A Little Bit Of Luxury ...

Day 10 ... We've arrived in paradise...our new home for the week (Kubu Nyang Nyang) is amazing, the room, the pool, the grounds, the fact that you can order your breakfast from a menu to eat on your veranda as there are only 2 cabins in the resort and the breakfast menu has a dessert section...!!! Yes it's only mixed fruit, but we'll take it! Adam definitely made a good move booking this place! And to top it off, they thought we were on our honeymoon, so we got special surprise arriving at our room, the lovely flower petals arranged on our bed and the swan towels, it was so lovely! The watermelon slush welcome drink was definitely welcome! Once we were settled we decided to go to watch the Kecak Fire Dance which was in the Uluwatu Temple grounds, which are literally a stones through away from our cabins! Although it was not at all what we thought it would be, at least we've been to see something cultural in Uluwatu! We spotted an ATM inside the temple grounds which was perfectly timed as we only had around £8 left, we went into the little glass walled room all ATMs seem to be enclosed in and tried to withdraw some IDR from our Monzo cards (international travel cards which don't charge fees!). Unfortunately for us, this just kept throwing up an error, for both our cards, so we tried Adam's Halifax debit card...no go! I'm not going to lie, panic started to set in a little! We hadn't eaten tea yet and we only had enough for probably one meal between us, especially as the only restaurant nearby is the expensive one we visited for lunch the other day!! We decided to go back to the room to get my purse and give my Halifax card a try as it had worked a few days before with no problem, and hey presto...it worked, I had withdrawn 2.5 million....Indonesian Rupees (about £140). Adam also tried his card again and...hey presto....it worked! Phew...time for some food! Although Adam may have ordered the wrong meal...Nasi Goreng with chicken, a whole 3 tiny cubes of chicken on a stick...one stick! I had 6! with my chicken satay! #winning I shared, of course!

Day 11 ... Well, after a traumatic evening finding our first Balinese spider in our 'Jungle bathroom' last night, we didn't sleep so well, so after ordering our breakfast from reception at 10am we decided to have a lazy day and then head out on the scooter we rented from the new place (which is soooo much cooler than the last banger we were given AND has helmets that fasten...winner!!) to find a new place I spotted on Google for lunch which is only 10 minutes scoot away called He'enalu. I ordered the fruit bowl which was literally was what it said on the tin with the tiniest bit of yogurt and granola, but yummy all the same and Adam had a lovely chicken and jalapeno wrap. Once we got back to the cabin, we met our new neighbours (note to ourselves, remember names when people introduce themselves!!) anyway...they are from Montreal and here for 2 nights and invited us for beers later tonight on their veranda which was nice. We'll head to a restaurant we haven't tried before for tea later, not far from here, Suluban. It will give Adam a chance to try out the scooter in the dark for the first time, he'll be a pro as always, I'm sure!

Day 12 ... We decided to have another day at Padang Padang Beach today, its ideal for surfing some small waves, although when we got there the tide was quite far out and it was pretty shallow, too shallow for surfing. But there's a lovely restaurant for lunch, cheap sun beds and a bit more of a sandy beach than some we've visited in the area! Oh and only 176 steps to

walk down instead of some of the other mammoth hikes down the side of a cliff to reach the beach, and less than 10 minutes away! So all in all, pretty perfect!

Day 13 ... One Year Pre Wedding Day Anniversary...haha!! ONE YEAR today we will be Mr & Mrs Morgan :D
We didn't have a great nights sleep last night so we had a lazy morning. After breakfast we decided to head out on the scooter to venture a little farther afield to see some other areas. Adam is a lot more confident on the scooter now, even in heavier traffic so we did a full loop of Uluwatu and found where Sunday Beach Club is for later this week as a little treat. On the way back we stopped off for lunch at Nalu Bowls for a smoothie bowl, the best one yet, priciest, but definitely best so it was worth it! Lovely little setting for a chilled lunch in the shade from the scorching midday heat! We will definitely be back to try one of the other bowls, there's another Nalu Bowls in Seminyak :D I could have that for lunch everyday! Not too sure what we have planned for tomorrow but I'm sure we'll think of something...finding another beach...finding another yummy place for lunch! We made up the calories we missed at lunch with a huge burger from The Station for tea. There's certainly a theme running through this diary so far...sun, food and beaches...!! It's a tough life!

