Bali and surrounding Islands

In this episode, David & Malcolm are joined by Izzy to take you on a tropical journey through Bali and Gili Trawangan, two of Indonesia’s most captivating destinations.

The adventure begins in Ubud on Bali, where lush rice terraces - such as Tegallalang, ancient temples, waterfalls, white water rafting on the Ayung river near Ubud  and a coffee plantation specialising in Kopi Luwak create the perfect blend of culture, relaxation and nature.

From drinking coffee and bathing in hot springs overlooking volcanic landscapes of Mount Batur to exploring the artistic heart of Ubud, Bali offers something for every traveller. We dive into the island's rich traditions, incredible food scene, and the laid-back atmosphere that has made it a favourite destination for visitors from around the world. And no trip would not be complete for film buffs without visiting some of the sites in the film ' Eat, Pray, Love'.

Next, we hop across the sea to Gili Trawangan, a car-free island paradise known for its crystal-clear waters, white-sand beaches, and unforgettable sunsets. Here, life slows down. Days are spent snorkelling alongside sea turtles, taking an electric scooter around the island, and enjoying beachfront dining as the sun dips below the horizon. We share the highlights of island life, from vibrant nightlife to peaceful moments by the ocean.

Our driver and guide was Nyoman who can be contacted through WhatsApp on +62 877-3700-5650 if you are interested in arranging a holiday in Bali.

We are soon to record Episode 26 where we will catch up with the questions we have received so far, so if you have something you want to ask just contact us at contact.unraveltravel@gmail.com

Our theme music is Traveler's Blues by Jerzy Gorecki from Pixabay (with licence)

https://pixabay.com/users/jerzyg%C3%B3recki-2233926/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Welcome to Unravel Travel, where every journey has a story.

SPEAKER_02 0:17

Wha as a f as a first time visitor, Izzy, which was your preference of the three?

SPEAKER_05 0:25

I loved Ubbard and I loved um Gilly Tea. I really did. Um, but I felt that when we were on Gilly Tea, we were there for a week and I think we did see everything. We really, really enjoyed our that place, and we really saw everything it had to offer and enjoyed it all. So I felt like we hadn't done that in Ubbard. We had just touched on the potential there, yeah. And so that's why we're going back next year and we're gonna really focus on Ubbard and uh and the surrounding areas.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

This was the nice thing about having a driver. We just happened to drive past a place that had some carvings outside, so we said, Oh, can we just stop there? And we went inside, and it was uh a guy who was he an artist? How would you describe him, Izzy?

SPEAKER_05 1:15

Well, he was a sculptor, wasn't he?

SPEAKER_01 1:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:18

Um, and then he was like third generation or fourth generation that his his father and his grandfather and his great-grandfather had all made these amazing wood sculptures, and they were all on display. They were incredible, weren't they?

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Yeah, and fully painted, all of the gods and stuff like that, bizarre sort of takes on animals. Uh, and you know, we were just driving past. I wouldn't be in any guidebook or anything. Most people live on a lonely island, lost in the middle of a foggy sea. Most people long for another island, one where they know they would like to be. Bali high may call you any night, any day. In your heart, you'll hear it all call you. Come away, come away. Bali high will whisper on the wind of the sea. I can see you've done a little jig there, Malcolm. David read that reading.

SPEAKER_02 2:16

He read that while he was wearing a grass skirt and everything, a couple of coconuts over his breasts, some impressive bit of reading. You know what?

SPEAKER_01 2:25

When we we went to a place, Izzy and I, so hello, Izzy. I should welcome to the podcast, uh, which is about barley, uh Lombok and the Ghillie Islands. Um, so Izzy and I went to uh a tiki bar, which it feels like we should have been wearing grass skirts and coconuts. But brilliant cocktails, amazing food, highly recommended. Um, but yeah, so this episode, as I say, is about those islands in Bali. Uh sorry in Indonesia.

SPEAKER_02 2:58

And that was a reading from specifically decided.

SPEAKER_01 3:02

I'd I thought I don't actually know what Bali means, but it it was, it was, because you and I expressed our love for uh, so I thought I'd I'd dig out a musical.

