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“Are you free for four days? I want you to go to Bali and write about the experience …”
It was the type of question I dream about being asked. The chance to do my own mini Eat Pray Love adventure! And so 10 days later my suitcase was packed with shorts and sarongs and I was in a cab and on my way to the airport to meet my eight fellow traveling companions to road test a Bali adventure.
A mere six hours later and we were at Denpasar Airport. Now you can forget long queues at passport control. When we disembarked, we were met by a representative from Creative Holidays who told us to bypass the throngs of people and meet him at the front of the Customs line!
This is a VIP service that Creative Holidays offers … for $38/adult (less for kids), they will take care of your visa on arrival (which can only be done at this end and must be paid in US Dollars only) and Immigration formalities. The visa fee is an extra $25 per person. The process, if done on your own, can take hours, so this is well worth the nominal charge.
Our first night in Bali was spent at the Laguna in Nusa Dua. My favourite part was that the pool was accessible from my balcony!
My first morning in Bali was spent having a walk on the beach and a leisurely breakfast before we were on the bus and headed to Como Shambhala in Ubud – a wellness retreat just a two-hour drive away.
We were met at Como Shambhala and whisked away to the restaurant where we had THE most wonderful lunch. Their food is exactly what I love: fresh, healthy and simple but very tasty.
We were treated to a massage after lunch, and then I was shown to my villa (Hello? I could get used to this life VERY easily!)
It was beautiful. A huge room with high ceilings and an outdoor bath, which I decided I should immediately try out.
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I didn’t have long to laze around. Before I knew it, it was time to go to the Elephant Safari Park for dinner. Some of the group were staying there and had been hanging with the pachyderms while I was hanging in my tub. Initially I was dismayed to see the elephants were chained but it was quickly explained to me that this was only during the elephants’ meal times. Who knew elephants grappled with food envy? Apparently they get a tad violent if they think their food is being compromised. All the elephants at the park have been rescued from Sumatra where they were used for logging and treated brutally. So this new life for them is wonderful. The males even have their tusks, which is something you don’t see often anymore.
I was excited the following morning to be able to watch monkeys bickering over coconuts while I was eating breakfast in the restaurant at Como Shambhala. It really added to my Bali experience. Apparently the monkeys also fight over the white mangoes when the fruit starts to ferment … also known as drunken monkeys!
Seminyak was our final port of call. We arrived at our hotel, The Seminyak, another divine hotel with gorgeous villas and – again – our own private pools. We had just enough time to shower and then it was off to a fabulous dinner next door at the Legian.
Little did I know that our final day in Bali would provide the most memorable experience. – we spent the afternoon at Bali Kids.
Bali Kids was set up in 2005 to provide clinic, health and education to the thousands of disadvantaged kids in Bali, many of whom are orphaned and have HIV, Tuberculosis or other serious health concerns. They have outgrown their present facility and are in the process of building a new one. Creative Holidays is a huge supporter of the project having made significant and ongoing donations to the new property. My heart melted when we met the kids. They’re so young and their stories are pretty horrendous, but they were still smiling. Still so full of joy.
The next day we were back at the airport preparing to fly back to our real lives. But my trip to Bali was pure magic … Elizabeth “Eat Pray Love” Gilbert would have been proud.
Nicky was a guest of Creative Holidays.
Bali
Have you been to Bali? What did you love about it?
Comments
29 Comments so far
Travel agents will tell you anything.
If you want to get rushed through passport control there are men who will do it for 100,000 IDR ($10)
The visa actually only takes about 1 minute to process, the whole process will take as long as it takes customs to process your flight, prob 15 mins all up standing in lines. Also the visa is in USD but you can pay in AUD and IDR and probably other currencies also.
If you want to experience Bali get out and do it on your own, not a package tour.
We often don’t book our holiday, just a few days accommodation at the start as I travel with children and then take it from there. It’s great we end up in some amazing places and meet some amazing people.
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And if that inspires you, see this: 5 days of yoga paradise in unspoiled parts of Bali that tour operators never reach. And supporting the incredible work of Ubud based mother & baby charity Bumi Sehat in to the bargain. http://adoreyoga01.bloomkit.com.au/retreats
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The photos of the food alone made me want to go. Sounds like you got to do alot & obviously enjoyed every minute of it. I hope to get to Bali one day.
