Bali - our holiday within our holiday

Bali Bali Bali...

I'm sure you've all heard about Bali, tropical beaches, pretty scenery, friendly locals, world class surfing, full of Aussies and cheap as chips. And it certainly lives up to its name. 

We decided to go to Bali as there were cheap flights from Perth and it is cheap when you get there and it is only a 3 hour flight. According to Aussie TV it's like a Australian Magaluf, full of young, drunk Aussies drinking themselves into an obvilion, throwing up on the streets and crashing mopeds. 

However we were lucky to miss this view of it as we stayed far away enough from the party strip (Kuta) in a village called Petitenget close to upmarket Seminyak. It is about a 20 minute crazy taxi ride from Denpasar Airport. 

We stayed in Villa Bunga, which had amazing Trip Advisor reviews and was small and boutique like. We a lovely little swimming pool and traditional trees, and statues in the small garden. Our room was basic and we didn't have a view but it didn't matter as it didn't plan on spending much time in there.

We arrived early evening so after dumping our things in the room after having a welcome drink, we headed into the village for some pre dinner drinks and food. We stopped at Luna rooftop bar for our drink and it was posher than we thought, luckily we got there during there happy hour and we had two cocktails and a bowl of nuts. I had a Strawberry Daiquiri and Nath had Frozen Mango Margarita and they were the perfect start to our holiday. 

We then went for dinner at Bonita in our village, which was set in a picturesque garden with lanterns and served traditional Indonesian food. 

 We both stuck to traditional Indonesian food, Nathan with Nasi Goreng which was fried rice with shrimp, chicken satay, local vegetables and chilli and me with a prawn, squid and tuna spicy stew/curry with rice. Both interesting and tasty! 

For our second day in Bali we headed to Potato Head Beach Club. This was recommended to us by a friend who visited it a week or so before us and just seeing her Facebook photos had us convinced. 

It's set on the beach front, but not many people visit this particular beach as it has black sand and to be honest there are many more that are nicer. Potato Head has a infinity pool and a jacuzzi with a pool bar and beds with umbrellas surrounding the pool, with your own waiter to get you drinks, food etc. You'd think it would be posh and i guess it was but actually it was quite inexpensive. For a pool bed, it was a minimum spend of 500,000 Rupiah. Sure sounds a lot but it actually translates to £25, which is definitely worth it if you spend all day there. Nathan feasted all day on whole coconuts and I had cocktails, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic and for lunch we shared a mixed Mediterranean focaccia sandwich with chips which was delicious. 

After a long day at Potato Head suntanning we headed back to Villa Bunga to get out of the sun, shower and relax before dinner. 

That evening we had booked to go to Rayjin, as Japanese Teppenyaki restaurant very close to our villa. There were only a few places to sit which was why we had to book. I'm not sure the particular meaning for the word Teppenyaki but I'm assuming it means watching your food being cooked. As all the places you cook sit surrounded the kitchen. It was a great atmosphere with all the chefs greeting you in Japanese and chanting throughout the evening. 

We had Snapper Carpaccio and Tuna and Avocado for starters.

It was so delicious and Nathan really wasn't sure about whether he would like it, as he's not the biggest fan of fish or raw food but he absolutely loved it. Then for mains we both had chicken dishes which were slightly different but we shared.

This was also massively tasty. Then for desert we shared a Matcha Creme Brûlée, which is basically Green Tea flavoured. It was good but didn't taste as indulgent as a normal dessert would. Now how much would you expect to pay for all this including a garlic rice and 2 large beers? Well we paid the equivalent of £15, I for one was shocked it was so cheap but ridiculously good. I would have been happy to pay so much more. 

The following day we decided to go to the beach in Seminyak. We walked there to save money which took us a good hour in the morning heat. The beach still had dark sand but the waves were huge and there was lots of surfing so it was OK because it seemed popular. We paid for a sunbed as no one was lying on the sun which I think is because it is too hot and relaxed. Later on in the day we hired a surfboard between us and Nathan went out first with swimming close by to film on the GoPro.

Because the waves were quite big (Bali is renowned for good surfing) it was difficult but Nath did a cracking job, with a bit of body surfing and knee boarding but also managing to stand up a few times. When I was filming in the water I found that every wave I was getting taken off my feet so no surprise I was nervous to attempt to surf. My first go I just body boarded and on my second go I was about to attempt to surf when someone else's board hit me a some speed at the back of my head. I got straight out the water and had a cry as it was quite painful and decided to give surfing a miss for the rest of the day.

We stayed at the beach for a little while longer before heading into Seminyak for a small (very late) lunch of pitas. 

