Hello Bali

In December, I had a ticket to go to Bali. Unfortunately, 2 hours before the flight – the trip had to be cancelled due to medical reasons (read my post here). Since then, all I had on my mind was the rice paddies of Ubud.

About a month ago, I decided to buy another ticket. Just before that I met up with a friend for a cheeky drink and it turns out that she was in need of a holiday too – soon.

So, a month later we met at Heathrow airport ready for a new adventure.
Me with my backpack as I am hoping to continue my travels through the SE Asia, and Kirsten with her suitcase – she will be going back after two weeks.

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The Journey

We flew with Qatar Airways. All I’ve heard is that they’re meant to be even better than Emirates, now if that’s the case..

I am READY.

When the captain announced we are about to take off, I looked at Kirsten and she looked at me –
the plane was pretty much empty. The middle row in our section had 2/3 passengers and only a few people on the sides. That felt surreal, almost like it’s some kind of a test run or joke.

Turns out it wasn’t and we were on our way to Doha, where the second flight will be departing from. We ended up having the whole middle row just to ourselves and I was loving it already.

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Lots of sleep, food, and a few drinks later – we made it to Doha.

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Because I knew nothing about the city, I’ve google it a few days earlier. The airport had only been opened for a couple of years and the runway is preeeetty awesome. So there I was, spending the two hours of layover – waiting impatiently for that view :

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Our second flight to Bali was just as empty. This time, we were slightly smarter and took a row of seats, each. Who needs business class?!

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Flying with Qatar Airways was an amazing experience and a great start to our travels. Staff was super friendly, food was actually decent and drinks were nice. Also, the take offs and touch downs were very smooth – I know this is a strange thing to mention, but it’s a big deal to me.

(And anyways, how can you land a plane that fits about thousand people so smoothly?! That definitely is not the case with Ryanair whose planes are 5 times smaller.)

I enjoyed the flights so much, that I wouldn’t mind it taking slightly longer if it had to.. 😛

Hello Bali

Going through customs was super easy. We then looked around us, realising there are some bits of walls and roofs missing.. turns out it’s a normal thing as the weather is so warm that you simply don’t need it. Coool!

As our hotel kindly emailed us a couple of days before stating that their ‘driver is not available but here is our address.. ‘ Balinese people are so chilled. So, we went and got a taxi at the arrivals.

Cost : IDR 250,000 / just under £13. Not bad if you ask me.

Watch my little clip below :

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Few things to remember when landing in Bali:

Visa :

Depending what country you are from (but most) are allowed to get a 30 days tourist visa on arrival, we didn’t have to pay anything.

Although, if you are considering to stay longer, in order to be able to extend your visa – you need to pay around $30 at customs. This will also be for a 30 days tourist visa but with the possibility of extension. Without paying, you will not be able to do that.

However, I am still double checking this as every person seems to say different things.. So I will update you when I finally figure it out.

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Outward Flight (Important) :

Most likely you will get asked about your flight out of Bali, whether it’s by your airline or at the customs.

Now, if like me – you are trying to go with ‘the flow’ and are not exactly sure, when and where you would like to go next – you can just buy a cheap flight to Malaysia for example. AirAsia has lots of great deals, flying from the less busy airports such as Palembang, Medan or Banda Aceh.

I paid £10 for mine, it’s unlikely that it will be used, as I would preferably like to fly from Bali – but it was just for a peace of mind. I’m glad I had it as the airline asked about it straight away during the check in stage.

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The Hotel

Originally looking at quite a few places, most of them were pretty much brand new, which for most would be perfect. However, I wanted something with more ‘character’, Balinese architecture is so interesting and absolutely mesmerizing. So, we both agreed on ‘Bali Ayu Hotel & Villas’.

We checked in and got taken to the room, walking through a pathway surrounded by an endless amount of greenery of all kinds – palm trees, flowers and plants we were slightly blown away. Then we saw the rooms and the bathroom thinking to ourselves ‘what is this place?!’ – it was beautiful.

I will be writing a separate post about the hotel next, so stay tuned!

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In Search For Food

As we landed just after 11pm, by the time we got to our hotel plus checked in – it was after 1, and we were starving.

‘Surely there must be lots of places open, it’s friday!’
And so we went out to explore, hungry was an understatement in my case, not sure why as it’s fair to say that Qatar airlines spoiled us with the meals.

We walked past a bar next door, which was playing loud western music, after that there was nothing opened except ‘circkle k’ and ‘mini marts’ – small supermarkets which were literally every few hundred meters, no joke.

We carried on walking.. and walking.. finally giving in and walking into a mini mart. We’re too hungry and first time exploring at 2 am is not the smartest choice.

So we went for noodles. Our first meal in Indonesia:

Pretty tasty let me tell ya!

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After agreeing that nothing is sinking in, surely this must be a dream. It was time for bed.

I’ve never really had much of a jetlag before but Kirsten was convinced it will be a real bad one tomorrow. And boy she was right..

Stay tuned for more! <3

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