SPEAKER_02 3:11

One of the rare musicals I've seen.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

Um so Bali, the name is believed to derive from Sanskrit, meaning offering tribute or sacrifice, and it reflects the island's strong Hindu tradition of daily offerings. And Bali is also often nicknamed the island of the gods, uh Puila Duata, uh, and reflects the island's deep-rooted spiritual culture and religious traditions. And the reason I think that it was worth sharing that is because that was the overriding uh thing that I took away from being in Bali is just the the offerings all over the place. Yeah, it's such a a spirit it is a spiritual island, and you you can't help, even if you're non-religious, you can't help but to get caught up in it a little bit, especially if you've seen Epre Love, which we'll mention a little bit later.

SPEAKER_02 4:02

Going um, so I went to Bali my first and only visit 29 years ago when I was working in Singapore and I got a a short break and uh thought, right, where shall I go? Well, barley, that sounds pretty good. And then when you were just reinvigorating your travelling, you said to me, Where should I go? Exactly. And I said, Barley, and you went to Barley and said it was rubbish. I went straight to Lombok, uh sorry, uh Gilli Island or Lombok because it was because it wasn't rubbish. I think it didn't work. I mean, Cooton, you know, and uh I which is where I was when I was there, is uh which was starting to become a bit of a party place, is now I mean you might as well go to the Costa del Sol, really. Um so you know that's just a reflection of how things change over time. Um I was sort of slightly paraphrasing your well, I didn't enjoy it.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

Um it was for those reasons. I I wasn't after a party place, I right it was my first trip on my own uh that I'd done, I think for me as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And and you know, I I I just I put myself in a hotel that was full of families, so I didn't get to speak to anybody. But then when by the time I I I stayed there for about five days, and then I went to the Gilly Islands, and I just ah, this is what I want. This is more a traveller vibe, lots of uh people around to talk to that were also travelling on their own.

SPEAKER_02 5:34

And so when you went this time, you went with Izzy, and it was Izzy's first time in Bali. Yeah. And what was your what were your first impressions of that part of the world? Have you been to that part of the world at all before, Izzy?

SPEAKER_05 5:44

Or was this a Well me, no, no, I've never been. The furthest east I've been is Thailand, and uh that was a wonderful trip. But yeah, Bali was is stunning. I mean it's lush and rice paddies, peaceful where we stayed. Oberd was uh we were just outside Oberd where we stayed, and that was we were surrounded by rice paddies, and we had a lovely room overlooking the rice paddies, so we could see people working um in the morning and and at night imagine in tonic while they were still bent double planting the rice.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

Didn't feel guilty at all.

SPEAKER_05 6:20

Yeah, I got I got a fair amount of mosquito bites from watching people work while I was drinking cocktails, so that was my come-up and but I had had the Japanese encephalitis jab, so I'm alright.

SPEAKER_02 6:32

You were jabbed up to the eyeballs, I should imagine.

SPEAKER_05 6:36

Yes, we did have all the well, I had all the jabs. I think David was already sorted.

SPEAKER_02 6:40

Did you arrive and go straight to Ubud or did you have a look at the Costa del Couta first?

SPEAKER_05 6:46

Well, this time we had one night in a airport hotel, well, a hotel near the airport, and then we headed to Ubud the next day.

SPEAKER_01 6:56

So we did experience we alive we arrived at the airport at 1.30 in the morning. Yeah. So we just went to the closest hotel. Uh, you know, we we pushed the boat out. I think it cost us four pounds for the for the hotel for the night.

SPEAKER_02 7:10

And then it was on a boat, you had to push the boat out as well. No, would it be so cheap?

SPEAKER_01 7:15

Had to do all our own effort. Uh and then we got a taxi the next day to Ubbard, and that's where it really started the holiday.

SPEAKER_05 7:22

Yeah, absolutely beautiful. And we were there for what five days, but we did uh we did go into Ubbard itself, and we yeah, we had some adventures around there. Do you want to talk about what we did, like the monkey the monkey zoo?

SPEAKER_01 7:36

So in much the same as I know you did the same, Malcolm. We uh uh took your advice and used a driver hired. We got um recommended from one of Izzy's friends, Rosanna. She gave us a name of a really good guy, very good English, very good understanding of what's going on, understanding because we didn't really give him much of a brief, but just said what can we do? And then he gave us a whole list, and then we chose from that list. Um, but if I remember correctly, the first so we arrived the first day and we just chilled, obviously getting over jet lag and everything. But the next day he took us out for a full full-on day. So we started going to a rice paddy, the one with all the layers. I don't know if you I think it was yeah, I've been to the rice terraces.