That evening we went to Buki for dinner, which was another traditional Indonesian restaurant which was also very busy (a good sign). Nathan had an amazing meal of another Nasi Goreng and I had a Dhal as I fancied a curry. However never again as it was quite possibly the most untasteful meal ever. It didn't even look nice so as you can't probably guess I was pretty disappointed. So on the way back to the Villa I had a magnum (for 70p) as a pick me up. 

The next day we spent at our own pool as we thought we might as well make use of it.

That afternoon after a shower we headed to the 'party' capital for the night markets

however not actually buying anything and then went for a drink at a roof top bar overlooking the beach for sunset. We both drank Lychee Beers.

We then walked to Legion Beachfront in search of a Lonely Planet recommendation, Mozarella. We were hoping that this was the same place as the one we went to in Singapore as the food was so good. It took us ages to find and it was quickly getting later and later and when we finally found it we discovered it definitely wasn't a chain and there was literally no Mozarella on the menu and it was a bit pricey. Anyway we ordered still and I had a delicious salmon and spinach pasta and Nath had ribs. 

The following two days we spent at Potato Head Beach Club with Nathan drinking copious amounts of coconut water and me drinking water and the occasional cocktail. 

We ate Italian the one night sharing another delicious pasta and a pizza and on our final night we are in Seminyak at The Junction and I had incredible tuna. 

On our last day we also both had an hour

long traditional massage which included our feet, toes, collar bones, backs, faces basically all over and it was amazing if not a little painful at times. 

Our last day was an early start with a quick breakfast before saying goodbye to Bali and heading to the airport.

Xoxo

Cycling in Perth

Cycling in Perth is easier than driving, not that I've tried driving in Perth really. But that's besides the point, if you like staying active, Perth is the place for you. 

Within the city there is the Swan River and you can cycle all the way round and it's flat and beautifully scenic, with great wide cycle paths. If I lived and worked in Perth I would get a place along the river somewhere and cycle everyday. Nath and I cycled from the main station in the city to Matilda Bay which was 5km an stopped for an apple pie and a hot drink. 

There are some lovely little stopping points for a lengthy Sunday cycle, like Swan Brewery. I feel like I'm trying to promote Perth to you, but I think it's just got so much to offer and there cycle paths are really something to shout about. 

But it's not only the centre of Perth that's great. As I mentioned In a previous post, you can cycle pretty much as far as you like along the coast. As far North as Fremantle (probably further but we haven't tried it) or as South as Mullaloo (which is the furtherest South I've got but I'm pretty sure you could go further). If you did this route from the two places I've mentioned it would be a few hours cycle and scenic all the way. 

There are also some great stopping points, around Trigg Beach (in the middle somewhere) there is a great little cafe called Yelo and they sell the best vanilla milkshakes, or further north around Sorrento there is a restaurant/cafe, Voyager Kitchen which does a great selection of cakes and healthy lunch options. And of course there is Hillary's Harbour which was loads of places. For a hot drink and a chocolatey snack, if recommend San Churros Chocolatier. It is amazing, which the world's best chocolate (as decided by me) and you can have Churros (although not tried and tested yet). But there are lots of places to suit different taste buds; Asian, Mexican, Italian and American. 

Basically if you visit Perth, don't bother with a car GET A BIKE!!! 

Xoxo

Perth to Exmouth Roadtrip and back

Nathan finished work Monday afternoon and I'd had a pretty horrific day. I decided to cycle with Nath to work at the crack of dawn which is a 5 mile cycle, I then cycled further in the opposite direction to home for an hour and on my way back my tire popped which meant I then had to walk from work to home which took 2 hours! My feet were in agony and I was very grumpy when I returned but thank goodness for Carol (mum's cousin) who came over with a very delicious chilli con carne and a bottle of Shiraz for dinner. 

So Tuesday came which was DAY 1 of our Roadtrip, we cycled/ran (with only 1 bike) to the station to go into Perth to pick up our camper. We hired a Lucky campervan (the Ryan Air of campervans, as all their vehicles are bought second hand of Juicy Rentals) a 1997 classic Toyota in the shape of a ford Galaxy. The front to seats are normal, but the back seats had been removed into a limo type format, with seats along the windows facing each other, these both had storage units underneath. There was also a wash basin and a gas cooker and also all windows could be covered with curtains. It was an automatic car, which neither of us had driven before so I allowed Nath to drive back to the house. We then stocked up with our clothes and a few bits of food before heading to the supermarket on route. By then it was lunch so we treated ourselves to a Grill'd (healthy burger house, we have wanted to try ever since arriving in Perth).

