When my husband proposed Bali trip for our next vacation, I wasn’t very keen initially. I thought it would be a beach place similar to Maldives and nothing new. But my hubby told me that its a great place which has volcano, beaches etc. Since I couldn’t come up with alternate destination within our budget, we proceeded with bookings. I didn’t have much expectations from the trip. Since I love beaches any day, I was just expecting fun at beaches.

After little research, we found a good travel organizer pickyourtrail.com who helped us in booking our customized Bali trip. We went ahead with their land package and got everything finalized. When I checked google maps on where exactly is Bali located, I realized that it is just below the Equator and my excitement for Bali started then. I have never been to any place in Southern hemisphere so far and I felt so excited to be there.

Being close to equator, it has tropical climate, with two seasons: Dry season and wet season and we are traveling in Dry season.

There is no direct flight to Bali from Delhi, had to stop in Kuala Lumpur  in between for around 8hrs. After a long wait, took flight to Bali finally and got a window seat. There was a small island close to Bali, which is full of green cover. Its been years that I have seen so much of Greenery and felt wonderful.

 

The landing experience is awesome, something very similar to Vizag landing,  with more thrill. We felt like we are almost landing in the sea and kids in the flight almost shouted with awe. The runway of the airport just started where the sea ended and it was like a adventure ride for us.

Visa on arrival process was very simple. It was just a stamp at immigration that is required to enter Bali and its free. The airport looks like a temple from outside in the lights. Our driver picked us up at the airport and we exchanged our currency from Dollars to IDR (Indonesian Rupiah) and we became millionaires instantly. (1 Dollar=13287 IDR)

The first thing that surprised me in Bali is the Ghatotkach statue outside the airport in the middle of the road. Being a Hindu from India, it was startling for me to see a statue of a person from Epic Mahabharata, which I have never seen anytime in India. India has statues of leaders in the middle of roads, but not the heroes from the epic. On the way, I have seen lot of temples which never seemed to end. Our driver explained us that they have a culture of having a temple for each house and the doors of house look exactly like temple doors, which made us feel that they are temples, not houses. After sometime, I have seen Arjuna statue and the names of shops and hotels around sounded very familiar, they use lot of Sanskrit words. We reached our hotel in Ubud in the night.

After a long flight, felt very hungry and wanted to order something. With great hesitation, we took the menu and felt so glad to see a page with Vegetarian menu. Ordered a Vegetarian Balinese curry along with rice for dinner and it tasted good 🙂

Bali surprised me a lot so far !! Our hotel is a kind of farm house with paddy fields around, waiting with excitement to see the place in day light.