Bali Quick Trip

We have a good friend in Hong Kong who happened to have tipsily purchased a three bedroom villa in Bali at a silent auction for a charity ball. This occurred several months ago, and somehow, one by one, all of his friends who were originally planned to accompany him on the trip dropped out, until he no longer had any companions. He was telling me this story, and I was thinking, "Well, I have a very flexible schedule, and I would love a few days in Bali, and I'm not the best company, but I'm sure better than no company at all so...Pick me! Pick me! Luckily this friend is an incredibly generous soul, so he did in fact invite me along. While it was too last minute of a trip for Drew to also go, he whole-heartedly supported me going to have a few relaxing days in the sun at a free villa. Plus, I'm not exactly this friend's type, so no worries there.



We spent 5 days in a gorgeous resort on the very southern coast of Bali, an area known for dramatic cliffs and Indian Ocean views. We had our own three bedroom villa with a private pool, plus access to an incredible beach outfitted with a great bar, cabanas, gorgeous white sand, and crystal blue waters. The resort was perched up on a cliff, so to get down to the beach, you had to take an inclinator. What a funny experience. Essentially, we never left the resort, one because it had everything we needed, including a library to borrow movies, boardgames etc., but also there wasn't much nearby the resort, so getting outside of it would have been a challenge.

The inclinator!

The view from breakfast.

Since we traveled in the off-season, we had the place to ourselves. The restaurants were never full, the lounge chairs were always available, and our secret cocktail spot overlooking the whole resort was always empty, so the mango daiquiris were plentiful.

Ceviche by the beach

Every day consisted of exactly the same thing. We'd get up at 7:45am, go work out from 8-9, have breakfast from 9-10, lay by our pool from 10-2, go down to the beach and layout there while munching on snacks from the bar until 4 or 5, go up to our villa and change, go have dinner at one of the resort restaurants, then go have mango daiquiris at the lookout spot. Now THAT is a routine I could stick to.

Beach time!

Of course, we did shake things up sometimes. One day we went to the spa, for massages and facials. The spa literally perched on the endue of the cliff, so the views were stunning. If only I could look out while having a massage instead of staring down at the masseuses' toes. The resort also tried to spice things up by showing Titanic one night down on the beach under the stars. I'll never let go Jack...

The resort was called Karma Resorts, so there was the K monogram everywhere. I just pretended it stood for Kirchner....

The monkeys were probably the most exciting part. When we first arrived, there was a note on the kitchen table saying, "please keep the doors locked at all times. The monkeys will try to enter the villas searching for fruit and shiny objects." Another sign on the way to breakfast warned us of "Grumpy, fat monkeys beware" Of course, we expected to see them right away, but it wasn't until our third day that I woke up at 6am to the sound of screaming and fighting. I look outside my second story window and see a troupe of 20 monkeys on the wall of the neighboring villa, acting like monkeys do. I race downstairs to our friend's room "They're here! They're here!" His response was full of shock and horror "What!?! INSIDE!!!?? "No, outside, but they're here!" So we race back upstairs and peep out of the window like we are in a horror movie, hoping the monkeys don't notice us. Eventually they move on through the other villas, and that was that! We never saw the troupe again! But imagine if they did get inside one of the villas! Go bananas, go go bananas.....

My bedroom!

Thank you friend for letting me tag along on this wonderful trip!