Keeping up with Beth

We didn’t think we’d need that long, and we were strapped on time before our project in Keramas and having nothing in motion to extend our visa, we had to see as much as possible.

But, purely on our accommodation and the amenities they offered, we decided to stay. Turns out we didn’t really use them, but we definitely appreciated the quality and kindness the staff at Sultans Of Swell had and the friendships we could build along the way.

Our room was awesome, clean and white, clean bathroom (finally) a cute little balcony with a plant, chair and overlooking the almost covered garden, and of course good A/C and a to, 2 plugs and other luxurious we’d missed in our last spot.

We had a few plans for Uluwatu but not so many to busy ourselves and get caught up doing things all the time that we miss the joy of what we’re living. So our first day, after getting a much prompter check in than we’d expected, we headed to a small beach we’d found, about a 10 minute drive away.

So we swiftly booked a GoJek, jumped on the bike and headed down.

For the bargain price of 5k IDR (28p) we were granted access to the knee breaking 300 steps which led to this hidden gem.

One thing to really know about Bali is their safety standards are far from our expectations, so steps are probably built at builders convenience rather than for users ease… My dodgy enough knees were feeling the pressure on the way down from the larger than average step down, let alone our journey back up. But we did make it, with some slow steps and walking past some, likely, miners finding what looked like chalk or limestone down the cliff.

It was a painful walk no doubt, but of course these places don’t make a profit unless they’re worth the money to get in (and for 28p it was a slight bargain.) which naturally, it was.

The water was crystal blue, the beach was sandy, it was hidden and not overcrowded (yet the ratio of beach sellers to beach goers was fun.) and the surf was further out, so if we’d have been smart we would have brought our snorkels with us. Nevertheless, carrying a helmet borrowed from the hostel was quite enough for us both really.

We found a good spot out of the sun, sun creamed up and rested up from the hike down, appreciating the views of the water.

The water was safe to swim in too, although the tide was beginning to come in which meant we the current was stronger so you had to really hold your ground even to stand up and the stones along the bottom were not fine and comfortable on your feet. But underwater with the coral and rocks and how crystal clear the water was, hint of it really mattered to us.

We enjoyed the peace for a good few hours until the tide was coming in and getting out especially across all the rocks was going to become more potentially challenging as we waited.

The climb back up was obviously painful and even in our ‘fit’ states we found ourselves stopping- obviously to appreciate the views. The stairs are not designed for anyone short of 6 foot. Potentially ironic…

Once we made it to the top, we obviously needed a moment to regain our breath and luckily for Jack, there were plenty of monkeys around to distract us from our exhaustion.

When people tell you to be careful around these monkeys they are not kidding.

We watched the mischievous creatures do it all. One launched themselves at Jack as he took a video, one got thirsty and helped themselves to a drink out someone’s bike, another cracked the seat open and pulled the towels out entirely.

I was incredibly grateful to not have brought a bike of our own down if I’m honest.

The local warung was selling bananas to tourists wanting to feed the monkeys and as you can imagine, the monkeys loved that. And easy money maker for the stall!

The monkeys huddled round and were ready for the food to be handed straight over to them. Cheeky things grabbed it and ran to hide just over the cliff and eat in some peace- although I can’t blame them for that.

It was quite sweet to watch them for 20 minutes, chasing each other, eating, messing around and also being incredible protective as they thrived the bikes right before our eyes with absolutely nothing we could do!

Beyond that we managed to order our GoJek back and got ready for dinner. We tried to wander and find some local little warung we could sit in and enjoy our meal. Unfortunately we had little luck and ended up treating ourselves to a classic kebab conveniently right across the road from our accommodation. We didn’t eat there as much as I had thought we originally would, but I have to admit it was more than once. Kebab is just so good!!

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Our next day was a big one. I had bigger ambitions than we could actually execute but it was a fun day despite that. We had yet to really see a Balinese Hindu Temple. So, today was the day we changed that. We headed off in a car (it was quite a journey and we expected to be all day) to Uluwatu Temple.

We arrived fairly early so the place was far from over crowded and it was amazingly peaceful. As a tourist spot, most people around were tourists rather than worshippers and there was a few offers for a tour guide. In hindsight it may have been nice to have more idea of the significance and different parts of the temple however we did have a pretty good time wandering around and finding all the it ourselves.

We saw the fountain, many offering stands, their Kecak dance area, a white monkey in a cage, a massive statue of someone, the inside of the temple where they do sacrifices and so many more places.

As you can tell from my lack of description, I really didn’t understand and have so much more to learn if Balinese Hinduism. But their architecture and the views on their walkway around the cliff was absolutely stunning. I couldn’t recommend it enough.

