We always knew we’d be back and fourteen years later we found ourselves landing back in Bali, “The Land of the Gods.” All of us were excited to get there. Mark and I were looking forward to revisiting the place where we got married and the kids were beyond excited to see Auntie Heather (Mark’s sister joined us for 12 days of exploring the island).

We arrived close to midnight so we stayed not too far away from the airport, a place called Canggu, it’s on the south west coast of Bali, about 30 minutes from Kuta (the busiest destination in Bali). We had a driver pre-arranged, so he was ready for us when we arrived. We found Wayan through our friend Michael who we met on our Himalayan trek.

Canggu’s an up and coming area, so not as crazy as Kuta, but still close to the airport and it had some amazing beaches. The day after our late arrival we checked out the beach in the morning and then headed back to the airport with Wayan to surprise Heather (she thought she was just being met by a driver). The Ecosfera Hotel was our home base for a few days while we relaxed on the beach and learned how to “catch some tasty waves”.

We stuck to Old Man’s beach for the surfing. The lessons were 2 hours, but none of us lasted longer than 1.5 hours. The waves were huge and the energy it took just to get out past the breakers was exhausting. Everyone had some success, although Molly and Grace both did quite a bit better than us.

Echo beach was saved for playing in the waves. There is no way anyone but an experienced surfer could have tried surfing there. The waves were huge, the biggest we’ve ever seen, and the current was strong. The foamy, waist high surf was enough to barrel us over more than once. Having Heather with us made it feel like we were on vacation (travelling doesn’t always seem like that) and she was game for anything, even after being knocked over numerous times.

Canggu was great, but just because its newly developed doesn’t mean there was a lack of sales people on the beaches. A constant flow of hawkers selling jewelry, massages, henna tattoos and blow darts?!? kept us busy saying “maybe later” all day.

The food in Bali is good and there are no shortage of warungs (small restaurants or food stalls) and western restaurants on this part of the island. Grace, Heather and I all experienced a bit of “Bali Belly” after eating at a decent Greek restaurant, so it just goes to show that food poisoning can strike anywhere. After about 8 intense hours of nausea and vomiting (even in the van – luckily in a bag – sorry Wayan) we were back to normal.

Canggu’s waves and beaches were left behind as we headed to the uplands and the city of Ubud (the cultural centre of Bali).

The hotel we booked was one of the best places we’ve stayed on the whole trip, a short walk (through the Monkey Forest) to the centre of the city, but quiet at night and surrounded by tropical jungle. The buildings were dark wood and furnished with Balinese decoration and it had a beautiful pool. We had a family villa so we were all able to stay together.

The Monkey Forest in Ubud is home to more than 700 long-tailed macaques that have organized into four troupes. The monkeys are wild, but are monitored and studied through a conservation and research efforts. There is no doubt that the monkeys are not scared of people and there are plenty of warnings to keep a respectful distance and not to feed the monkeys, although they’ve learned that people = food and toys so often they are the ones doing the approaching. Heather’s dress became a swing for a few little ones!!

We took daytrip to the UNESCO Jatiluwih Rice Terraces. The size of this plantation and the work that must go into maintaining it is incredible. The cooperative of farmers grow traditional Balinese rice without fertilizers or pesticides. Another reason it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site is that encompasses the Tri Hita Karana, the basic Balinese philosophy of life that prioritizes: harmony with nature, harmony with other humans and harmony with god.

After our walk through the terraces we visited a local coffee plantation and tried some locally grown coffee and tea. Wayan took us to the temple in his village and filled us in on Hindu life in Bali. After that we made a few more stops in local villages for woven products and wood carvings and then called it a day. The evenings were spent taking in some of the local traditional music and dancing. We saw the Legong and Kecak dances while in Ubud. Mark and I had seen the dances performed the first time we were in Bali and it was just as good the second time. The intricate movements of hands and eyes are a little mesmerizing and the stories being told made it a great lesson in Balinese culture.

