And The Journey Continues…In Bali

With ‘The Beginning…Of Our Journey‘ we shared with you all our experience about how we became online friends then from business partners to life partners. It was when we met in Goa and had a small conversation about travel and bikes that we came to know about our common passion.

Somehow, things kept moving in a positive direction. We decided to convert this friendship into a life long affair and become friends for life.

We wanted to grow old together!

Then came a time when we got married and started with the second phase of our lives. Thereafter, we started planning for our honeymoon trip. While planning, many options like the Maldives and Mauritius came to our mind, but were not able to magnetize us. Then one of the top honeymoon destinations that time came to our mind.

Yes, it was Bali that struck our chords.

Well, this was not our motorcycle ride, but then an experience worth sharing.

Being a traveler, I didn’t want to go for packages so, I did a good amount of research to customize our trip as per our choice. From flights to visa details, stay, places; we wanted to see in Bali everything was well planned by us.

I booked Puri Cendana Resort in Seminyak for our stay online. The reason, why I choose this resort, was because of trip advisor reviews, pictures and its location which is in one most happening place in Bali.

I hate haphazard trips so did all the planning and bookings well in advance.

We both tied knot on 29th January, 2012 and our honeymoon trip scheduled for 9th February, 2012.

We intentionally choose this date for the fact that we wanted to spend our first valentine’s day in the lapse of mother nature at the beautiful beaches.

We boarded our flight from New Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport Terminal. After the journey of 10 hours and layover of three and a half hours at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, we reached Denpasar airport, Bali on 10th February.

After we disembarked the flight and got our baggage, we came out of the airport where the chauffeur (arranged by the resort that we had booked) was standing there to welcome us and take us to the resort in the cab.

We reached the resort in Seminyak, which was superb with greenery all around and our duplex cottage was well maintained and the floral decoration took us by awe.

While booking the resort I asked resort owners to make the floral decorations and arrange for the chocolate cake. They did their job brilliantly.

The welcome chocolate cake was awesome. Rajni loved the surprise!

The day we reached Bali, we didn’t do anything other than heading to a beach which was just 5 mins walk from our resort. Nearby, there was a cab booking office that we spotted while coming back from the beach. We went for inquiry and booked the cab for the next day to explore Bali.

And here’s the part of our travel story for which you will have to sit back and read on. Hope you don’t find it boring.

Before I begin with it, I would want to share the sad part. Unfortunately, we lost many of our Bali trip pictures as our hard disk crashed. However, we were lucky to have some of them left with us, which we are sharing with you all here. Some of the images (below which image credit is given) are taken from the web to give you all the glimpse of how awesome these places are.

February 11

Pura Taman Ayun

This temple was the first on our list of places to see in Bali. We actually were splendid with the beauty of the temple. It is one Bali’s Ancient Royal Temple ‘Taman Ayun’ which means a beautiful garden. There is a moat that surrounds the temple, giving the complex come to be visible floating on water.

Image Credit

Ulun Danu Beratan Temple

While taking a stroll amidst the trees and mountains, suddenly we reached a place that left us awe-inspired. Yes, it was Ulun Danu Temple, the Balinese Hindu Temple dedicated to the worship of the goddess of lakes and rivers, Dewi Batari Ulun Danu. It is located on the shores of Lake Bratan. Some part of it is on the mainland while other part seems to be floating on the lake.

Image Credit

Jatiluwih Ricefield Terrace

Jatiluwih is one the famous tourist destinations in Bali situated in Tabanan regency. It offers the beautiful scenery of rice terrace with fresh atmosphere that surrounded it. The varieties of local rice planted in this area come in a particular size of rice tree that are comparatively bigger than the other ones.

Here, nearby was the restaurant where we had our lunch. It was a buffet system. Trust me, most of the delicacies we couldn’t understand that is the reason we only had fruits and salad. The best part of the restaurant was that from here we were enjoying the beautiful rice paddy fields.

Image Credit

Tanah Lot Temple

By the end of the day at sunset time, we went to spectacularly located Tanah Lot which we loved for the fact that the place where it is situated makes the sunset look awesome. There was some ceremony that was being held in the evening and the prayers were being offered.

Cute little kids were dancing and grabbing the attention of the tourists.

February 12

The next day we planned to explore the local area, spend time on the beach nearby. While raking a stroll, guess what, there was an Indian restaurant where we had a delicious lunch. Finding something that reminds you of your country in some other country is like finding a genie. The name of the restaurant was the Gateway of India.

February 13

The next day, we hired the cab once again to explore the places we couldn’t cover the other day.

