bali – Wander and Explore

Tabanan Trip

Published on 21st Nov 202030th Nov 2020 by wanderandexplore88Leave a comment

I always wanted to go to another region in Bali, not only Canggu, Ubud, Seminyak and Kuta. One of my friends, Yudhi, suggested me to have a staycation in Tabanan, which is one of the regions in Bali. He was originally from there so he knows a bit more about where we can go and what to do there better than I do. Jatiluwih Rice Terrace was the main spot we visited. We also spent the night fairly close to there.

Jatiluwih Rice Terraces

If you only know about Tegalalang rice terraces in Ubud, Jatiluwih rice terraces are larger and in my opinion have a better scenery. Located just 10 minutes away from Tanah Lot, or about 1-1/2 hours from Canggu area, Jatiluwih rice terraces comprise over 600 hectares of rice fields following the flowing hillside topography of the Batukaru mountain range. Pointed as one of UNESCO World Heritages since the site has been able to maintain the local culture heritage in form of water irrigation system managed traditionally called by SUBAK. These are well-maintained since the 9th century.

You could do many things in the Jatiluwih rice terrace areas. From cycling, to jogging or just taking pictures like us! If you wanted to go here by motorbike or cars, parks are available but not many. Jatiluwih rice terraces are completed with the hygiene standard (wastafel and hand soap) and you still need to wear a face mask when you are around a crowd of people. Don’t forget to bring an umbrella if you come during a rainy season and watch your step, it could be slippery.

There are several cafes, restaurant and local warungs to visit if you feel hungry. The range of prices depends on the type of place, starting from IDR 30,000/pax for local warungs to IDR 150,000/pax for a fancier one. Choose your budget wisely or check tripadvisor before you come to have lunch. That is what I usually do 🙂

We spent the night in a Two Bedroom Pool Villa that I found in airbnb, called The Saren. It has an industrial minimalist concept that makes the bedroom look clean and comfortable. It’s basically a Two Unit of One Bedrooms in the first and second floors, which are separated by stairs outside. It’s more of a fit for a group of friends like us, a family with grown up kids or 2 couples who are traveling together. I don’t think it’s fit for a family with little kids since it doesn’t have direct access to each other’s room. It also sells as a separated room if you only book for One Bedroom instead of two. The rate was really affordable. $51/night and we got a private pool! You can book your stay from airbnb and if you are a first timer, you get a free $17 credit for your account 😀

We wanted to go to Pantai Nyanyi (Nyanyi Beach) which is located just 5 minutes of walking from our Hotel but due to the fact that we woke up late, lol, instead of going to the beach, we went to the sleeping buddha statue in Pupuan region. It’s a 1 hour of driving from our staycation place. That driving experience to reach it was insane! You are not only driving straight in a big street, but it was a winding road. We went left, right, left-right and I was about to throw up until finally we arrived! Yeah!

The statue located inside the Vihara Dharma Giri, a Buddhist temple in Pupuan, Tabanan. This temple is open to the public for free, however, visitors are expected to give donations to be used for the maintenance of the monastery. This applies to local and foreign tourists. Please keep in mind to wear something proper to the temple, no shorts and you must remove your footwear when you are in the temple grounds. In addition, you also have to use closed clothing from the waist down. However, for visitors who do not carry appropriate clothing, a cover cloth will be provided by the temple administrator. There are doggos around the temple too, they are sooo adorable. The temple was so quiet and so peaceful so try to come and visit 😊

I hope you like this post and I will try to be more productive and write more this month 😉. I wish the world will heal faster so everyone can travel again freely soon 😊

With love,

Ayu, xoxo

One Night at Hyatt Regency Bali

Published on 14th Nov 202014th Nov 2020 by wanderandexplore88Leave a comment

Last august my friend and I had a staycation in Hyatt Regency, Sanur. It was a fancy staycation but we didn’t spend a lot of money for a night there. Pandemic has a big impact in tourism sector in Bali, almost everyone in Bali is struggle since April 2020, the economy fell down drastically and a lot of hotels closed and some of them that stay open has really huge discount for their customer, that’s why we got such a good deal.

Hyatt Regency just reopened the end of 2018 after 5 years of renovation. It was one of the oldest hotel in Sanur area, which is established since 1973 with Balinese architecture and nowadays mixed with contemporary design. It has big lush garden and located in front of Sanur beach.

Fyi, you need to wear face mask outside your room, and safety treatments during pandemic are in place. Wash basin to wash your hands, hand sanitizer, temperature checking, online menu are ready to make sure you’re always safe during your stay.

