Bali Babes

Okay so I've been MIA for a while, not just from the blog but from all my friends and family too. About two weeks ago a close friend of mine called Disha whisked me away to Bali for an insane holiday and I lost my phone and camera just when I got there so I was totally off social media, the blog and other worldly contact. Thankfully, I'm back now so its time to take you through my wicked Bali trip!

Disha and I have been friends for almost a decade but we have never lived in the same city. We've met just twice in the past five years but were determined to do a girls trip some day or the other. She is a cosmetic surgeon and had to attend a conference in Bali, so we decided to turn it into an extended vacation!

DAY ONE

We were staying at the Horison hotel in Nusa Dua, a cozy property with very nice rooms and good service. Before heading out each night, we spent a lot of time chilling and chatting in our room over copious amounts of our duty free alcohol shopping.

We started off with a celebratory drink at our hotel

We had a lovely room by the poolside so we had ample space to click pics

We decided to check out the Pura Uluwatu temple which is set on a cliff bank and offers a stunning view of Indian Ocean along with a spectacular sunset.

Entering any Hindu temple in Bali requires both men and women to cover their legs below the knee by using a sarong so here we are in these beautiful purple ones that we could rent at the temple.

The building across the distance is the temple. The walk to the temple has a magnificent view so it is quite the photographer's delight.  

The sunset on the way back from the temple

If you're a seafood lover, Jimbaran's seafood cafes should be on your must-visit places for your Bali holiday. Not only is Jimbaran Bay one of Bali’s best places for memorable sunsets, but it is also the most popular coast to enjoy grilled seafood. These cafes offer selections of red snapper, crab, calamari, prawns and lobster served with steamed rice, and traditional side dishes of spicy plecing kangkung (stir-fried water spinach) As you all know how much of a pig I am, I obviously hit Jimbaran for dinner on day one itself.

The food took a while to arrive, but was undoubtedly the best seafood platter I've ever had. I loved how spicy and tangy everything was, which made devouring oysters and clams quite an easy process. The lobster, fish and prawns were outstanding too. I put up quite a fight with the crab, but emerged the winner as usual. 

Even though I lost my phone, I'm sure I wouldn't have clicked too many photos as I'm kinda lazy. Thankfully, Disha compensated for it and loves taking pictures. In fact, she's so fond of selfies that I renamed her Dr Selfie and I have all these photos for my blog all thanks to her. 

A lot of friends told us that Kuta was the place to go and even though I didn't like it much, we ended up going there every night for three days in a row as there's not much else to do in Bali after dinner. Kuta is like a never-ending frat party filled with hawkers on the road offering you drugs or party flyers, streets jammed with bleach-blond and tan Australian students.  When you're in Kuta, Bali’s trademark authenticity is wiped out and replaced with American fast food and hotel chains and Australian surf shops.

All the clubs in Kuta are side by side blasting reggae, top 40, R&B, and mainstream dance music to attract youngsters. It wasn't really my scene but I didn't have a choice so we went to a bunch of them - SkyGarden, Bounty, Enigne Room, Eikon are all what I remember. Wouldn't be surprised if I had hit up a few more in those three nights. 

DAY TWO

The next day we hit Geger beach in Nusa Dua. We got there by early evening but almost everyone had already left the beach. Contrary to beach goers in Goa, the ones in Bali like to start their days pretty early.  I was also pretty shocked by the weather as it was rather cold compared to what we face in India. 

We stayed at Geger to watch the sunset and ended up witnessing the most beautiful moon I have seen in my life. Its golden and the reflection on the ocean makes everything so surreal.  The Indonesians are a lucky lot to have so much of beauty all around!

I have an epic thing for instant noodles and Indonesian ones have always been my favorites so I used to hit the 24/7 supermarket opposite our hotel every night to shop and would whip up a new flavor each night. I even brought back like ten packets with me. And since there were no plates in the room, I chose to pour my instant noodles into a tea cup. 

On day two I was determined to never ever go back to Kuta (well that didn't work out) and decided to go to Potato Head, a swanky beach club in Seminyak which is considered to be one of the hot spots in Bali to drink, watch the sunset or party. Potato Head is fancy, posh and definitely pricier than everything in Kuta.  Its like the places I party at back home in Pune. But you know what the problem with Potato Head was? It's too uptight. No one there looked like they were having fun. It was like sit down and drink and talk softly and watch the ocean. And that on a Friday night. After spending a little more than an hour and a few drinks there, we decided to head to Ku De Ta, a similar place in Seminyak. However, a group of students from the US told us it was equally uptight so as usual we ended up going to Kuta. 

BONUS STORY - Just a day after we were leaving Bali, Potato Head was hosting a festival called the Sunny Side Up which had a bunch of artists I listen to. I was pretty distraught about this as I wanted to go for it and even called up the airline to check if they would move our tickets by a day or two. But extending our trip would cost us a bomb so we didn't change our tickets. 

 I was so sad that I kept wishing that the active volcano in Indonesia erupted so that we could stay an extra day and attend the festival. Here's me making a strange prayer to a god who seems to listen to my stupid and impractical requests because, exactly the day before the party, the volcano did its magic and got our flight canceled so that we had an extra day in Bali! Did we go back to Potato Head for the festival? Nah.... You'll know in my next post why.

If you've watched The Ring (I know you have), I look like I just saw Samara get out of the tv set

DAY THREE

After two nights of non stop Kuta, I decided to sleep through the day for recovery. That didn't work too well because as you can see below there I am shitfaced before the debauchery on day three even begun. This was before we hit the clubs on our final night in Kuta. Disha decided to concoct whiskey cocktails for me in the hotel room which my system obviously could not handle. Turns out a giant cup of frozen yogurt with multiple sprinkles and toppings is a great way to beat the booze. I was fine in no time.  

Check out my muscle tone besides the fact that I'm plastered

At this point of time, even my hand looks like a hangry (hungry + angry) beast in need for froyo. Its hilarious to think how plastered I was. I'm never THAT bad back home (okay, quite bad back home too actually)

And the selfies begin yet again once we're back in the hotel after the final night of shenanigans in Kuta. After these three days in Bali, we headed over to the Gili Islands in Indonesia, which are a well kept secret among lovers of pristine beaches as they are less commercialized and crowded but way more beautiful than the beaches in Bali. I'll tell you all about my Gili adventures in my next post!

See you soon!