STAY: The SlowI think I made the best decision to book this hotel because it was absolutely gorgeous! From the restaurant to the rooms, every corner was #homegoals #interiorgoals.
Falling head over heels with the decor over and over again.
Home away from home 🌿
EAT: Cafe/ Beach Club Hopping
📍 Poké Poké
Jl. Pantai Batu Bolong No. 58
The poké is very good! I really enjoyed the marination of the tuna and the bowl has bits of caramelized peanuts, crispy wonton, crispy Japanese noodles which added to the crunchiness for each bite.
📍 The Lawn
Jl. Pura Dalem
Similar to Potato Head, The Lawn is a beach club where you could chill or tan at the lawn (as the name suggests) or take a dip in their infinity pool facing Batu Bolong beach. There is a live band too! Food is not bad for beach club standards but obviously can't compare to cafés/ restaurants.
Love the laid back vibes.
Watching the surfers 🏄♂️🏄♂️
📍 Crate
Very popular place and it's worth the hype! I saw on Tommy Wee's IG that he visited Crate and promptly told C that I needed to be here too. 😂 Love the crowd here and coffee is good! Would love to try the food and dessert here but tummy's bursting.
Do note that the location is different from the Google Maps address; we were circling around the address in vain for quite awhile before we decided that we got the wrong location. If you are an Apple user please use Apple Maps instead!
📍The Loft
Jalan Pantai Batu Bolong no. 50A
I have a penchant for loft designs so I had to stop by! However the food here does not have the wow factor for me even though Google ratings and reviews are high. Perhaps I ordered the wrong dishes from the menu?
📍Old Man's
Jl. Pantai Batu Bolong
Everyone was taking turns to take #ootd with the mural so I had to be different and do a boomerang. Hahaha.
📍Shady Shack
Jl. Tanah Barak No. 57
Came here for brunch and love it!
Dinner on our last night was at The Slow's restaurant itself. It was magical with the botanical feels and warm lights when the night fell, reminiscent of our wedding night. Food was DIVINE (we could smell the grilling of food and was salivating even before we reached the restaurant) and service was impeccable. I really can't stop raving about this place, 'nuff said.
~~~
This trip to Bali has been a series of unfortunate events in so many ways. It was meant to be a hens trip with all the bridesmaids for a dear girl friend in October; everything was booked and brief itinerary planned but there was a lot of uncertainty of Mt. Agung erupting at that time.
There were six of us including the bride consisting of 2 cliques and we couldn't settle for a final decision whether to go or not to go. I could understand that because everyone has different risk threshold. In the end the bride decided to pull out and so we split, my clique decided to go ahead and I was perfecting fine since my clique is going! Unfortunately closer to the date due to circumstances another girl friend had to miss the trip so we called it off. 🙁
I have to admit it was disappointing because I really needed a getaway. Thankfully due to the situation, Scoot allowed us to change the dates at no additional fee. However with everyone in different locations we decided to reschedule separately and thus I booked another ticket for C!
Fast forward to December, the volcano situation STILL hasn't improved. However in this aspect I'm quite "garang" so of course I went ahead. 😂 AND THEN I fell with serious abrasions. So no island hopping, no beach, no swimming, no water. Oh wells.
/cues quote, "When life throws you lemons, make lemonade."
It turned out to be a blessing in disguise as there were visibly fewer tourists due to the news but imo it was the best time to visit Bali. Not too crowded yet enough travellers to feel the Bali vibes and atmosphere. It was business as usual, everyone was doing their daily activities as per normal in the tourist areas. Airport and flights are functioning!
Bali life, happy life. There is no better place to spend the last few days of #2017!