We stayed in Premium King Room, that was quite large with a very comfortable king size bed, a bathroom include shower and a bathtub also came up with separate powder room, lounge area inside and our terrace that facing to the garden also has outdoor seating furniture.

When you step outside from your room, you will find a tranquil lush garden and lotus ponds with lot of ducks. Try to find places for instagram pictures? No worries, they have quite a lot of places.

From 3 total restaurants, it was only 1 that open for breakfast, lunch and dinner where we chilled out in the late afternoon enjoyed the tiramisu and our drinks, and had our breakfast in the next morning.

I hope you enjoy this post, Jake and I still preparing the story of our trip to Turkey that we just done last month 😉

Love you all! xoxo

Ayu

Cat Cafe Ubud – Ubud, Bali

Published on 14th Apr 202014th Apr 2020 by wanderandexplore882 Comments

HAPPY EASTER! It’s been awhile since we had posted anything. We wish everyone to always be happy and healthy. We also hope that everyone continues to do their best on this global pandemic and ask that we make sure to help people in need or at least stay away from everyone and maintain physical distance. It’s a hard situation for everyone, even for us who live separated from each other but we need to keep fighting. If you are able, please help others who are out of work with whatever way you can, even a small amount will help. Stay healthy and keep spreading the love 😊

We still haven’t shared about the Cat Cafe that Ayu had visited while she was in Ubud, so here it is. The Cat Cafe Ubud is located in Pengosekan, which isn’t too far from the ARMA Museum Ubud and only 700m from the Monkey Forest. This is the sanctuary for the cat lovers. We saw about 12 cats there if not mistaken (didn’t really count them all, sorry hehe). And if you are in need of some loves, we suggest this place to visit. Although, we can’t say this is the best cat cafe that we’ve ever visited. Compared to other cat cafes in Bangkok and Singapore, this one was okay if you only want to interact with the furry colonies.

When you are about to enter the Cafe, you have to go to sterilisation area (or whatever it’s called) you have to clean your hands and then change into slippers or go bare foot. We do wonder if they put a bit more effort into cleanliness, this place would be much more wonderful. The cost to play with the kitties is about 30k before tax and services. You can order the light meal if you want to with the price range from 25k – 50k per meal. While the kitties are very cuddly and some of them are very friendly, the orange cat below is naughty. He is curious of just about everything and becomes a bit aggressive if you have a treat in your hand :D, so watch out.

We hope the situation will become normal very soon. One wish for all of us, don’t stop dreaming of our next vacation 😊

Love you all, xoxo

Jake and Ayu

Sudalama Suites and Villa – Sanur, Bali

Published on 15th Mar 202015th Mar 2020 by wanderandexplore882 Comments

It’s been a while since we had much work and were able to do much. We can’t go anywhere too far since covid-19 spread everywhere so we need to be cautious, keep a clean hygiene and boost our immunity. Hopefully this situation will get better. On my last weekend, my friend and I decided to have a staycation in Sudamala Suites & Villa Sanur. It isn’t too far from our office. It’s only about 7 minutes driving.

If you are looking for a relaxing ambience, Sudamala Suites & Villa is all you need. It’s located in Jl. Sudamala No. 20, Sanur – Bali and only about a 10 minute walking distance to the beach. When you check in, the receptionist team will welcome you with a warmth hospitality and help you with the registration. When you finish getting checked in, and once you are settled in the room, they will serve you the welcome drink, it was ice cinnamon tea.

We had a nice stay in a One Bedroom Garden Suite. You might need to check their website for the latest promotion available. The room was spacious and really beautiful. Not only was it perfectly clean, but it also smelled good and relaxing. Just from entering the room, we had already felt the Balinese modern ambience. The Balinese door, the decoration inside and even the little things like a bed runner and cushion case had Balinese motives. The room itself had a semi outdoor shower and a powder room completed with a wardrobe corner.

We spent our time relaxing and venting next to the pool, something girls typically love to do. We also had the chance to try their food and beverages. Aside from the breakfast in the next morning, we ordered dinner from their restaurant which was really good. It was overall a very beautiful stay with an amazing service and delicious food! I truly enjoyed this place.

