Bali has been on our agenda for a long time to visit .. and being so close you’d think we would have already been; but we hadn’t and we needed to! As Julia was going to be travelling back to Wales before our wedding anniversary we decided to treat ourselves and celebrate our anniversary early with a three night stay at the Komaneka at Keramas Beach. We had a beautiful villa overlooking the beach in the Ubud District which was a perfect location to visit many of the tourist attractions.
We were travelling out of season, but thankfully the weather was good to us and another positive was that many of the big tourist attractions were not over crowded, in fact in one coffee plantation we were the only ones there!
We had organised a tour prior to leaving as we had limited time on the island. This isn’t necessary if you do travel to Bali, there are many ways to organise a tour either with a guide or do it on your own! Our guide was excellent, he joined us on a few of the activities and would share his knowledge of the area. We stopped off at Tegenungan waterfall, one of the most beautiful waterfalls in Indonesia, with an easy track to walk down, and on a good day you can take a dip in the crystal clear waters. We highly recommend you visit.
We visited the terraced rice fields at Tegalalang, the Monkey Forest .. living in Malaysia we see a lot of monkeys, but my word, this place was full of them! We enjoyed sampling many teas and coffees at the Abian Kusuma Sari Coffee Plantation including Luwak coffee, the most expensive coffee in the world .. was it worth the money? Well Julia certainly enjoyed it! She even met the animal that helped to make it! For those of you who have not heard about it, Kopi Luwak is made from coffee cherries that have been partially digested and excreted by the Asian palm civet, a type of cat!
We finished off our tour with a visit to the Pura Tirta Empul Temple which is famous for its holy spring water and where the Hindus go for a ritual purification which is called Melukat.
A day of sightseeing was followed by a day of relaxing by the pool and enjoying the amenities of our hotel. We would love to have seen more, and perhaps one day we’ll return, but we would highly recommend a trip to the Indonesian island.