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Food in Bali is fantastic. And if you’re vegetarian you’ll be spoilt for choice with the most amazing dishes made with tofu and tempeh, delicious enough to convert even the most fervent meat eater
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I’m not a vegetarian, but eat this way 95% of the time. I ate no meat in Bali and was SO very happy with every meal…
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I’ve been to Bali and loved it but it’s so much more than villas in Seminyak, Nusa Dua and luxury villas in Ubud.
The water palace at Tirta Gunga is gorgeous. Snorkeling at Ahmed is a great way to explore coral reefs and an inspiring reef regeneration project. In Singharajha there’s an orphanage where you can stay, and meet some great kids, most of whom are there not because they’re orphans but because their parents can’t afford to feed and educate them.
And as a side note the single worst toilets I experienced in Bali were in Nusa Dua. Apparently if you need to pee and you’re not at the über expensive resorts you’ve got to go in absolute squalor.
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Oh and in Seminyak I stayed at a great B&B called Teka Teki and Mark’s Chocolate Brownie at the Delicious Onion restaurant is almost worth the cost of the flight itself!
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I think I will definitely be checking out Delicious Onion when I am in Bali next.
Thanks for sharing ‘Flowers in the spring’ (and for the accommodation tip too).
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And Jules at Teka Teki even organised drivers and stuff for me. She had lots of advice re great places to eat, massages (4 handed massage at Jari Menari was beyond divine!) and shopping. Loved it!
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Just a query for you Flowers in the spring: have you ever read any of the UNICEF guidelines about child-sensitive social protection systems and their mandate on alternative care for children?
Studies were recently completed in Cambodia regarding ‘Orphanage Tourism’ (sure, this is not Bali, yet it’s in a similar developing world situation re hygiene, maternal health, reproductive education, children in orphanages, children at risk issues) and one of the findings is that children in orphanages are at real risk to potential harm from tourists who, with the best of intentions, want to understand, help, give back to these kids. As these children face further emotional abandonment on top of the abandonment issues they already experience by being placed in these institutions (moreso when family are still very much alive) orphanage tourism is not encouraged. Furthermore, UNICEF’s mandate is to keep families – including extended relatives – very much together rather than in alternative care. The problem is orphanage tourism stays ‘promote’ unhealthy relationships founded on transient connections while kids are (usually) already very traumatised losing a parent and/or being given away… orphanage tourism has also been seen to promote to living parents/extended family a reason to put the kids into orphanages, rather than looking after them themselves or keep the child in an extended-family environment as westerners will feel sorry for them and ‘do their bit’ – thus creating endemic social problems borne of unwitting tourists and/or poorly run NGOs…
Maybe this is some ‘food for thought’ before you go about espousing the virtues of stays in orphanages… by all means donate, but do it to a REGISTERED child-safe charity, one recognised by UNICEF and/or our government/AUSAID (unfortunately there are many bad people out there who are running orphanages as profit centres, and many who have no qualifications in children traumatised under these types of developing world circumstances).
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Eat Pray Love? The only similarity I saw was the destination… It IS possible to have a short term EPL experience, but I don’t think this was it. I have stayed at the Alila Hotels in both Ubud, and Manggis on the east coast of Bali, and they are big believers in working with the local villages and wider Balinese community to use local supplies and create initiatives to give back to the health, prosperity, spiritual and environmental balance of Bali. Guests are welcome to get involved in these programs as much or as little as they choose. Local healers, “fortune tellers”, yoga and wellness instructors, and chefs are all available for guests to experience the true Balinese spirit, and their idea of a “kids club” is for your children to chase dragonflys and fly kites on the beach with the local kids. (Oh, and they’re gorgeous hotels too!)
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The visa process service is a nice touch, but it is not difficult at all to do it on your own, and it didn’t take hours when I did it a few months ago. Is the exit fee included as well? That’s another $20 or $25 as well, from memory.
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It took my boyfriend and I about 10 minutes to get the visa. I have never heard of it taking hours either.
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I was once in the arrivals queue for 2.5 hours!!