Seniman Coffee Studio – Ubud

Published on 1st Mar 20204th Mar 2020 by wanderandexplore88Leave a comment

Seniman Coffee is the hangout place that you have to visit when you go to Ubud. It’s not only because it’s located in the central Ubud and is easy to access, it’s also because it’s coffee and chocolate are definitely worth a try. People like me who don’t like sweets, will love it too. I don’t particularly like chocolate drinks in general, I am more of a coffee person but in Seniman Coffee their chocolate isn’t too sweet for me. My friend ordered it so I tried it and I fell in love at the first sip. They served coffee and chocolate from all over Indonesia. If you are a vegetarian/vegan, they have choices of cashew and soy milk. Pretty interesting, right? 😊

Seniman Coffee Studio started in 2010 by Rodney Glick and David Sullivan. In Bahasa Indonesia, seniman means “artist”. It’s located in the centre of Ubud Jl. Sriwedari, about a 10 minute walk from the Ubud Art Market. If you love their coffee and wanna bring it home, they have a shop across the street where you can buy their product and bring them home. The additional service that they give is valet parking, if you can’t find the parking area, they would love to help you with free valet service.

There are some food and beverages that you can order such as Soto Ayam, Gado-gado, Nasi Bakar, Porridge, Burger, Quesadilla and of course the yummy pastry with range price from 40k – 80k, My friend and I spent about IDR 200,000 for 1 chocolate drink, 1 cappucino and 1 nasi bakar.

If you wanna visit, Seniman Coffee is open everyday from 7.30 am to 10.00 pm so you can come here for breakfast, lunch or even dinner.

First Trip to Bali

Published on 26th Jan 202025th Nov 2020 by wanderandexplore88

Ayu and I met online, as we had said in our earlier post, All About Us. I wanted to meet Ayu in person so I bought a ticket to Bali, Indonesia. Overall, the trip was amazing! So many beautiful beaches, cute little shops on the side of the streets and many, many other places to visit.

So let me share about what I’ve done in Bali. Not much because my girl needed to work during the weekdays 😪. But, well, I’m going to talk about the trip with her to Ubud and GWK. The first place we visited together was the Rice Farms in Ubud. It was a fairly hot day, although I’m used to the humidity since I currently live in North Carolina in the US. Walking through the farms felt relaxing. The calming green rice plants everywhere you looked had such a peaceful atmosphere. There was also a swing that you could go on with additional cost and some instagrammable photo spots for free. We stopped for lunch at a place called Tebasari. It was the first time I got to try some of the Indonesian spicy food, and it was deliiiciiioous!

Before I went to Bali, my brother told me I “have” to go to the Monkey Forest, so we went. It was actually a lot of fun watching the monkeys! The way they wrestled with each other, climbing all over and eating their little bananas. Inside the forest there were sacred temples that were usually open for the public during big ceremonies, but not everyday so correct me if I’m wrong. They had many statues of distorted creatures surrounding them.

Ah, after we left the Monkey Forest, we went to a restaurant called Bebek Bengil, for an early dinner. Bebek Bengil means Dirty Duck in English. Although the duck wasn’t dirty, it sure was delicious! (And spicy too!)

The last place that we visited was a place called Garuda Wisnu Kencana. This place, located in Jimbaran, is on the southern side of Bali and is just 30 minutes away from Ngurah Rai Airport. The Garuda Wisnu Kencana statue is about 400 feet tall, which is almost 100 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty. We arrived in the late afternoon around 4pm when the last show of the Kecak dance was about to start. We only took a few pictures in front of the statue because we were in a rush to get to the Lotus Pond Area to see the Kecak Dance show. The show was pretty fun because it was not only a normal Kecak Dance where all you see are guys singing “cak cak cak” with a girl dancing in the middle and ending with a fire dance. Instead, we were able to see the dance about the Garuda Mythology aswell.

Kecak Play

If you are in search of a tropical island for vacation I would recommend going to Bali. Just be prepared to eat reeeeeaaaal spicy food and rice almost every meal!

Sala Bistro – Sanur, Bali

Published on 15th Jan 202014th Jan 2020 by wanderandexplore88Leave a comment

If you are currently in Sanur area and wondering where you can eat fancy food without make your wallet empty, (unless it’s already empty 😂), I have one recommendation for you. When I was at work on a hot sunny day, I decided to go to Jake’s favourite place for lunch. We found this place accidentally because our usual place to eat for lunch was closed.

Sala Bistro located in Jl. Danau Tamblingan, right in front of Werdhapura Hotel Sanur, if you are coming from McDonalds Sanur, keep going south until you see the sign on the right side of the road. A combination of greenery from hanging plants and wooden canopy will also catch your eyes.

Can’t take too much heat in Bali and need air condition for the win? It has an indoor area aswell. Once you enter the indoor area, you will find some spots to sit with a minimalist design and the touch of tropical vibe from the wooden and rattan. It’s my personal opinion, it’s a quite cozy place to hangout.