SPEAKER_02 8:23

Yeah, I've got some photos of it. I think there's a bridge, isn't there? You can sort of stand on a bridge and get a view down. Yeah, so we've been to the same place then. That'll be the photo that we use on the yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

Well, yeah, that would be a really good photo for the for the artwork. Uh so we started there, and I had a bad knee, so it it wasn't great having to walk down all of the rice terraces.

SPEAKER_02 8:46

Oh, I was gonna say it was difficult watching those rice people working the rice paddies with a bad knee, was it?

SPEAKER_01 8:52

Well, that's the thing, there's not that many people working at this particular one.

SPEAKER_05 8:56

There must be because it is full of Taurus, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_01 9:00

Full of Taurus.

SPEAKER_03 9:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:01

But very, very pretty. And then I I can't, I'm not gonna do it in any order because I might for I'll probably forget the order. Uh but we we went to a coffee plantation uh where they had it's coffee luac, and uh it's nicknamed Cat Pacino Coffee, uh, which is it's a the civet cats eat the coffee beans. The they the the theory is that they can smell the most tasty coffee beans, they eat them, they poo them out, the coffee bean stays intact, or the bit that's used for the coffee, and then they roast that. So we did try some of that, and I've got to say, it's a I think it's something like if you buy half a kilo normally, it's about 80 pounds a pack. It's ridiculous. But we got a cup, well, we got a little what cafetiere type thing, their equivalent of cafetier for four quid, so we shared it, and you know, I thought that was good value and tasty coffee. Yeah, it's a cat you ever had cat poo coffee, Malcolm?

SPEAKER_02 9:59

I haven't. I'm not particularly a a coffee connoisseur, I would say, getting a bit more gradually, but um have you had a cot wheat cat wheat tea?

SPEAKER_01 10:10

I don't think that's a thing, but we could start it.

SPEAKER_02 10:12

I've yeah, I've been to treat the the tea plantations in Sri Lanka. I think you've probably been there as well. Uh-huh. And uh and when we were in Cuba there were coffee bean uh coffee plantations, and in fact, we we found some beans at the side of the road and brought them home and planted them. Uh and we we got a little coffee bean.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

So I'm not surprised.

SPEAKER_02 10:34

We brought all the illegal stuff back. Yeah, yeah. Um so yeah, we we attempted to do that, but I don't think they'd pass through any small mammals.

SPEAKER_01 10:44

No, probably not. And then on that other day, we we this was the nice thing about having a driver. We just happened to drive past a place that had some carvings outside. So we said, Oh, can we just stop there? And we went inside, and it was uh a guy who was he an artist? Uh how would you describe him, is he?

SPEAKER_05 11:04

Well, he was a sculptor, wasn't he?

SPEAKER_01 11:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 11:06

Um, and then he was like third generation or fourth generation that his his father and his grandfather and his great-grandfather had all made these amazing wood sculptures and they were all on display, they were incredible, weren't they?

SPEAKER_01 11:20

Yeah, and fully painted, all of the gods and stuff like that, bizarre sort of takes on animals. Uh and you know, we were just driving past. I wouldn't be in any guidebook or anything.

SPEAKER_02 11:30

And and that's I was gonna say a couple of things about that, actually. That that that's one of the really good things about those sort of guides, isn't it? If you go on a tour on a bus, you get to go to whatever they decide, and you can't really opt for something slightly different. But we had a same sort of driver in Sri Lanka, and um it was the exactly the same thing. You can just stop and do whatever you want to, can't you, when you particularly feel like it, and it makes it much easier. Uh when I was there, my driver took me to one of these sort of slightly kitsch, but it's felt particularly you know, reasonably authentic, sort of lunch with some dancing put on, and it was this mask dance, you know, and it was all those animal things, you know, they've got this you know, that they're all they're often masks, aren't they? And they use use them like old Shakespeare type things with the masks. Uh and I bought some in fact there's a couple hanging there's a couple of bits of painted carving from Ubud hanging in the cabin, David.

SPEAKER_01 12:26

Oh, you have to point them out next to that. I've probably seen them, I just didn't realise that they were from Bali.