After Ubud we thought it would be neat to go somewhere new for all of us. The german girls we met in Vietnam had great things to say about Penida Island (Nusa Penida) and had given us the low down on what to see and do. So, we packed up and headed for the port of Sanur to catch our boat to Nusa Penida. The island is about a 45 minute boat ride off the Southeast coast of Bali. We loaded our backpacks onto a cart and waded out to climb onto the boat. The swells were huge the day we left and at times we couldn’t see anything but rolling waves around us. We arrived to the port and hopped off into the crystal clear water and made our way to shore.

The roads on Nusa Penida are notoriously terrible so we were surprised when the ride from the port to Crystal Bay (about 30 minutes) was pretty smooth, although it was very narrow and windy. As the driver pulled onto the path to where our accommodation was I thought he’d made a mistake. We were driving down a rocky, muddy path barely big enough for the car. We passed small hut-type houses and a few rustic (run down) homes, but eventually came to a newly built, family run place with 5 bungalows. It was paradise in the middle of nowhere. There was a pool and a small restaurant. We got to know the young men running the place quite well over our five days there, they were awesome hosts and great cooks!! Our neighbours were chickens….and roosters. Heather made sure to ask about snakes….to every local we met. We got differing answers, which left the snake fearers in our group (everyone but me) on guard. We never did run into any snakes, but we did see a giant lizard running full speed through a marsh area on our walk to the beach one day. Pigs, chickens and dogs running loose were everyday occurrences.

The island is really undeveloped and there are no resorts on the beach, which is nice because the locals are able set up businesses selling food, renting chairs, umbrellas and snorkelling gear and taking people out in their boats and they haven’t been pushed out by resorts.

We spent hours snorkelling and swimming in Crystal Bay, reading and lounging on the beach. The water in the bay was so clear, we were able to see all kinds of fish and other sea creatures, Mark even spotted a turtle.

One day we decided to make our way to the other side of the island to check out Diamond and Atuh Beaches. I don’t think I’ve ever seen more beautiful beaches. The sheer cliffs, white sand, palm trees and turquoise water make for a visual overload. Diamond Beach is secluded and has no real infrastructure in terms of food or chairs etc. We also had to walk down stairs that were carved into the side of the cliff to get down to it. Not many people do it, so it’s never really busy. Molly and Heather couldn’t resist the beautiful water and crashing waves, so they hid their clothes high up on a rock to stay dry and went into the turquoise water and white surf.

The tide started to come up, so we stayed as long as we could without having to swim back to where we had to climb up. After the steep climb up we took a steep path down into the next cove to spend the day at Atuh Beach. It’s was quite a hike to get down, but at the bottom there are chairs, umbrellas and food to be had. We grabbed some chairs and spent the rest of the day swimming in the waves.

The waters around Nusa Penida are known as being a spot where Manta Rays like to live and swim. Bright and early one morning we set out with a local guy in his boat to see if we could find some. The swells were huge and I’ll admit I was a little nervous. We were out in a small boat and were near some huge cliffs where the waves were exploding as they crashed into the rock walls. We were the only boat out there for quite a while. Everyone put on their snorkel gear and jumped in at a few different spots to see if there were any rays around. I decided to stay on board so I could keep an eye on where the kids were and get the boat driver to move the boat closer to them if they drifted away. Unfortunately we had no luck at the first few stops, but, as other boats were arriving our guy decided to try one more area where there were no other boats around. Mark was the first one in the water and immediately after jumping in he popped up and shouted “There’s one right underneath me.” Grace hurled herself in the water with only her mask (no flippers) and the rest followed right after her. They were able to swim alone with the huge ray as it sailed through the sea. Once the other boats got wind that a ray had been spotted they made their way over and we decided to head back to Crystal Bay and give some space for others to catch a glimpse.

Broken Beach, Angel’s Billabong and Kleingking Beach (a point of land is shaped like a T-Rex) are all places that tourists visit when they go to Nusa Penida. We spent a short morning seeing all three. If anyone asked our advice as to what to do or see on Nusa Penida we’d probably say skip Broken Beach and Angel’s Billabong and go to Kleingking Beach as early in the morning as you possible can. Many people come on day trips from mainland Bali to these three places and after 10am it is packed.

We were sad to leave when our five days there were up, we knew it was time to say goodbye to Heather and we had formed a bond with the people at our hotel. We exchanged contact information with them and promised that if we were ever back, that we’d come to see them again.