When I visited 2 months ago, there wasn’t a variant menu to choose from, but nowadays they have enough choices for breakfast until your dinner time. But please take a note, some options are only available during a certain time. I tried to get chicken popcorn for lunch but it was only available for dinner time unfortunately. But other than that, the combination of choice is okay. If you are in the mood for Italian food, you could choose pizza or spaghetti. In the mood of some buns? they also have burger that’s worth a try. Or just want to have Nasi Goreng? they have it too! Their coffees are from Seniman Coffee in Ubud. They’re famous with their variety of coffee and the good smell of their coffee. Don’t ask me about the taste ‘coz it’s really nice! (I will make a review of Seniman Coffee Ubud soon 😊). How much does it cost? For 2 pax normally you need to pay around IDR 150,000 ++ (exclude 15% tax and service). So, why not give it a shot!

The minority that you need to know here is that they don’t have space to park. Especially if you are a car user, you need to find an empty space somewhere else on the side of the road (it’s rare to find a spot though so you’ll need to walk a ways). Just like any other places in Sanur area, it’s a bit hard to find a park, except if you ride a motorbike you can easily park in the front of the cafe.

So, try it and let me know your opinion 😊

xoxo

Nusa Lembongan

Published on 8th Jan 202025th Nov 2020 by wanderandexplore88Leave a comment

If you would ask what our favorite part of Bali is, we would say the first would be Ubud because of the real Balinese vibes. The second is Nusa Lembongan because it is small with beautiful views. The third is Canggu because of it’s young vibes with many good places to enjoy the foods and sunset.

Let’s leave Ubud for the moment, we wanna share about Nusa Lembongan. It is located in the southeast of the Bali island, you can access it by speed boat only, about 30 minutes away. The cost? Depends on which speed boat you use. We use the mid class which is not too expensive but with the “okay” kind of feel to the speed boat. Not special, I must say, but for IDR 200,000/person round trip for Indonesian ID and IDR 350,000/person round trip for foreigners that is fine. Check and make your reservation from Glory Fastboat if you wanna try.

There are not many choices for high end hotel in Lembongan, although if you don’t have a high budget (like us 😂) there are many good bungalows and hotels that you could choose starting from IDR 300,000 – IDR 2,000,000. It varies depending on the season too. We chose a hotel not too far from the beach called Bukit Taman Cottage. We got it for IDR 675,000/night. The staff and owner were awesome! If we could suggest something to you, please choose the hotel around the northwest coast and not a hotel that has more than 10 minutes of walking to the beach. Why? Because almost all of the beach clubs and tourist attractions are located along the northwest coast and it’s not easy to access them if you can’t ride a motorbike. The best option that you have for transportation is by motor bike, which costs around IDR 75,000/day. You can get the rental once you are arrived in Nusa Lembongan, (and seriously, there is always someone offering you to rent their motorbike when you’ve just arrived). If you travel with family or kids, you can call a taxi. It is not a usual taxi in the city, No. It is a small pick up truck that has seats and a roof on it. Almost every famous restaurants and beach clubs have their own taxi pick up service that you can call, just ask your reception and they will help, sometimes it’s free and if you want to get a taxi to the place that has no free pick up, the cost for 1 taxi is IDR 100,000 one way. The last option is golf buggy and is more expensive than the other two. The cost for 4 seaters is IDR 1,000,000 for a day, although it’s different for every rental agent. Please take a note, the road is daaark at night, not much light except from the people’s houses so just be careful if you ride a motorbike or drive a buggy.

View from our cottage

Where should you go once you are in Nusa Lembongan? There are plenty of places that you could visit. For us, 3 days are enough to explore. The first day you could enjoy the beach club and sunset. The second day you can go for snorkeling, mangrove tour and then go to yellow bridge and see some pretty beaches. The third day just spend the rest of the time to explore the part of the island that you didn’t see and go photo hunting.

We were there for 2 days and 1 night only and due to that time, the weather was too hot. Gosh, can’t believe that was 33° C. It was so humid. Ayu was dying on that day. We mostly spent our time in beach clubs and swimming. But since Ayu went there before without Jacob, we are posting some pictures of her when she was in Mangrove Tour. I promise we will go snorkeling the next time we go there again. We went to 3 places to hangout. The Deck is a cafe near the harbour (only 7 minutes of walking to get there) and basically, you can see the beautiful view of the strait from there. There is the Sandy Beach Club that you can visit too, we were there from 4pm to 8pm (hahaha 😂don’t judge us, we just wanted to chill out and enjoy the sunset). The last one is Ohana’s, also one of the beach clubs there but our favorite is still Sandy Bay if you want to talk about vibes but if it’s food we’re talking about, we would choose The Deck.

So, have you decided to go there with your friends, family or loved one? We would like to hear your experience there!

xoxo