Day 14 ... Seeing as it's now less than a year until we get married (364 days to be exact), we thought we'd better put a wedding website together to help our guests with accommodation etc and seeing as it's a cloudy day here in Uluwatu, what better way to pass the time sat on our lovely little veranda! We're going back to Yum Yum Cafe for lunch today, it was so good last time! So another lazy ish day today. Making the most of it before we move to Seminyak on Friday in all the hustle and bustle of the most popular area in Bali!
So on the way back from Yumyum Cafe we went round a corner and the back end skidded out, then we felt a little juddering so we pulled over and the back tyre was flat...too much cake and ice cream at lunchtime...opps!! As if by magic, an Indonesian guy pulled up in front of us, literally as soon as we had stopped. He obviously spotted a Western's opportunity!! He didn't speak English so we spent a couple of minutes trying to work out what his solution was. Then a couple of people came out from the guest house we had stopped in front of and a young woman spoke English, so she helped translate. The guy was calling a guy to repair the tyre for us. We weren't sure this was the best option as we knew it would cost us money. But he arrived within 10 minutes, fixed within 15 minutes and asked us for 250,000 IDR which is around £13. I was slightly dubious about the cost and guessed we were getting ripped off but for £13 to be on our way within 30 minutes, we thought it was reasonable, plus we had no way of knowing how much a new inner tube for a scooter should cost in the UK never mind in Bali! So we paid the guy and went on our way! When we told the guys back at the villa how much we were charged, they said it was expensive and it should cost that for a new tyre, not a new inner tube! It should only have been around 70,000 IDR. Our first experience (as all travellers seem to experience) of being ripped off in Bali! Ah well, £13 in the grand scheme of things seemed okay to us and they're probably celebrating making a weeks wage in 30 minutes by having a few beers on us tonight! Looks like it's off to our local for tea tonight, Ulu Resto, for a cheap meal to make up for the expensive (for Bali, £16) lunch we had and the £13 we spent on a inner tube! Ah well, it could have been worse!

Day 15 ... We were due a beach day today, so we went to another one of Uluwatu's little hidden beaches. This time it was Bingin Beach. We arrived to a pretty big area a bit like a maze of different types of accommodation, it reminded us a bit of The Warren in Abersoch. We eventually found the carpark and headed down the steep steps towards the beach. We've realised that if you want to get to (almost) any beach in Bali we've found so far, you have to descend down a cliff face. Dreamland beach was the exception but may explain the hordes if tourists there!! Anyway, we arrived on the beach and were slightly underwhelmed. It wasn't the best beach we had come across, it was pretty narrow and short. It was also sooo humid and not much of a breeze and no shade to sit/lie in. Thankfully it was a cloudy day and it actually started to rain a little so we decided to head back up after an hour and find Cashew Tree Cafe for lunch. Great choice, the food was lovely! We had another lazy afternoon and later on headed to The Mango Tree for tea. It was a longer drive than I remembered but the chocolate brownie was sooo worth it!!

Day 16 ... Our last full day in Uluwatu today, we've got the scooter hired until just after lunch so we headed to Outside Corner Organic Cafe for lunch and then had a mooch around some of the little shops around near Singlefin, it gave me chance to practice my bartering skills (not that great

just yet, I'll be honest!) before we get to Seminyak tomorrow! Although after getting back to the villa and trying on the 2 little playsuits I bought along with a lovely sarong, only the sarong was worth buying! One of the playsuits has broken elastic around the waist and the other just looks a bit daft! So I stand by what I say at home, you get what you pay for with clothes, no more cheap clothes shopping for me!
Hayley and Sean are on their way from Dubai as I type, they'll land around 9pm Bali time tonight. So we'll see them in 3 days in Seminyak. It will be great to see them and can't wait to have a couple of days at some fancy beach clubs, a few fancy meals, cocktails and explore Seminyak! Not quite sure what to expect when we get there! It looks so much busier than Uluwatu but it will be a welcome change after 2 weeks here!
Off across the road for our meal tonight while we are scooterless. Then to try the ATM in the temple grounds, fingers crossed as it didn't work this afternoons! We're just crossing our fingers the Balinese guys don't decide to dig the road up again tonight from 9pm until 1am...not cool!