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I arrived in Thailand a day before but today I was up before 5am to get to the airport to meet Nat from her flight!

So amazing to have her here with me! The transfers to the tour hotel were interesting. Our driver was watching porn on his phone while driving us!

Was a very nice hotel to start within Chinatown. We dropped our bags and went out on an adventure. We only planned to walk to a local temple but a guy started talking to us and recommended a tour down the river to see the floating market and so we jumped in a Tuk Tuk and went!

There were these massive fish in the river and we threw bread rolls to them to eat.

After our little adventure, it was time to go back to the hotel for air con and beer. When we did manage to check in, Nat went for a well-deserved nap as she’d had a 12 hour flight, and I went for a Thai massage.

First proper Thai massage, they don’t use oil and you wear pj type clothes. She used pressure points and stretches!!!

We meet our tour, we are the youngest on this one. We went for dinner near the river and on the way we saw a Chinese opera show and the vegetarian festival, they even had a big Chinese dragon.

Only a couple of days here, but I made sure I saw the main bits.

First night in my hotel was fun, checked in after midnight, on floor 36.. yet I get ready for bed to then see a cockroach on the floor. Managed to kill it but of course put we on high alert and though I was sleepy beforehand suddenly I wasn’t. Took a long while to relax and sleep but managed it. In the morning I found another! As I walked out of the room there was a cleaner so pulled him in to show the dead one on the floor. He said they come up the shower drains! The aircon was also alittle warm for me, they fixed the room and cleaned it and didn’t get anymore though did put a towel over the drain and below the shower screen incase lol

Petronas Twin Towers

KL Tower

KL tower is 421 metres tall, was a lovely view and there was two glass sky boxes, which weren’t as scary as I thought.

Hotel View and pool

Hotel had an infinity pool on the 37th floor, didn’t stay in long as it was actually pretty cold.

Bata Caves

Really liked the Bata Caves, walked up the 272 steps to the top! There were monkeys though! The same kind as Bali and they were just as sneaky, a woman had a plastic bag and then monkeys pounced on her to take it. She was demanding her husband to get it back and he just stood there. Don’t blame him to be fair, no way I’d fight with a monkey.

Batik Textiles

They showed me the technique of batik, he drew free hand with hot wax. When you add the colour, it doesn’t bleed but stays in the lines. Once finished, it is washed in a solution that melts wax and leaves white lines. I brought a top which I hope to show you when i’m Thailand.

Deerland

Deerland was a small family zoo, got to feed the deers sweet potato. Look round the other animals they had, alot of pheasants. They has snakes and one was out ready for people to have photos with, clearly it was a no from me. In a photo above you can see the daughter stroking it like it’s rabbit or cat.

Elephant Sanctuary 🐘

Did enjoy the elephant sanctuary. However, they put on a little show, and the trainers were riding the elephants, which made me super uncomfortable, but other than that, it does look like they look after them.

Silver-leafed Monkeys

I was still scared of the Monkeys but told then Silver-leafed Monkeys are not like the black/green ones. We watched other people feed them and walked to the lighthouse.

Fireflies boat trip

Last up was a boat trip to see the fireflies, my expectation was alittle high for this one as I’d assume they would be flying around the boat but instead they were in the trees along the river like Christmas tree lights. We caught a couple of the boat and I held one in my hand. So tiny! Clearly the photos didn’t come out well but here is one lol

We travelled back to Bali from Gili Trawangan on the fast boat. Some of the guys sat upstairs on the boat and got soaked. Sensible me was downstairs and snoozed for the crossing.

We ended the tour at the same hotel we started at and I’m staying at extra couple of days before I travel to Kuala Lumpur.

Our last night together we went for dinner and then to the bar Casablanca.

We were playing a game of snappy, you press his teeth and then randomly it will snap and that means you drink lol we also sang and danced!

With my extra time in Sanur I have had pool time and more spa treatments. Heidi and Jen has stayed longer but I was the last one to leave.

Today was a free day, I treated myself to the ultimate spa package at the hotel.

We met at 5pm to walk the sunset point, it was also Heidi’s birthday.

Today, we headed for the Gili islands, and we stopped before the harbour to take photos of the 3 islands from the hill.

We then took speedboats with our luggage over to Gili Trawangan, the larger of the 3. Our rooms weren’t ready, so we left our bags at the hotel and set off on our snorkelling trip.

We stopped at 3 locations; 1st was the underwater statue, which I didn’t go to as there were too many people. 2nd was the time I did get in, and we saw turtles! I had a lifevest on and was pulled along with a ring as the current was strong. I’m so happy I got to see turtles and swim so close to them. Then, the last spot was a coral garden. After the issues I had in the Philippines with the coral, I decided to stay on the boat and enjoyed singing and dancing to the music with the crew.