Finally around lunchtime, we went on our way officially. We drove for around 5 and a half hours, switching driver every 2 hours. Our plan initially was to stop in Geraldton overnight, which is the only major town between Perth and Broome, which says a lot about Western Australia and how huge it is but how small the population is. However when the sun went down it got very dark, which you will think is normal right? But in WA street lights are pretty much only in Perth and the surrounding suburbs, as soon as you head north you drive on one road in the middle of absolutely no where, all there is to see is outback. You can look 360 degrees around and not see one human, building or sign of life, unless you count a few cows, sheep, goats or emu. You can also drive for hours and not see anything and be on the same road, so we had to make sure we had plenty of water, fuel and provisions. 

Anyway back to DAY 1, we finally saw a sign for a town called Eneabba, however you definitely couldn't call it a town. We pulled over opposite a fuel station in a caravan park spot with actual toilets yay! We cooked pasta with ham and cheese sauce with salad for dinner before going to bed around 8pm! 

DAY 2 started early at 7am, and we had a breakfast bar and a banana before heading on our way. I drove for another 2 and a bit hours (yep on the same road) before finally getting to Geraldton, where we stopped for the toilet and to have sandwiches and a bit of a leg stretch. We also stocked up on fuel and water (as water becomes a shortage the further north you get). 

We then had another 9 hours to go before getting to Coral Bay, still all on the same road. However because of a huge amount of rainfall the road we needed to go on to get to Coral Bay and then Exmouth was closed off due to flooding. So we had a decision to make and at this point it was quickly getting dark. We could either drive at night and get to Exmouth in over 3 hours or stay the night and hopefully the road would reopen in the morning. We took the latter option and it seemed like quite a few others had decided to do it too, as there was a campsite just before the said road with toilets. So we pitched up and made a tomato pasta with salad and had a few glasses of Sauv Blanc whilst getting eaten alive by mozzies. 

As soon as we went to bed, the rain came and I don't think it stopped all night. I kept dreaming that our camper would get washed away with us in it or we'd wake up in a river.

Thankfully when we woke up at 7am on DAY 3 we were fine but there were a few tents pitched up in the middle of a newly created lake. We really felt for them. After having a breakfast of croissants and marmalade, we waited until some of the professional campers left (who we knew were also heading in the same direction as us) and followed them. The road didn't reopen, as you can probably guess it was still flooded. So we had to go the alternative route and we arrived in Exmouth late morning. 

We went straight to the information centre to find out what we could do. We found that you couldn't camp anywhere for free, we had to stay in a campsite. So we booked in Ningaloo Lighthouse campsite. We also booked to go on Ningaloo Whale Shark and Dive tour, which cost a small fortune, but it was definitely one of those once in a lifetime opportunities. 

We couldn't check in until two so we headed to a beach near the campsite called Mauritius Beach which we didn't realise was a nudist beach. We had sandwiches for lunch and were the only people there for a while before another couple arrived and they got straight down to business, removing all items of clothing. Nathan and I didn't know where to look but then we thought, 'when in Rome' and copied them. Thankfully they left soon after and we were the only ones there and were miles less embarrassed.

Soon it was time for us to check in to our campsite, we we headed there and gave the camper a good clean and finally we had our first shower in what seemed like forever. I've never felt so clean! 

We then had an early dinner of pasta with sausage, zucchini, celery, red onion and white cheese sauce and a salad. We also had a lovely bottle of pink Moscato! Yum! After a few games of rummy we headed to bed with our roof window open so we could see plenty of stars.

DAY 4 was an early start for our Whale Shark tour but I've decided to dedicate an entire post to this. But here is my sunrise picture. 

That evening we walked up to the lighthouse in time for sunset and took what seemed like a zillion pictures, plus we saw an emu.

After a dinner of cup a soup and bread we played Casino to which I won!! Then time for bed. 

DAY 5, we had a slight lie in (7.30am) before buying some postcards, fueling up and heading south to Coral Bay.

Coral Bay was exactly what it said in the name and probably exactly what you are picturing. 

We checked into another campsite which is really frustrating when you are trying to travel cheaply but you have to. However this been the town's main source of income you can't get that annoyed. Plus we got full use of the camp kitchen and showers. 

As soon as we had parked up, we booked onto a snorkelling trip with a glass bottomed boat. It was awesome. And because Nath and I have recently purchased a GoPro, it meant we got to do lots of underwater filming. Hopefully I'll be able to post a film at some point when we have the right software. We saw loads of different fish, including some sort of Ray and some people saw a turtle, which we unfortunately didn't. 

After a long session of snorkelling, we headed back to the beach where we just chilled for a while. For dinner we cooked a veggie curry (meat is too expensive on our traveller budget so it's veggie all the way) with potato instead of rice with a couple of ciders before heading to bed. 

DAY 6, we decided to make use of the eggs we bought ages ago along with the toaster which was onsite and had egg and salami on toast. It was delicious! 

