The Honeymooners

I arrived in Bali at 11pm, two days after my original departure. I was to spend one night in Seminyak, one of Bali’s major cities before Nazak’s arrival. She arrived the next day and we headed off to our first destination Sanur, which according to Lonely Planet, was a great beach city with a vibrant town and waterfront. Here is when I began to doubt Lonely Planet for all their seemingly  great advice. Months earlier after compiling extensive research I had booked us two rooms at Flashback’s Bungalows in Sanur. It was what Lonely Planet described as, “an eco-chic bungalow resort for the flashpacker”. They had highly recommended their rooms, failing to mention that some of them were missing a key feature found in nearly all accommodations, doors.

Naz and I arrived at Flashback’s excited for our first night. We planned to go big; drinks, dinner, maybe even a little dancing. Eager to head out on the town, we quickly dropped off our bags dismissing the oddity that our room was sans doors and headed to dinner. We soon learned Sanur was not the town for us. A bit on the sleepy side and with not many options for going out we headed back to our room to discover our safety deposit box wide open. A little panicked but more so intoxicated from dinner’s drinks we decided that we must’ve accidentally left the box open. It wasn’t until waking up at 4am to find the safety deposit box wide open again that we were quite sure that our door-less room had also been housing a thief for the night.

Luckily nothing was stolen and with our dignity and checkbooks still intact, Naz and I headed for Seminyak in search of Bali’s party island reputation. What we got instead was two grueling hours of walking around in 95% humidity and 35 degree weather in search of accommodations which were all fully booked. We finally managed to find a room, at the 5-star Grand Balisani Suites. Located just north of Seminyak in Kerobokan, the hotel sat in a small rice farming village right by the ocean.

We decided we would spend our much deserved “honeymoon night” there and go back to our backpacker budget the following morning, only this time we would demand rooms with doors. The Balisani Suites had spoiled us and for the remainder of the week Naz and I bounced back and forth between budget accommodations and some of Bali’s best resorts. I soon forgot that Justin wasn’t there to start off the trip, as I was busy working on my tan and enjoying days filled with temples, beaches, monkeys, jaffles*and what amounted to five massages in one week!

Before we knew it, it was time to welcome Mike and Justin to Bali and let the quad-adventures begin…

Still in good spirits, Naz leaving Flashback's Bungalows.

The perfectly manicured grounds of our honeymoon hotel.

The Honeymoon Suite.

Offering baskets called ‘canang sari ' that
Balinese offer to their Gods three times a day.
While most Indonesians are Muslims,
the majority of Balinese are practicing Hindus.

Uluwatu beach, one of Bali's best surfing spots.

On par with the pros, Naz tries surfing at Uluwatu.

A local monk and our tour guide at Puru Luhur Temple in Uluwatu.

One of many mischevious monkeys at Pura Luhur.
Spending their days robbing unsuspecting tourists
of their sunglasses and flip flops only to trade them
 back for snacks.

Intrigued by our browness? One of the many requests we received while in
Bali for photographs to be taken with us.

Naz and I at Dreamland beach,
hours before we scorched ourselves to a crisp.

The famous Jaffle. A tasty pressed egg sandwich/pocket ideal for any meal.