We made the journey back to Sanur (a much calmer ride) and to the same place where Mark and I were married 14 years earlier. The hotel had changed a little, but some of the staff were still there and they remembered us!! We had some time to show Heather around and have lunch on the beach before she had to leave for the airport. We shed some tears saying goodbye, but took solace in the fact that it wouldn’t be too long before we’d see her again back in Canada.

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14 years and going strong……

Mark, the girls and I spent 2 more days in Sanur at our wedding hotel. The girls thought it was neat to see the places they had been hearing about for a long time, but they did say there was too much kissing during this portion of the trip. One Sanur highlight was that we found the second best warung of our time in Bali here. Warung Sanur Segar was run by three ladies and located right across from the night market. We ate here several times. So tasty and cheap!! We also hit up the night market for dinner and dessert one day. It was also really good and cheap. We met a Canadian family who live in Bali and they said they regularly come to the night market for good Indonesian food.

We visited the Turtle Sanctuary and Education Centre, which is the only legit WWF turtle sanctuary in Bali. The organization gets turtle eggs from vulnerable areas and brings them to the centre where they keep them until they are hatched and strong enough for a better chance of survival in the wild (usually about a week after hatching). It’s totally non-profit and they operate on donations and turtle adoptions. We adopted a green sea turtle and named him George Harrison (it cost about $15USD). We like to imagine that he’s swimming freely in the Bali Sea somewhere.

Nusa Penida had given us a taste of island life and we wanted more. The Gili islands are technically a part of Lombok, the next large island to the west of Bali, and are a group of 3 tiny islands – Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno and Gili Air. Gili Air, the medium sized island, was our next destination. There is no motorized transport on Gili Air. Bikes, feet or horse cart are the only way to get around.

We booked seats on a speedboat from Padangbai (about an hour north of Sanur). A smooth 90 minutes later (with one slow down for a dolphin sighting) we were approaching the islands. We first dropped off some passengers at Gili T and then headed for our island.

Gili Air is about 2 km across and our bungalows were on the far side of the island, so we hired a horse cart to take us there. For the rest of our stay we rented bikes to get ourselves around.

I don’t even know if words can describe the experience we had on Gili Air. Every day we walked 20 steps to the beach, put on the snorkelling gear we rented from a roadside stand 200m away, flopped into the warmest ocean water I’ve ever felt and snorkelled the reef surrounding the island for hours in crystal clear water. Then we’d eat and relax by the pool and snorkel some more. Our rented bikes took us all over the island to try different restaurants and warungs, watch sunset over Mount Agung and take in movies on the beach. We’d ride back to our place lighting the way with our headlamps.

Gili Air is heaven on earth. It was here that we also met maybe the coolest couple EVER and their adorable daughter. Josh and Emily are a couple who have had some amazing adventures. They both had such an interesting, positive outlook on life. It was really great how they included the girls in conversations and often asked them their thoughts and opinions. Molly and Grace had a blast playing with little Osh (their daring 15 month old daughter) in the pool. Meeting them was a highlight for sure. We also reunited with the German girls we met in Halong Bay and again in Vietnam.

One day we decided we’d like to try snorkelling in some other areas around Gili Air, so we hired a local guy to take us in his boat. We’d learned throughout our travels that an early start usually ensures some solitude, so we got up bright and early and headed out. The colour of the water changed as we moved around the island, from turquoise to navy to almost indigo depending on the depth. The one common denominator was clarity. I’ve never seen water so clear, we easily spotted fish and turtles before we were even in the water.

At our first stop we came upon six sea turtles sleeping on the bottom. We leisurely snorkelled about 20 metres above them until they decided it was time to come up and get a breath of fresh air. They made their way to the surface, paying no attention to us, while we swam with them. We were able to stay and watch them for 45 minutes!! Our boat driver brought us to some spots with amazing coral and fish and then for lunch on Gili Meno. Just before he dropped us off he showed us a spot a short walk from our bungalows that was amazing to snorkel during high tide.

Gili Air was one the place we all dreaded leaving the most, we even extended our stay by a day (and made a return trip…more on that to come). We contemplated staying longer but we wanted to do a hike up Mount Batur (the other volcano on Bali) and we had heard great things about Amed, so we said goodbye to Josh and Emily and the great staff at Sandy Beach Bungalows and caught a boat back to Bali.