Besakih Temple

Pura Besakih which is one of the well-known and holiest temple in Bali was the first one on our list for the day. It’s the ‘mother of all temples’ and oldest among the temples in Bali.

There were so many monkeys out there who were snatching things from the visitors. We didn’t bother much as we didn’t carry anything along.

 While enjoying the vistas to our surprise, a monkey came and took away my glasses.

The local people out there came to help but asked us to buy the monkeys something to eat. How smart! When we the fellow what we brought, he called the monkey which came and sat on his shoulders and gave the glasses back. One hilarious episode, it was!

 GitGit Waterfall

Gitgit Waterfall is one of the famous tourist destinations in Bali, which is located in Gitgit countryside. We loved it for the fact that we felt so close to nature there. The chirping of birds, water splash, clicking pictures, all in the dense green area were all together adding to the enjoyment. From the road where we had to park our cab, it was a small trek but really worth it.

Jimbaran Beach

In the evening we had this dinner plan at the Jimbaran beach. Being a vegetarian, Rajni found it really hard to find nice delicacies there in Bali.

In vegetarian dinner they served bowls of boiled spinach and boiled potatoes that too without salt or anything.

For a moment I was wondering what she is gonna do, but the seafood placed right there in front of me diverted my attention. All together, it was a nice dinner for me and not a good one for Rajni.

The highlight of Jimabaran beach and having dinner, the sunset out there is one of its kind. The variety of color show that one witness during sunset leaves the spectators mesmerized.

February 14

It was our first Valentine’s day together, and we wanted to do something special and memorable on this day so we planned to go for snorkelling to enjoy the underwater world of beautiful creatures. But alas, things didn’t turn out to be as expected.

Shit Happens!

Kuta Beach

On Kuta Beach, we went for snorkelling as somehow, things didn’t work in favor. We actually couldn’t do it (this experience though was not too good, but is worth sharing and we will come up with an article on it soon to let you all know what happened).

Moon Cot Sari Turtle Farm

After, snorkelling thing (which we couldn’t complete) we went to turtle island. Everywhere, there were turtles. We gave them food, held them in our hands, got pictures clicked. The turtles were so heavy that we couldn’t hold them for long.

The best experience was to hold the Python on my shoulders. Scary yet memorable it was.

Also, we posed with Eagle, a Monitor Lizard of which Rajni got little scared of. (See her expressions in the image below).

There was a bat in one cage. We couldn’t gather the guts to hold it, but saw a foreigner who was actually daring to hold a bat in her hands.

Dreamland Beach

Later this day, we went to a beach, namely Dreamland Beach. It was also surprising for the fact, we were walking in a passage in between two mountains and suddenly at one point we took a turn and what we saw was simply mesmerizing.

Yes, it was a beach with water all around and white sand. We saw the first beach with white sand all around.

We actually had gone crazy witnessing the scenery. It was truly Dreamland Beach!

Pura Luhur Lempuyang Temple

It is Bali’s most important religious places being one of the six kahyangan temples in the world dedicated to Sang Hyang Widi Wasa (the supreme God). Besides, it is one of the island’s nine directional temples that protects the native Balinese from evil spirits.

The best thing about Bali temples is that they are located amidst embraced with greenery all around which makes them look awesome.

Did I mention the best part of visiting Bali temples is that you don’t have to take off your shoes.

To sum up, there was so much greenery around in Bali, clean air and beautiful landscapes. The only thing that gets a thumbs down was its traffic. We remember getting stuck in the traffic jam for more than an hour while coming back to our resort.

Not to forget something I would like to share about our cab driver. Such a nice fellow he is who in English kept conversing with us, talking about India and one Hindi movie named “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Shahrukh Khan”. The way he was pronouncing it was so sweet. Wish I could tell you all how much we liked the way he said. India ‘Kuch Kuch Hota hai, Shahrukh khan’ and smiled.

February 15, 2012

The other day, we went shopping to buy souvenirs for our loved ones at home.

Next day we had to pack our bags and board the flight to come back home.

Yes, our honeymoon trip was over, but then we were taking back beautiful memories with us.

Bali is still one of the top honeymoon destinations. Based on our experience, we would also suggest you all to opt for it while planning your honeymoon or even your next trip (if marriage is not on the cards or you are already married and want to go for a trip with your partner).

With this travelogue, we shared sweet memories of our honeymoon. Have any questions in mind, want to ask anything about our trip, do so by connecting with us.

Also, if you liked our travel story, share and pass it on to your friends…until next time!