We had a long day of driving ahead of us to get to Monkey Mia, our next destination. We were desperately hoping that the road that was previously closed due to flooding would have reopened by now as otherwise it was add a lot of extra time onto of journey. But it would appear that luck was not on our side, as the road was still closed. We drove for the majority of the day and managed to get a picture at the Tropic of Capricorn. 

We finally arrived in Monkey Mia around 5.30pm. We failed to find a free rest stop, which meant we had to pay to stay in Monkey Mia's only resort and thank goodness we did because it was beautiful and we arrived just in time to see an incredible sunset (they don't call Western Australia sunset coast for nothing). 

We cooked pasta for dinner in the camp kitchen then had another early night. 

We woke up to lovely sunrise on DAY 7, we had a quick bowl of Weetabix with UHT milk, which is gross and I'm not having anymore this trip. Cheap is not always best. 

Our main reason for coming to Monkey Mia was to see Dolphins (not quite sure why it's got monkey in its name). It is world renowned as a special place where people can experience and enjoy close encounters with dolphins. Certain wild female dolphins are offered small amounts of fish up to three times during the morning and they are only fed under the supervision of Departmeng of Parks and Wildlife officers with feed amounts small so that the dolphins continue to behave and hunt naturally and teach their young to hunt.

It was an incredible experience, having never seen dolphins in the wild before. Unfortunately I didn't manage to get any pictures on my phone. We left soon after to drive to Kalbarri. But we stopped along the way at a lookout point. 

We also stopped at Shell Beach, which was insanely amazing. Tons and tons of tiny shells instead of sand.

We arrived in Kalbarri around lunchtime. This is a national park area and is beautiful. We decided not to pay to go fully inside as we plan to visit the Pinnacles another national park in a few days, plus these costs add up. However we did get to drive through bits of it. We stopped by the sea for lunch. Before heading on our way. There were loads of different viewpoints Mushroom Rock, Rainbow Bay and we stopped at one to get pictures of the incredible view. Again I didn't take any pictures on my phone, sorry. 

We didn't want to pay for another campsite, so we needed to be somewhere between towns. We drove through Port Gregory, which is definitely the smallest town ever and then through Northampton which is very western like and quite creepy, before stopping on the side of the road just before Geraldton. It was a pretty good stop and we stopped just as the sun was setting. We had veggie burritos for dinner and a glass of Cabernet Merlot. 

DAY 8, we woke up before 7am because I was worried where we were parking was illegal and we got another amazing sunrise (I could get used to these). We then drove on to Geraldton which we stocked up on a few bits and went for a lovely walk along the sea front and to the Marina and saw some aboriginal art.

We had half a melon for breakfast before heading on the road again, with our final destination for the day being Jurien Bay. 

We got there late morning and pretty much spent the rest of the day walking up and down the beach and me doing a few lunges, squats and sit ups! 

Our original plan was to drive to a free rest area, but we ended up staying in the campsite and had a great dinner of spicy sausage pasta. 

DAY 9 we woke up early and had a breakfast treat of pancakes with banana (they were on offer). I had a terrible time with making mine, luckily I had Nathan on hand as an expert pancake maker and flipper. 

With our bellies nice and full, we headed on our final stretch of our roadtrip. Next stop the Pinnacles in the Nambung National Park.

It was a short drive and we arrived there around 10am. The Pinnacles are basically naturally set in a desert within the national park and there are some theories as to how they got there but there is no definite explanation. Anyway they are pretty awesome. 

We walked the 1.5km route around the Pinnacles and then did the 5km drive and by this time Nathan was ready for food.

We drove further North, stopping in Lancelin (a water sports area) for lunch before making an executive decision to head back to Judi and Arthur's instead of staying in the side of the road for the final night, as it was only an hour and a half on. 

We had a fantastic trip and managed to do so much more than planned and it gave us a real insight into travelling Australia and some tips for driving the East Coast. 

Xoxo 

Keeping you up-to-date

On our last days off, we spent a lot of money and time booking the next stage of our trip.

I finish work tonight and Nathan finish tomorrow, we have then booked a campervan (Lucky Campers) to leave Perth on Tuesday and travel 1600km to Exmouth (Northern West Australia). Our plan is to drive quickly there and then take it slow on the way back, as we have 10 days. 

We then return to Perth on the 15th, have the 16th in Perth before taking a lunchtime flight to Bali for 6 days, where we are staying in Seminyak. We return from Bali on the 17th and fly on that same day to Adelaide. 

In Adelaide, we plan to hire another Campervan to drive the Great Ocean Road to Melbourne for 4/5 days. We are then going to fly from Melbourne to Cairnes. Where we will hire yet another Campervan and drive down the coast to Sydney, before Nath flies home and I fly to LA.

Xoxo