Our plan was to check out the entire island of Bali like Mark and I did years ago, so we rented a vehicle and made our way to Amed on the northeastern tip of the island, at the base of Mount Agung.

Amed is made up of many small fishing villages and is known for salt making. The beaches are black, volcanic stone and there are some beautiful snorkelling/diving sites in the area. Having the car was great, we were able to get ourselves to two shipwrecks and a protected bay to snorkel.

After Amed we wound our way around the base of Mount Agung towards Mount Batur. Batur is a volcano within a volcano. There is a large caldera of a 25,000 year old volcano that has four villages settled within it and Mount Batur in also in there.

We stayed in a small, family run guest house (Batur Green Hill) on the slope of the volcano. I wish we would have planned to stay there longer, it had a beautiful view and the owners were so kind. We spent the afternoon relaxing by the pool and taking the gorgeous scenery. After a game of Catan and a good dinner we headed to bed early because our guide was meeting us at 4:30am to begin our hike to the top of Batur (1717m) for sunrise over Mount Agung. Mark and I hiked Mount Agung (3031m) for sunrise on our honeymoon and it was a much more rigorous climb, this one was steep and short.

We started the climb in the dark; the temperature was cool and got cooler as we climbed, but the hike was steep so it wasn’t long before we were peeling of layers. There were dirt bikers who offer rides part way up for about $30, so sometimes the fumes from the passing bikes were a little much. We reached the top well before sunrise in some dense clouds and actually got separated for a bit. Our guide reunited us and we waited, huddled together, for sunrise. The temperature was low and because we were sweaty and now no longer moving we got chilly quickly. There was the odd blast of warm air that came from in the crater below to warm us a little.

The cloud cover did dissipate in waves so there were windows of clear views, but we didn’t get to see the sunrise over Mount Agung (which is beside Batur). Once daylight arrived we could steam rising from the walls of the volcano crater. Mark walked down a little path into the crater and was able to stand right beside a steaming vent!

We had a lot of time to chat on our way up and down and we came to the realization that what all of us really wanted was to go back to Gili Air. We scrapped the driving to the north part of the island and once we returned to the guest house we set off to catch a boat back to the island. Northern Bali exploration would have to wait for a return trip.

We did much of the same when we were back on Gili Air…..snorkelling, biking, sunsets and food. We added in searching for monitor lizards. There are some really big ones on the island so we took the advice of a few locals as to where to look. We saw some, but they were quick and we couldn’t snap a pic fast enough. Molly came down with a pretty severe bug for a couple of days. We had a doctor check her out and do some blood work (Dengue fever is common in some of the areas we were in), but nothing serious came up. Phew. While I stayed with her, Mark and Grace took a meditation class that they both really enjoyed (both of them dozed off). We were just as sad to leave Gili the second time as we were the first, but we had promised the girls we’d do more surfing before we left Indonesia and our time was getting short. Back to Bali!!

We headed for Kuta, which had smaller more consistent waves for surfing with kids. It’s a busy, crazy part of Bali. Tourists (mainly Australians) have been coming to Bali for over 30 years and Kuta has been a mainstay. It’s really developed and, at times, doesn’t feel like you’re even in Asia. But, we found a small hotel tucked away down a quiet street, surrounded by trees and beautiful gardens. The rooms were huge and we had a great terrace overlooking the pool. Our few days of surfing there saw the girls have great success and I think they may be hooked.

The day we arrived was Mark’s 50th birthday. I had arranged for dinner at a well reviewed Indonesian restaurant, ordered a cake from a bakery nearby and the girls made him some funny, sweet birthday cards. We also booked him a Balinese/Lomi lomi massage which he appreciated (he’s missed his chiropractic treatments).

We enjoyed our last days of tropical sunshine on the beach and beside the pool. The girls picked up some souvenirs and gifts for friends; we knew we wouldn’t have much longer to lug them around. On our last night we watched the sun go down and stayed in the ocean until the last moment. Before we knew it we were packed up and headed to the airport and saying goodbye to Southeast Asia.