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My friends waited 4 hours in the middle of the day 3 kids and no water ! It certainly does happen
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Exactly – very misleading – my family of 5 got through the $25 payment/ visa on arrival formality without any delay of any kind. If you are exaggerating stuff like that, what else is being exaggerated hmmm??That statement alone meant I have skipped reading the rest of this article, even though a girlfriend and I are due to go to Bali in August and most likely would have been interested in this kind of holiday. I’ll take my tips from the users on the Bali Travel Forum thanks.
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Maybe it depends on what time you’re flight lands and/or time of year you’re there, but there were about 200 people in front of me at the visa line when we arrived.
For the record, NOTHING I’ve written here has been exaggerated. I had a wonderful 4 days and I’m thankful to Creative Tours for inviting me.
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Hate Bali. I can’t enjoy myself surrounded by poverty. I know intellectually that it is good to visit and spend money but I really cannot relax or spend money whe. People are stuggli g around me. it is not fu. And it is not a holiday.
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i agree with the sentiment of your post but you cant possibly be unaware of the poverty and homeless problem in our own backyard !?
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I’ve been to Bali twice. Once as a single girl with friends about 15 years ago & then our whole family went last year to celebrate my parents wedding anniversary. Obviously 2 very different holidays! We stayed in Seminyak which was gorgeous. We visited Kuta once & I was shocked at how much it had changed & how commercial it was. It was awful, we hurried back to Seminyak! Bali is a great place to take kids & so cheap!
I have to disagree with the elephant park. I felt uncomfortable the whole time I was there. I think they are really exploited. I spoke to a worker there & he said the elephants work 6 days a week constantly doing elephant rides around the park. They are chained up a lot of the time, not just while eating. We also witnessed workers “breaking in” baby elephants by hitting them with sticks. I was so upset I yelled out to the guy. I always meant to write a letter to the Australian guy who is making a fortune off the back of these beautiful elephants & dressing it up as a rescue centre. This has motivated me to do so!
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This is great to hear about!
Just a note though, I didn’t enjoy reading this piece, it’s frustrating. I love reading travel pieces and I clicked on this and got all excited, but it sounds like ‘then I did this…then we did that…the next day I did this…it was good’. There are lots of breaks which I find unnecessary, it makes reading the article quite hard work. The stuff you have done is awesome, I just don’t like how it’s been written about. The article is titled ‘My own Eat Pray Love journey’ – where is the journey you speak of? The discovery of your true inner self etc.? I felt like scribbling over some parts in red pen – HOW did the monkeys add to your experience? Did it make you reflect on the differences between Bali and Australia? I want to know!
It’s a little like the articles my high school kids I tutor for English write. Good, interesting, but could be a lot better.
I’m sorry for being such a stick in the mud, it’s just how I feel
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what a lucky individual… i could do with 4 days of that
haha.
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I would love to go to Bali but at the moment it’s not one of my top destinations I must visit. To be completely honest the coverage on the news following the Bali bombings, Schapelle Corby etc make me a little hesitant to visit although the photos look beautiful!
This reminds me I should do a bit more travel writing myself – I’ve got a couple of holidays planned this year. A wedding in Fiji in July (just imagine your WHOLE FAMILY which is nearly 150 people on a remote island for a week)
I probably should film my own reality show
Then I’ve got my US trip at the end of the year. New York City here I come – I’m afraid I’ll fall in love so much I’ll never return!
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I’d never had the inclination to go either until I was asked. The negative press over the last few years had been a factor with me too. EVERYWHERE we went, there were armed guards. They were at the entrances to every hotel/resort.
NY is my all time favorite city. I lived there for over a decade and still think of it as my home (along with Sydney). You’re going to LOVE it.
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hmm Eat, pray love journey ? What, reviewing creative holidays?
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I enjoyed it. I like reading travel pieces even if it’s just to get an idea about a place to stay or restaurant to eat at. I don’t want to read War and Peace to get to it either!
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Not exactly inspirational or in the spirit of Eat, Pray Love. Plus, reads like a What I Did in The Holidays essay. Why review a dime-a-dozen package holiday flitting from one hotel to the next? I don’t see the sponsored post tag anywhere…..
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It’s a travel post, Kate. Acknowledgment the writer was a guest of Creative Holidays at the end of the post as is standard practice in travel writing when trips are paid for. We run a mix of both on the site, industry yarns and pieces written by writers on trips they paid for themselves
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Best gig ever! Xx
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