Bali

Bali🌅

In June 2018 we went on the trip of a lifetime to Bali, Indonesia. We started the journey at London Gatwick Airport, flew 12 hours to Hong Kong, stopped over for 2 hours, then got a 5 hour flight to Denpasar Airport in Bali. We had a transfer of about 30 mins to our hotel.

We stayed at the Novotel Bali Benoa in Tanjung. The hotel was INCREDIBLE. The reception was all open-planned with a small man-made river running around the outside.

It had 3 pools - 1 that was for everyone, 2 that were adults only. The pool that was for everyone, was the main pool. It was right next to a private beach that is owned by the hotel and the nearest to our room. When I say room, it was pretty much a villa. It had a garden and a HUGE bathroom. One of the adult pools was narrow and long (and a complete sun trap) and the other was really deep and had a bar in it. 

When we arrived, we were given complimentary massages at the spa as we were staying for longer than a week! The spa smelt amazing and was so relaxing. 

The beach that was attached to the hotel, had a bar/restaurant and it was bed service. All we had to do was raise the flag that was provided on the table and the waiters would take our order and bring it to the bed. I felt like royalty haha! 

The staff at the hotel were so friendly and we have actually stayed in touch with one of the waiters, his name is Julie. He had his sister make me a basket bag by hand. 

We were in Bali for 2 weeks so decided to do 1 day relaxing, one day exploring and learning about the culture throughout the two weeks. On the relaxing days, we spent most of our time at either the sun trap adult pool or the beach. We tried to come back with wicked tans...but as I mentioned in my Majorca post, I have fair skin so although by normal standards I was still pale, I was the brownest I had ever been😄

On the other days, we had some excursions booked such as Sea Walking, visiting a Turtle Sanctuary, a Sunrise Hike of Mount Batur, a Boat Trip, a Temple Tour, a visit to a wood making village and a Gold/Silver making village. 

Sea Walking is where you have this scuba diving helmet on and it pumps oxygen into the mask whilst you are standing at the bottom of the sea. I hate the sea so I was terrified but I am really glad that Bill pushed me to do it. We saw so many different kinds of fish and the sea was so clear. 

The Turtle Sanctuary is run by volunteers and they receive no funding from the government. Their aim is to rehabilitate sick turtles and release them back into the ocean. Although their aim is pure, the sanctuary made me really sad as the turtles didn't look happy at all and it was almost inhumane. 

The Sunrise Hike of Mount Batur is the most challenging thing I have ever done. It is a 9km hike. We started at 3.15am and didn't reach the top until 5.15am. It was freezing as it was high in the clouds and also before the sunrise. Once we got to the top, we was given hot banana sandwiches and a boiled egg for breakfast (bit odd) and hot drinks. We waited for around 20 minutes before the sun began to rise. The views were breathtaking. Although I really struggled with the hike, the sunrise made it completely worth it. The hike down was so much fun. As it is really steep, we more or less ran down the entire volcano. It was around 30 degrees by this point so the heat was unbearable. When we reached the bottom, we was taken to a Wood Carving village. 

The Wood Carving village was super quiet and peaceful. Full of local craftsmen and women. We bought around 5kg of wood in the shape of Santa Clause, Buddahs and a small keepsake box. We then went to the Gold/Silver making village. In this village, the locals were finding and melting silver & gold to make jewellery. 

The Temple Tour was a whole day experience that took us to 3 different famous temples around Bali and to a Nature Reserve Park. It was amazing to learn about the culture and religion throughout Bali. 

On our last day, we went on a boat trip to Lombok Island. It was serine and beautiful. This was the island that was destroyed by the earthquake on the 5th August. We are so blessed to have visited before this happened. We went snorkelling, on a jeep trip around the island and was treated to a BBQ full of local cuisine. The boat was a Catamaran. On the way back to the mainland, the sea was so choppy. We was all sat at the front of the boat and was easily 15 foot in the air every time we hit a wave. 

Throughout the trip, we tried some traditional Indonesian cuisine and tried some meat with the most incredible flavours. 

This really was the trip of a lifetime and we are hoping to return in the future for a longer stint of 3 weeks - 1 month. 

One evening our hotel arranged for the guests to have dinner on the beach, under the stars. It was a 3-course meal of all local foods and wine. The scenery was gorgeous. 

I couldn't recommend this amazing country more.  

Bulgaria

Bulgaria - Skiing ☃

For my Christmas and Birthday present in 2017 (my birthday is New Years Eve) Billy had surprised me with a Holiday to Bulgaria for Skiing! Neither of us had been Skiing before and we had always said how much we wanted to go. I was completely shocked when I found out and was so grateful. Billy revealed that we would be flying out on the 8th January so I had no time to prepare. Before I had a chance to panic, I opened the rest of my presents and found that he had bought all of the clothes and protective equipment that we both needed and had already hired the skis and boots at the resort. 

So we flew out of Gatwick and landed at Sofia Airport. Billy had booked transfers however they failed to turn up! So we spent over an hour waiting for the transfer in case there had been any traffic and tried at no avail to contact the company. So we had no choice but to pay for a taxi and claim the money back later. Outside the airport, there's loads of taxis. One of the men who said he was a taxi told us he could take us to our hotel so he pulled the car round and it was just a regular car with no Taxi advertisement on it but we were stupid and STILL got into the car. Now when I say that it was the most TERRIFYING experience of my life, I mean it. He didn't speak much English, we had no idea where we was going he was a terrible driver and he was soooo creepy. We eventually got to the hotel (thank the Lord) and he ripped us off. He told us a price in Bulgarian Lev before we got into the cab, but when we arrived he made us pay in GBP which worked out to be more than double what we had agreed. This left us with hardly any cash for the entire week. Luckily, Billy had paid for all-inclusive so we didn't starve.

After a rocky start to the holiday, we spent 2 days learning how to Ski with an instructor and was having an amazing time. The food in the hotel was diabolical and the people in the hotel were awful. They were really rude and so disgustingly greedy during mealtimes, but the time on the slopes was incredible...until I fell over WHILST STOOD STILL and hurt my foot. It was so bad that we had to get a snow ambulance (if you don't know what this is, it looks like a ski jetski with sirens) to pick me up on the slope and take me all the way back up the mountain to catch the lift back to the bottom. No idea why he didn't just take me to the bottom but hey ho. I was mortified but Billy thought it was hilarious.

So we ended up in the medical room. I had to get X-ray but taking the boot off was traumatic. I was in so much pain. The medical staff told me that it was just a sprain and to rest it. When they were finished, they put a disposable overshoe on my foot (in the freezing cold snow may I add) and watched me HOP out. They were not sympathetic or helpful in the slightest. 

We spent the next day icing my foot in the hotel and sitting in the Jacuzzi. Poor Bill had spent god knows how much money on this holiday for the transfer not to turn up, the food to be terrible and for me to hurt myself. After a full day of rest, I decided to just get on with it and start skiing again. Although I was in pain, I still managed to enjoy the rest of the holiday.

Thankfully our return transfer arrived on our last day to take us back to the airport but we got stuck in traffic for 3 hours and almost missed our flight! 

Six weeks after we got home, I was still in pain with my foot so Bill took me to the Hospital for another X-ray and we found out I had fractured my foot!! So not only did we have to pay for the medical treatment in Bulgaria, they gave us the wrong results!!! I was in a boot for 3 weeks. 

But even after all of that bad luck, I would still go skiing again...just in a different country lol.