SPEAKER_02 12:31

Yeah, that those sort of processions you see everywhere. Yeah, yeah. You know, the the procession with the people with skirts and musicians and bowls of fruit on the head, all that stuff. You seem to see those everywhere, don't you? And Ubud, you didn't go to Ubud before, did you? I think Ubud is the sort of centre for artiness, isn't it? I would say, in Bali.

SPEAKER_01 12:50

It is, and I kind of like did it as part of a day's tour from Kuta taking in loads of different things. Um I'm not sure I went into Ubbard itself, but I was in the vicinity. But I think a day's a day's tour on your own with a driver, it just didn't really work. You know, it was completely different doing it with Izzy. Yeah, oh I think it was more relaxed. Obviously, you're sharing it with somebody, just so much nicer.

SPEAKER_02 13:16

I mean, I would describe it, I don't know about you, Izzy, but I would think it's more craft than art.

SPEAKER_05 13:21

Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. That would be my descriptor. Local craft, and I think uh I loved the art market in a butt. I mean, we saw it was very hot when we were there, so we did explore one half of it and managed to get all the things that we wanted to get, and then found that there was another half that we didn't go into. But uh we we came away with masks. We I think uh well I came away with a gecko, didn't I? Well no, that was somewhere else. We came away with wood, yes.

SPEAKER_02 13:52

That's that doesn't sound strange at all.

SPEAKER_05 13:57

Came away with a lot of wood.

SPEAKER_02 13:59

I was what I was gonna say is if you came away with a gecko, you did pretty well because normally all you end up with is the tail, you know, geckos. They they lose they run away, yeah. Well well, you know, they leave their tail, they drop their tail, don't they? So you get the tail and then the rest of them go. Yeah, listen.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

We got a gecko each, but it was only made from wood. And then on the other things we did on the first, this is all part of the first day. Well, maybe the other market was a separate day, we we went in on our own. Uh, but we saw some uh waterfalls, and I'm gonna uh take them. Tegee Nungang waterfall. That sounds about right.

SPEAKER_02 14:36

Um there's a lot. Hold on, next pronunciation Izzy's doing it. Oh, really?

SPEAKER_05 14:41

Where is it? I don't have the words, so I can't I can't attempt to, but I'm still asking it really well with the Balinese accent and everything.

SPEAKER_01 14:48

Is that the is that the temple one you're talking about now? I don't know. Just for German. Um, and you know what's there to say about waterfalls other than we were there at the right time of year because the rainy season had only just finished, so you know there was lots of water to be flowing down the waterfall. Uh huge sort of thing. Did you go?

SPEAKER_02 15:10

Can you go for dip in them? Is he possible?

SPEAKER_05 15:14

People were doing that, but I just no, I don't I don't think we fancied it.

SPEAKER_01 15:17

I wandered in, I went up in the car. I went in up to my knees, yeah. Uh but I didn't I didn't dip in further. We did have quite an embarrassing experience there though, which is adding adding to my numerous lists of international incidents. So we saw these signs.

SPEAKER_05 15:35

Oh that was that was funny.

SPEAKER_01 15:37

So yeah, they were just like palette, lits of bits of palette that had been painted, and they had I love barley and uh small but spicy, blah blah blah. And we did and there was barley honeymoon, and we thought, oh well, we'll get that. Just not that we were on our honeymoon, but you know, it it was a honeymoon holiday, if you like, even though we hadn't got married or anything. Uh and it was it was like 50p. We were saying, Really is it? He goes, 50p for any of them, for all of them. I said, all 50 for as many as you we're going, what anyway? So we gave him the 50p and started to walk off. And he goes, No, no, no, no, no, to have a photo taken with it.

SPEAKER_02 16:17

I was realizing that.

SPEAKER_01 16:19

Oh no. And it was good value for those, so we had three photos taken. And we were luckily we didn't completely walk off, we just sat down with them, and I think he realized we weren't gonna have our photos taken, and he lost his signs if he didn't say something pretty sharpish. But anyway, and then what else did we do on that that first day? I think there was a temple. We did a we did oh two more things, you're right. We did a temple, we did Ganung Kawi Temple, uh, and there is another temple map. I don't know if you remember it, Malcolm, but that's I'm planning on going there next time, and I went there the first time because we were. Exactly. That's the one. Yeah, I can't remember its name.