Unlike Bali, which is 80% Hindu, Lombok is 80% Muslim.

There are 5 principles of Ismal:
1. Believe in Allah
2. Prayer 5 times a day
3. Fasting during Ramadan
4. Donation of 2.5% of what you earn to the poor and needy
5. Pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in your life. Costs about 70 million, currently 10 years waiting list

In some areas, they still have older traditions, especially clothes. They have kept traditional festivals and made offering. They are not as strict as Islam.

Benang Stokel and Benang Kelambu Waterfall

After being ill yesterday, I found the trek to the waterfalls really tough. It was hot and the steps were steep and a lot of them! But of course, I managed it, though was pretty shakey by the end of it.

I decided not to swim at the waterfall in the end, but for the ladies that did, they had to wear a sarong to cover breasts and thighs.

After the waterfalls we went to a village for lunch and the group went on a walk, I chose to wait at the restaurant, enough walking for one day lol.

We leave Bali today and head for Lombok. Bad news is on the slow ferry! We left at 5.30am and boarded our 5-hour ferry ride.

Once we arrived we had lunch at a local restaurant and I had a meatball soup, it was super tasty!

Traditional village visit

About 25 families live in this village. We were shown a traditional home, which has an inside and outside under cover. We were told the women sleep in the inner part and the males on the outside. We were told that the best way tradionally to sort a wedding was to kidnap the bride to be and then negotiate the dowry. They would then have a big parade and party after the wedding. This is more a ritual now but used to happen. As mentioned above, the women slept inside and men outside. This is the protect the women, there are not even windows.

We arrived at our hotel in Kuta.

For day 9, I ended up staying in bed all day with Bali belly, which started the day before. Luckily, it was a free day, so I didn’t miss out and felt a lot better for the rest.

Candi Dasa is known in scripture as Servant of Peace.

Today was a free day, spent time in the pool, cocktails and beer and reading my book! That evening we saw an amazing full moon!

Was the last evening of the Bali part of the tour. Majority of the group finished here and we we were joined by 5 new people to do the Lombok part of the tour.

Today we left Ubud and must admit glad to get away from the monkeys lol

Silver Museum and workshop

We stopped at a silver museum and workshop. The workers in the workshop work 8 hours a day, 6 days a week.

Kertha Gosa

Kertha Gosa was an old hall of justice and was covered in lots of paintings of the different punishments in hell and another building with marriage stories.

Panji brought us some Balinese sweets, I tried jackfruit sweet with palm sugar and a sticky rice one, and I preferred the sticky rice one. It tastes like a Japanese mochi. 

Bali Swing

We stopped at a restaurant for lunch, and quite a few of the group went on the bali swing.

Put in a pink dress that was super hot in this weather, but I felt very pretty! Wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be. The scarier part was trying to climb into the nest that was in the trees. I had to stop on the ladder in the end as it was too scary, and I was worried it wouldn’t hold my weight.

Bat Cave Temple

Bat Cave Temple is 1 of the 8 holy temples in bali. We were lucky enough to go inside on full moon festivities. We saw people coming into pray, they had a routine of collecting water, which they used to wet their heads, face, and drink. They’d then stick rice on their forehead and eat some of the grains too.

We were allowed into the 3rd part of the temple, which is where they pray. Women had to wear sarongs to cover our legs, and if you  were on your period, you weren’t allowed in.

People had come with offerings of fruits to be blessed by the gods.
Odd numbers on statues, showing you are always trying to reach for perfection but it doesn’t exist in this world.

We arrived at our hotel in time for sunset!

Yesterday we arrived into Ubud, which is famous for the monkeys! The name Ubud comes from the meaning of medicine.

Our hotel is on Monkey Forest Road, but we didn’t need to go anywhere to see them as they were all over the hotel. They were actually pretty scary, and we were told no contact, no plastic bags as they presume it’s food and just to be careful. A couple of the girls had crisps and ice creams taken straight out of their hands.

This was a free day, so I stayed in the hotel with dips in the pool, cocktails, and massage! Had a head and shoulder and a foot massage. They were lovely!

Did have a scary moment with a monkey! It ran straight at me. It was fair to say I screamed my head off, there are videos on insta, but here is a photo.

In the evening we saw traditional Balinese dancing, loved how their eyes moved but it was super creepy with the jolted movements. Felt like we might be in a Balinese horror movie and they would start chasing us lol