We spent most of our day there, however we had intended to stay until the evening for the Kecak dance. Unfortunately after walking around the site for 4 hours, getting some lunch and walking again, we did reach our limit. And the monkeys were more daring than they had been at GreenBowl beach.

We had some interesting interactions. Before we left Jack had said, the internet told him that the monkeys there have learnt bartering behaviour. They know that phones and cameras are precious to us humans, glasses too. They know what items to target on their poor victims and will only return your things in exchange for some snacks.

I can’t say I blame the monkeys, we make it easy for them to get to us with our protectiveness. We’ve made our exploitation easy for them. And more valuable the item, the more snacks.

We watched a lady have her glasses stolen. She attempted to get them back and luckily a local guide was right there to stop her and with much more chill, she reached to her bag and passed the monkey a bag of nuts. The monkey bargained hard and didn’t drop the glasses until she’d handed over 2 packets. Very content, it sat there and opened the packets like a child who won after it’s tantrum. Absolutely unphased by us it enjoyed its snacks and carried on.

After hours of wandering around we did decide we’d done about all we could at the temple, with Jack feeding some of the monkeys for just over £1, wandering back and forth across the cliff view, appreciating the architecture of the temple and grabbing lunch out at the warung just outside the temple. We were definitely ready to head back- our feet told us it was time.

We reached our next day and ticked off on of our bucket list items from when we’d been at home planning little things. Jack had mentioned this specific beach being good, and with the name there was no way we were going to miss out from visiting. So we took the day and headed to Padang Padang beach. And it was well worth it.

It cost us about 25k each (£1.40) to get down to the beach and we had been told to be careful of the monkey’s but it’s quite busy and I think they keep to themselves in the trees since we didn’t see any monkey’s whilst we were there. It was an incredible beach. They had a few different warungs selling food, a few stalls and sellers along the beach but it didn’t feel too invasive. It was beautiful. The water was blue, and the waves broke a bit further out so the water wasn’t too rough and was perfect for relaxing in, although water shoes would have been a good idea for us, there was a bit of a rocky ground to get through. There’s so much there, we found the water was great to float around and swim a little bit, but the best part was the little caves with a few rockpools. Jack absolutely loves checking out the rock pools and seeing what life he can find, something I’ve enjoyed doing too since he’s brought be into it. When you stop and really look at what’s there, it’s amazing what you can find if you wait a little while. We spent probably a good half hour watching the rockpools for little fish, crabs, all the rest! We continued around the rocky edge and spotted a few locals sat around fishing which was quite a regular sight in Bali but always beautiful seeing the small and sustainable scale these people were fishing in.

The beach was also fully exposed to the sun, there wasn’t so many shady spots and since we got there around 1, any shady spots we did see were already filled with people escaping the burning rays. There were however quite a few umbrellas there to offer some more shade, we managed to grab one a few hours in and enjoy the views and the warmth without the intensity of sun on our skin- probably well needed with our lack of suncream top ups!

Our next day in Uluwatu required us to be productive. We had a chat with our programme leader who recommended we get started on our visa extension process ASAP. Following her advice, we decided to use the day to sort it all out. I’d done a fair amount of research on extended our Indonesian visa since we knew we wanted to stay in the country for the 2 months we were allowed, and a visa extension was going to be cheaper ultimately than a visa run and made our lives easier. We used Bali Visas who have a few offices across Bali and were very helpful and got the ball rolling as soon as we walked in. The process is fairly easy through an agency but does require travelling to the immigration office and can take some time, so it’s recommended to start the process as soon as possible so you have long enough in the country to sort it.

That afternoon I decided I’d have some me time- clearly the stress of a free and wonderful life travelling was getting to me, and I headed to Sean’s Spa just opposite our accommodation.

I can highly recommend this place. Its modern and stunning inside. The treatment was amazing, and everyone was lovely, if you’re nearby its totally worth a stop by and the prices are about average for treatments in the area!

Now we close into our final day in Uluwatu. And what a day it was! Jack got a new tattoo in memory of his travels, and now its healed really nicely, you’ll have to ask him to share it, the simplicity and placement is pretty sweet!

We spent the evening watching the sunset and a traditional Kecak dance in the temple again (expensive but were so glad we did it!).

It was amazing and watching the art before us was so cool, if you’re in Bali you have to watch one of these traditional shows wherever you are- most of the big and touristy temples seem to offer them and they do advertise the tickets so it’s worth looking into going!

And before we knew it, it was time to go! Big adventures and the main reason we headed to Bali in the first place… Volunteering with SwimDo.