SPEAKER_02 17:01

Um, but when I can't remember the name of it, but it was really, really cool. Good place.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

Yeah, uh the one we went to was very similar, um, but it was apparently less busy. Uh, but I want to take Izzy back to the other one when we go next year, because I think the other one was probably a bit nicer, but it was nicer. Uh and it's worth braving the crowds, I think, because it is it's uh it's a really nice temple.

SPEAKER_02 17:22

One thing I remember particularly is you know, you go to Bali and the weather's pretty good, maybe not in monsoon, but certainly outside monsoon, period. And you're sort of in t-shirts and vest almost, flip-flops, but obviously temple dress is an issue. Is he with did did they provide you with gear for temp temple dress, or were you all kitted out already and suitably attired?

SPEAKER_05 17:47

Our wonderful driver had everything ready for us, he had it all in the boat, and as soon as we arrived at the temple, he dressed us up, he put everything on so we were appropriate.

SPEAKER_01 17:57

And uh sarong each.

SPEAKER_02 17:59

Yeah, sarongs and how to he gave you the sarong thing. Yeah, he dressed he dressed us up.

SPEAKER_01 18:08

You're missing the pun there, is he? Or probably just rightly ignoring it.

SPEAKER_02 18:13

I thought I had to wear trousers, like some sort of silky baggy trousers rather than a sarong.

SPEAKER_01 18:18

Yeah, we were uh well, I was wearing shorts, so you need to cover your knees so that baggy trousers would work, dirty shirts as well.

SPEAKER_02 18:25

Um baggy trousers or Night Boats Cairo or any other song by Madness.

SPEAKER_01 18:32

Exactly. So yeah, so uh highly recommend the temples. At this point, I should say our driver was uh Neiman. And we will um put a link, uh WhatsApp link to him in the uh in the show notes so that if people are interested in sort of having somebody drive them around if they go to Ubbard or well mainly Abbud, um that's where he's based. And they they can get in touch with him and see if he's thinking about barley is though, it's not big, is it?

SPEAKER_02 19:00

Like you say, small and spicy on the sign. I assume that was I assume that was a reference to Barley, not to you.

SPEAKER_05 19:06

I thought it was a reference to me.

SPEAKER_01 19:09

We used it as a reference, quiz.

SPEAKER_02 19:12

I mean the roads are not fantastic, particularly as I remember, although I'm sure they've got better, but nowhere's particularly far.

SPEAKER_01 19:19

Nowhere's particularly far, but nowhere's uh gettable very quickly.

SPEAKER_02 19:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:24

Although that'd be an interesting because uh traffic in Ubbard was heavy. Three miles out. I thought it was okay, but as you said, the roads are small, it's windy, it's steep. Uh we went one day we went to the to uh a volcano in the north, and it was only about 30 miles away, but it took about an hour and a half or something.

SPEAKER_02 19:43

Yeah, I've been to that one. Is that the one where there's some sort of village where they lay out the dead in the open air? Some strange burial right? No, no, no, yeah, it's on the other side of the lake. You don't think you can go to it?

SPEAKER_01 19:57

It's uh you probably plug something different into chat GBT and just get your picks of dead bodies.

SPEAKER_05 20:05

We had a lovely coffee in a beautiful cafe overlooking the cord here.

SPEAKER_01 20:10

That sounds like the same one, then, yeah. Yeah, yeah, very impressive. Uh and then the hot springs afterwards was quite nice to do. Yeah, quite hot.

SPEAKER_02 20:19

And then going back to our first, so you were in the springs, were you?

SPEAKER_05 20:23

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We went into the hot springs, but I I found it a little bit much. I didn't want to be in the water too much because I was just so hot, so I didn't want to be in hot water as well.

SPEAKER_01 20:32

Yeah, because there weren't there wasn't a lot of shade. I I actually managed to get sunburned uh while I was there. Uh I had taken a t-shirt with me to wear in the hot springs and then left it in the car. And I thought, oh, I'll be fine. Uh and I wasn't. Uh but yeah, that's something to bear in mind to keep protected from the sun because it is very, very strong.

SPEAKER_02 20:54

This is Unravel Travel on Farley and the surrounding islands.

