Our (second) honeymoon in West Nusa Tenggaru - Part 1 (Ubud)

I didn't know where West Nusa Tenggaru was, but this is apparently where we went on our honeymoon. If I were being less awkward I would just say that we went to Bali, but we were only actually there for 4 days, and I like to be specific :-) WNB is an area of Indonesia that incorporates Bali, Lombok and the Gili Islands (as well as the island of Sumbawa, but we didn't go there). We planned the whole trip ourselves and made all the accommodation, transfer and activity bookings independently. This was partly to save money, and partly because I love planning things!

We arrived in Malaysia from the UK on 2nd July and spent the next 6 days trying to find somewhere to live (and thankfully we did!). On the day of our flight we had a pretty stressful start as we had chosen to take the bus over from Malaysia to Singapore. Big mistake when you've got somewhere to be at a certain time! We got stuck in the queue for immigration for nearly an hour. When we finally arrived at the bus terminal at Singapore we naively jumped on the MRT (metro) without really thinking about how long it would take to get to the airport; it was only when we saw how many stops there were between us and Changi that we realised there was no way we were going to make it on time. So we bailed off the MRT and jumped in a cab - luckily there was little traffic so it only took about 20 minutes. 

After our mad dash to the airport we decided to get some lunch; here is Dan looking happy about his Chinese food! (We've already mastered chopsticks). 

However, our good moods were short lived as it wasn't long until we found out that the ash from a volcano erupting somewhere else in Indonesia meant that our flight was cancelled. Brilliant start! But thanks to the Skyscanner app on my phone we managed to quickly book some of the last few seats with a different airline who were still flying later that evening, and got a refund for our original flight. It's a good job we did this - we later found out that the next afternoon all subsequent flights from Singapore to Bali were cancelled, and a few days later the whole of Bali airport closed. If it weren't for that app we might never have had our honeymoon!

We eventually arrived in Ubud much, much later than planned, at around 12.30am. We were staying in a small villa and the host, Made, was very nice and accommodating and arranged our pick up. We were also pleasantly surprised to find that he had prepared fresh fruit and coconuts for our arrival!

It was only when we got up the next morning that we could see how beautiful the area is. The villa is in a small village called Penestanan about 30 minutes walk away from the hectic centre of Ubud. The villa is set amongst rice fields; you can just see the roof on the left. It is accessed via tiny little roads that sit above the rice (on the right of the picture), and often mopeds will go down these - sometimes two at a time! But in general the area was very quiet and peaceful.

The villa itself was not too shabby either, with a four posted bed and an infinity pool! The bathroom was outside (as it often is in Indonesia) but it was huge, and very clean, and we got to share it with a friendly little frog who enjoyed sitting in on our showers. This villa is proof once again that you always find the best places to stay on AirBnb.

The pool area had an incredible view across the rice fields, and it was lovely to relax on the sun loungers and listen to all the different kinds of birds come and visit throughout the day. 

In the mornings our host, Made, and one of his two sons would come and make us a delicious breakfast. Each day it was something different - we had banana pancakes, traditional Balinese cakes, scrambled eggs and something I didn't recognise, but it was yummy :-) All of this was always accompanied by plates of fresh fruit, smoothies and Balinese coffee.

Despite our huge breakfasts we always managed to have our appetite back by lunchtime. We found a few different little local cafes that we enjoyed; one of our favourites was the Yellow Flower Cafe. It was full of Brits and Aussies, but many of these were people who were living and working in the area so it didn't have quite so much of a touristy feel to it. The cafe was run by a lovely family and several generations of women seemed to work there.   

Food was somewhat of a theme in Ubud, and we ate a LOT. Beer was also quite cheap, so we had a few of those too...

Dan with his gigantic chicken satay:

A lot of restaurants in Bali have very low tables where you sit on the floor. I'm not sure if this is a genuine Balinese thing, or more for the benefit of tourists who want to enjoy something different. Either way, we tried it and it was fun - although Dan struggled to sit cross-legged for very long, so he has now resolved to practise his yogi/meditation poses to improve on this.

We earned our indulgent meals with the amount of walking we managed to fit in during our four day stay. We only took one taxi and mainly explored on foot otherwise. Ubud is a stunning mix of peaceful countryside, quiet villages, Hindu temples contrasted with the craziness of a million mopeds in the town centre.

Probably our favourite part of our visit was a cycling tour that Made guided us on. He took us from Penestanan - the village where he was born and brought up, and now lives with his family - out over the rice paddies, in and out of tiny hamlets and through watermelon and sweetcorn fields.

At the end of our stay we didn't feel ready to leave Ubud; we loved the culture, the food and the people of Bali. Four days didn't feel like enough and we would definitely like to come back in the future to explore a little bit further afield. On our last night in town we treated ourselves to a performance of local 'Kecak fire and trance dance'. It was slightly odd, and was actually more of a musical performance as there were a lot of men chanting by way of a backing track, with bits of dancing in between. It was definitely a unique cultural experience though!