Our Trip to Indonesia
In March, 2023, I visited Indonesia for a work trip with my former boss Brooke so I will have to recap my trip with a bit of information left out for privacy reasons.
Though the journey was long, the destination was so worth it! It was over 30 hours of travel either way from The Bahamas with a couple of stops in between. We weren’t in the city for long, which I was quite thankful about after having to cross multiple lanes of traffic with no crosswalk from our hotel to a convenience store. The driving there is insane!
I was responsible for booking rooms for our trip and didn’t realize how popular smoking rooms would be as I’ve never experienced that anywhere else. I didn’t see this note hidden at the bottom of the page before checkout that I booked us smoking rooms. Because the windows didn’t open, it felt like being stuck in a smoker’s lung. We were able to leave a day earlier and were fully refunded for the last day. We hopped on a plane and went to Bali grateful to leave our smokey rooms behind.
What awaited us was an absolutely beautiful hotel, where we were greeted with a refreshing drink at check in. Our room was fabulous with giant wooden sliding doors to the bathroom, a giant shower and an outdoor daybed. Once we were settled, we walked out from our hotel past their gorgeous pools with bats flying overhead, to a beach that stretched for miles. There were restaurants all along the beach serving food and drinks to people sitting on beanbag chairs under umbrellas with music playing. A lot of the music tended to be American music and catered to tourists which was a tad disappointing as I would’ve liked to be more immersed in culture.
While we were at this hotel we spent a few mornings getting breakfast down the street at another hotel (our hotel breakfast was expensive and not so good). My favourite that I ordered was the avocado toast with an egg on the side. One thing about Bali was that although much of it seemed westernized in the area we were in, all the food was fresh and the fruit especially was to die for. There is such a strong appreciation for farming, getting food from the source and a deep understanding of everything that goes into making a meal or drink. Once we were done eating we shopped at the local markets and ended up buying a lot of personal items for ourselves and as gifts. I’m obsessed with shells and shell necklaces, so after my third shell necklace purchase, Brooke had to stop me from buying anymore! If I could buy every shell necklace, I would.
Next on our itinerary was Ubud where we stayed at a vegan and very spiritual resort. This place was very deep in a village with the tiniest roads, sharp turns, and steep drops leading to it. I’m still in awe of how our driver managed to get us there in one piece. However, before getting there our driver took us to a little company doing coffee and tea tours. We tried 13 different types and then got to taste luwak coffee which is made from partially digested coffee beans collected from a civet’s poop. I liked a lot of what we tried but the poop coffee was way too strong and thick for me.
After our tour we went to one of the many waterfalls in the area. It was a little ways down from a beautiful restaurant overlooking rice paddy fields where we stopped to have lunch. There was also a temple beside the path and we watched locals making offerings while our driver taught us a bit about their religion and beliefs, letting us know that there is a temple in every neighborhood for them to give offerings. At another point he also taught us that most people believe in karma, that if you put good out into the world you will receive it back. To get to the waterfall we walked down some steps and crossed a few bridges, under which we saw our first komodo dragon. I was glad to have my swimsuit on and I had a quick swim after taking lots of photos.
Later on when we got to our resort we were thrilled. Each “room” was a separate home that looked like a luxurious thatched roof hut. There was a balcony with a tub overlooking the river. Inside was a large four-poster canopy bed and outside in the open air was our bathroom. We would come to find out that the canopy over the bed and the curtain that blocked off the toilet and sink from outside were our life savers. After exploring around the resort and by the nearby temple, we came back and were quick to realize that this resort was home to many bats, frogs and geckos. Although we felt a bit more safe under the canopy, it was hard to sleep listening to geckos talk to each other in the night. Yes, geckos talk. We never ended up using the outside tub either because of a gecko that ran the entire length of my forearm sitting on the ceiling above it, nor did we use the pool because of the frog that made it home.
In the mornings, we would go for our complimentary breakfast served by the sweetest ladies in the most beautiful restaurant above the river. After eating we would go exploring. One day we shopped at the nearby market and visited the monkey village where I learned that I am actually very afraid of monkeys. Everything was going okay until one tried to grab my bag and I watched them running after a few tourists. After that I was ready to leave!
We also spent time walking around the village near us where we had a good jump scare from another komodo dragon. We passed by a few locals and some dogs and were able to get a better look at the houses and gardens.
On our final night there, we went on a hunt for a nice restaurant on a cliff overlooking terraced fields. This view did not disappoint and our love for interior decor and architecture was definitely satisfied. Bali has the most beautiful doors, thatched roofs, umbrellas and lighting fixtures. The artisans there are so incredibly skilled at everything they do that it becomes so commonplace. I could only dream of carving and creating as quickly and as skillfully as they do.
Our final destination on the trip was definitely the best in terms of beauty and location! We stayed at Wapa di Ume in Sideman. The interior decor was beautiful chunky white-washed furniture and the balcony overlooked a river and mountain. The tiled tub had a huge window looking out over the same view. The waterfall pool had poolside service where I had the most amazing ginger spritzers. When we weren’t at the pool, we were down at the river exploring and putting our feet in, or we were walking around the nearby village. We also spent one day visiting a very tall, steep waterfall and going on a tour to see local artisans creating beautiful textiles. This day was cut short when the effects of the local water started to take hold of me. I stupidly had been drinking iced coffee and spritzers with ice in it. I was on pills for the rest of the trip trying to keep it together. What also made this experience worse was when our A/C wouldn’t work in our room so we had to switch in the middle of the night to a not as great room but worth it for cool air before our long flight back to The Bahamas.
Overall the trip was amazing and felt like a honeymoon, except with my boss. We both agreed it would’ve been a more romantic trip if we were with our partners instead haha! I would definitely go again and would come home with way more in my bag.
Some takeaways from my experience there:
I am now obsessed with fresh ginger because they put it in so much, especially the drinks. It just makes you feel like the epitome of health.
I learned how much I need down time while traveling. I actually realized this on my trip to Rome as well but I was alone then so I didn’t understand how introverted and how much I need alone time to function properly as a human. At one point I made Brooke get a massage so I could watch TV in our resort and eat a cup of noodles!
If you see something you love in a faraway land, buy it. As long as you’re not breaking the bank and have a way to get it back home then go for it or you’ll regret it. There are still quite a few items I’m kicking myself over for not bringing back.
It’s better to break up your longer flights so you’re not stuck on a plane for more than 9-10 hours. My feet got so swollen on our last flight that I cried when I saw them. I learned the hard way to put compression socks early on in the flight and even then they don’t help that much.
There is no safe seat to book on a plane. If you’re in the window or middle seat, you will have to disturb people constantly to get up and stretch and go to the bathroom. If you’re in an aisle seat you might get stuck with someone waking you up every two hours to do the same. The only thing you can do is be patient with yourself and others.
Take really good earplugs on the plane!