SPEAKER_01 21:01

Um, and then going back to the first day, the last place we went was the monkey forest. Um, and we were a bit worried about going there, weren't we? Because we've seen the David Attenborough film where they steal your sunglasses, your whatever, and then trade for bananas aren't good enough. I think they want chocolate. Yeah. Uh we basically didn't take anything with us that was stealable, including waterets. Yes, exactly. Um, but you know, they they weren't anything like I mean, I think one tried to steal your dress at the end, is he? Yeah, one bit we were left unmolested.

SPEAKER_05 21:37

Yeah, he just came and bit my dress. And um, and there's a way to deal with them as well. You just the driver knew how to deal with it, you know, he just sort of shooed it off, but I wouldn't have been able to deal with it.

SPEAKER_02 21:48

He guided you as well as drove you, then he came out to the things with you. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:52

Not not to every most of them, actually. Yeah, he was with us in most of them, wasn't he? Uh oh and I forgot we did do a couple of Things which I wasn't a huge fan of, but they seem to get thrown in, which was going to a silversmiths and seeing them make silver stuff. They get a bit of money, don't they, for taking people to those things. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, they do, they do, yeah. And you know, it's interesting, and the woodwork one was a little bit more, but it depends. I mean, I bet some people buy that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_03 22:21

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:21

Some people will like will like the woodwork, and some people will like the silverwork.

SPEAKER_01 22:25

And um exactly, you know, and it is a good memory. And then another day we did something completely not touristy, but it got us right into nature, which was whitewater rafting, um, which was really good fun. I fell in, and that I've been whitewater rafting three times now, and I've managed to fall in two of the three. But but I was being an idiot because we were with other boats, and that everybody was splashing everybody, so I was leaning right over to splash them, and suddenly I thought I haven't got the right centre of balance here anymore. I just knew I was going and deep breath and then shh straight in, and then they haul you out, they literally grab you and sort of pull you in, like that was a brilliant experience.

SPEAKER_05 23:06

And we saw an otter, didn't we? A semi-tail otter, which is lovely.

SPEAKER_02 23:14

How far was the rafting trip? Like, you know, an hour or something?

SPEAKER_01 23:19

Two, three hours, two. Oh, wow. Two, I'd say it's quite uh there was a break in that as well. Um, and these days, you know, they sell it with a package if you want it, where you've got um a drone sort of flying along taking off you. Uh, and you know, they're quite they were good pictures. The package was expensive, and I thought you tend never to look at these things again. And we've got some nice pictures anyway, just static ones. But you know, it's it's it's it was a really good thing to do. We're gonna do it again next year when we go, just because it was just a nice web way to get out, and you know, it's hot, but you're in the water, so it cools you down.

SPEAKER_02 23:54

Exactly. A range of different things. You can't just do the same thing all the time, you can't lie by the pool all the time, you can't squad biking there, but that's not my my thing.

SPEAKER_01 24:03

You know, it might be for other people. But yeah, you're right, Malcolm, just a nice you know, change each day up sort of thing.

SPEAKER_02 24:09

When I was in um CUT, I uh I hi it's different times. I hired a a rubbish old push bike off somebody and cycled down the beach. It's a very long beach, just to get away from everybody else, you know, further away. But just you just do something different, don't you? If you're there for a while, otherwise it's just too samey. Um I took a only took a guided tour one day, you know, and fitted a load of things in, and the rest of the time I was just sort of recovering around the pool and going seeing lots of Australians in bars in the evening, that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_05 24:44

Yeah, so you do you want to talk about what we did in Ubbard, David? Eat pray love.

SPEAKER_02 24:48

Well, why don't you do it, Izzy?

SPEAKER_05 24:50

Yeah, so we'd watched or I'd made David watch a film before we went, um, eat pray love, and uh I wanted to see the place where the wise man Kutut was, and so we went in, we went into Ubbard and we went to his house, and now um, so there is a wise man there, and he is the son of the the wise man that the character in the film was based on, and we paid for a reading and uh it was it was really it was just like meeting Kato from the film, and I think he must say the same thing to everybody, but we're both going to live to 90, and we're both very, very lucky, and um, and he was charming, he was so charming, and I think it was worth it just just to meet this guy and to feel like we were in the film, it was the same place that the film, you know, the film was filmed there, all of the scenes that wish she went to see the wise man, so it was a little bit of magic, and so I'm glad we did that. I don't know what David thought of it. I think he believed every word the man said.

