After a really outstanding couple of days in busy Singapore, it was time to move on. Moving on to something completely different, less busy, much more relaxed and very beautiful: Bali!

Off to Bali

When Singapore is your starting point, getting to Bali is fairly easy. You simply take a taxi and go to the airport of Changi, then, with a savoir-faire and a really relaxed manner, check in, walk around the airport and then board your plane. But really make sure to walk around Changi Airport and do random stuff:

Wings of Mexico

A huge Bat in Changi

A little short of 3 hours later, you will land in Indonesia, at the international airport of Denpasar (which happens to be the capital of Bali). Welcome to Bali (basics and tourist info)!

Religion 101

In case you didn’t already know beforehand or from a potential stay in other parts of Asia (i.e. Singapore), you’ll quickly realise that many people in Indonesia are Muslims. I knew it, but it is still a little odd, as my mind is really conditioned to think “Buddhism”, “Taoism”, or “Hinduism” when I hear or think “Asia”. That’s neither “good” or “bad”, just stating the obvious. A definite plus of a bigger Muslim community is the increased culinary use of anything poultry (duck, yaay!) and lamb and sheep. Things I either cannot get enough of, or barely get the chance.

The Bali Odyssey

Once you manage to get through customs (very easy if you have nothing to declare), you need to find a taxi (very easy, but make sure to be precise on your maximum price and haggle!) or you need to find the already pre-booked driver. The later was our case. The first thing we had to do was to actually find him. It took us a few minutes and some asking around, but there he was.

Off to South-West of Bali

He told us that it takes around an hour to get there. From our tour operator, we already knew that it’s more likely to be three. And three hours it was! The drive to the hotel wasn’t a piece of cake at all. The traffic was, even to my standards, insane. Any form of road signs or general traffic rules proved to be merely a “guidance”. Scratch that. They weren’t even an idea! I realised that when we – as in 5 cars and twice as many bikes – were casually driving through a bunch of red lights.

Driving in Bali

What I soon realised is that driving in Bali seems to follow only two rules:

1. Get from A to B as quickly as possible and
2. Make sure everyone on the road gets from A to B safe and sound.

This means a constant honking to signal your presence or your desire to overtake one another. That this status quo must be acceptable to literally anyone on the street became crystal clear when our driver honked like a lunatic at the police car in front of us and overtook them through a straight line, right before a left-turn.

But we made it to our hotel!

Puri Dajuma Cottages

The Puri Dajuma Cottages are a Beach-Eco Resort and Spa on the Western part of the island. and really makes any holiday – especially a honeymoon – to something very special. On arrival, we were greeted very friendly by local staff (they only hire Balinese locals in order to support the island). We got a delicious coconut-water-lemon drink and were escorted to our cottage.
There we had a special surprise as our tour operator announced that our stay is our honeymoon. Have a look at this:

I <3 U

The hotel and the staff are full of those little details and make you feel instantly at home. This trip proved to be very tiring and exhausting for us, but rest assured that we started to relax as of the following day.

Stay tuned for more of episodes in Bali and the Dajuma Cottages soon, because we had to call it a night!

Fresh Watermelon Juice and some local Gin