner I would have tried local taxis for a day).
Money exchange: apparently another place where tourists gets ripped off. We avoided these exchange places and opted for ATMs and card payments. Many places accept cards - few don't charge any handling fee but few add nominal fee. Even with additional charges I found them best mode of payment. Yet, quite often, we had to pay in cash and we withdrew enough to get through until our next outing. As we ate in hotel restaurant few times, I paid them left over cash while checking out and balance with card. I observed that ATM and card machines of Mandiri (if I remember the name right) have no handling charges. So I started using cards whenever I see them at the counter.
Food: on an average, a main dish costed around 50000 - 75000IDR.
We mostly found fried rice/noodles in local cuisine (it's called nasi gorang I think 🤔), usually prepared with chicken. Despite being an island, I didn't see seafood in abundance (they have prawn dishes, but chicken is more predominantly used).
After few days, I gave up my resolution and went for Indian restaurants - of the two Indian restaurants near our hotel, I liked the one with lesser rating in zomato🙄.
They have quite a few MacD outlets too (I saw drive through service for the first time 🙂) and, to my surprise, my mom liked the food there and suggested we go for dinner there (twice 😮).
Cooking wasn't so easy as we thought because we couldn't find things like oil and chilly powder. We tried couple of times with alternatives like butter and chilly sauce, but it wasn't very delicious 😕. Except for 2-3 meals, we mostly went out or opted for the restaurant in our hotel.
Nitrogen ice-cream in a shopping mall in Seminyak:

Masala tea in Indian restaurant😋:

Breakfast in bed 😍:


Sightseeing and other things to do: almost every place we been to have entrance fee ranging between 10k - 100k IDR. One temple don't have entry fee, but they have mandatory donation.
1. Temples: they are quite different from the temples in India. There are no main idols or any process of worship, but the architecture is quite unique.
First temple we visited (don't know the name though 😓):

Uluwatu temple:


2. Beaches: I liked the Seminyak beach which is quite vast and perfect for relaxing evening.

There is another beach (I think the name is Suluman) where we had to take quite a few slippery steps to enter the tiny beach and they got very narrow and steep towards the end. Even those who seemed fit, struggled through it and I got very concerned about my parents and upset that no one at the ticket counter nor our driver warned us about it. Plus the beach is so tiny and untidy, I didn't even understand why it is so famous.
Tanah lot was the last sightseeing place we visited in the trip. The temple is built few feet inside the sea and the tides were quite rough. We were not allowed inside the temple though - we can only walk till the rock😑.
Sunset Tanah lot temple:

3. Water sports: I went for sea walking and snorkeling. Sea walking is something different from other water sports I tried before and I quite liked it.
I didn't feel snorkeling is handled very well and felt the guide who came with me​ isn't well trained. The water didn't seem suitable for it either. I dropped off the idea of surfing after that. I'd rather pay extra and go to a better place for such activities.



4. Bali dance: they depict some religious epics in dance form. The characters are familiar to Indians, but they have different versions of the stories. We visited a semi open theater to watch the show, but there is one place called GWK (which is a huge park sort of place with some sculptures) and they got a performance every hour or two. The show duration is shorter, however there is no separate show fee and entry fee is same as the ticket price we paid at the theater.


Few more pics from GWK:

5. Monkey Forest: signature tourist place in Bali. I guess there are few of these and our driver took us to a place where the monkeys are not too naughty 😋. In many places they snatch glasses, cameras etc., In this forest, they kept their distance, unless the visitors offered bananas for them.

6. Coffee luwak: another famous thing to do in Bali. The coffee is made from the beans picked by an animal called civet. The place we went to have those animals cages and caged animals normally are force fed the beans thus eliminating process of natural selection. But the ones I saw are being continuously fed with other fruit in cages so they aren't forced to pick coffee beans out of hunger (according to their videos, they are freed to choose the beans). I am not completely convinced that I had the authentic luwak coffee, but I had one 😎.

7. 3D museum: this is my favorite of all. They have paintings where we could pose like we are a part of the picture. The place is quite huge with so many sections and got so many paintings. I was skeptical at first but my mom and I had a lot of fun. There's also upside down museum but we didn't get to visit that place.

8. Spa: Bali is also famous for the spas. They have some interesting options like milk/flower bath and creme head massage and are quite affordable too. I got a package for full body massage with scrub and pack along with a flower bath for 200000IDR + creme head massage for another 100000 (not sure if I got the split right but overall bill was 325000IDR with taxes).

one thing worth mentioning - every place we been to, even the smallest of roads with no street lights, is very clean. Considering the climate and amount of trees and shrubs, I don't think it's an easy task.

Dealing with passport loss: after visiting 3D museum, we went to MacD for dinner. I thought of taking a taxi, but my parents wanted to walk as it takes only 15-20 mins to reach our hotel by foot and it wasn't even 8 p.m. Quite unfortunately, just few feet away from hotel 2 guys on motorcycle snatched my mom's handbag with her passport and camera in it. We immediately reported at the hotel reception and they took us to the police station with a copy of her passport, they took while checking in. Next morning, we went to the Indian embassy and got emergency certificate. Then went to the immigration office to get it stamped - we first went to wrong office and they told us to go to the other office which might close in 45 mins and it is on the other end of the city 😨, but we made it in time and actually got 2 more hours before they close for the weekend 😓.
I was very thankful my mom didn't get hurt. Also the incident happened on Thursday and our return flight was on Sunday. Had the theft occurred on Friday, embassy would have been closed and we had to extend the trip 😓. I had to say, we were quite fortunate considering the circumstances.
On a lighter note, the drive to immigration office is quite exhilarating and the road in the route is through the sea. I felt like we are in an action movie, chasing in car on the road with sea on both sides 😌.

Overall, Bali is a good place to travel with parents or kids as it's easier to arrange additional facilities and few luxuries at affordable prices - 8 day trip costed about 150k INR for 3 (including flight tickets from/to Bangalore).