SPEAKER_01 25:56

I I obviously didn't believe a single word he said, but I completely agree with you. It pulls you into it, so you end up I don't regret it at all. It was it was a good thing to do. It kind of like was towards the end of our stay in Ubbard, so it was a natural close to doing it. Uh and even if you don't do that, uh if you're going to go to Bali, and especially Ubbard, I'd recommend people watch Eat Freight Love because it it's not just Bali, it covers India and Italy as well. But the bit about Bali, it just gets you in the mood really well. But highly recommended. And then the I mean we what we didn't say was that the places they visited in um in Bali were things like the rice paddies and the temples that we've been talking about. So it it's it's a good way of getting to see what you'll be looking at when you get there.

SPEAKER_02 26:41

Yeah. Yeah, good.

SPEAKER_01 26:42

That's and then what else did we do in Ubbard, Izzy?

SPEAKER_05 26:45

Uh we had drinks. What else did we do? The art market um and the monkeys, I think that's I had a manicure, I had a manic, I had a mani pedi, and my mani pedi came to 13 English pounds. So normally I'd pay 20, 30 pounds for a manny in England, so that was really good.

SPEAKER_01 27:07

And I just sat next to her, and it was just you know, it was air con, it was just a nice way of chilling out from wow, is he getting the her her nails done and uh me just chilling free Wi-Fi and then we went for a coffee afterwards.

SPEAKER_02 27:23

Yeah, he was happy. I I I don't remember any of those particular surveys. Right, so back probably 30 years ago, but that's that's a different time. Not that I was looking for them.

SPEAKER_01 27:35

Well, actually, yeah, I mean that's maybe something. Maybe they did have them. No, obviously. But I I think that's maybe something worth talking about, Ubbard. Uh Ubbard, the centre itself, you don't have to stay in Ubbard. We stayed something like three miles out. Uh you can get the equivalent of uh an Uber into the centre of town. I think the longest we waited for a taxi was two minutes, and it cost us about three quid. Uh so you don't have to stay in the centre of Ubbard, but Ubbard's itself is lovely, full of restaurants, bars, pedicule or nail bars. It's it's got a nice vibe to it, yeah. Uh, and worth spending a bit of time there. And there's also the palace there, the water palace. So there's lots of things to do in Ubbard which are well worth uh spending time doing.

SPEAKER_02 28:21

Yeah, I'm sure that's right. Different feel if you're going to be in Bali to just hanging around in Cooter, isn't it? That's for sure.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

You're listening to Unravel Travel on the subject of Bali and the surrounding islands.

SPEAKER_02 28:35

So, you how long were you out there in total? Because that was mostly Bali, Ubud, and and etc. You went to the Gilly Islands as well, didn't you?

SPEAKER_01 28:43

We did. Um, we ba it was basically to align with Izzy's half-term holidays. So we we flew out on the Friday and arrived Sunday, I guess. It was very late Saturday, but essentially it was Sunday morning. Uh, and then we flew back two Sundays after that. So I think it was 14 days of being able to do stuff. And then straight back to school Monday, Izzy.

SPEAKER_05 29:07

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. We arrived at home at nine o'clock in the evening, straight to bed, back up in the morning, go straight to school.

SPEAKER_01 29:15

Yeah, and it was a 24-hour journey back. Yeah, not the easiest. But you know, it took me a week to recover. But nobody cares about whether I had a tough time.

SPEAKER_02 29:24

Nope, they don't know. That's exactly right. Uh so the Gilly Islands are not far, are they? Is it just a boat transfer?

SPEAKER_01 29:30

Yeah, that's right. So we we booked a we had to um to get to the port, which was about an hour and a half drive from um where we were staying, just outside Ubbard. And then the boat itself, I think, was about an hour and a half. It's a it's like a a hydrofoil type uh situation. Um, very quick, very comfortable, air con, perfect way of transferring. And when you get that that they go to all of the Gilly Islands, but they stop at Gilly Tea first, so we basically got off, and then from there we walked to our accommodation because the only um transport options on all of the Gilly Islands, and certainly Gilly T are you can either walk, bicycle, or horse-drawn carriage, and I forget what they're called. Do you remember what they're called?

SPEAKER_05 30:14

I can't remember what's a horse called, it was like a trap.

SPEAKER_01 30:17

Yeah, it was definitely like a trap, but it had its own name. Uh, and then which I'll come on to later, these days you can use an electric scooter as well.

SPEAKER_03 30:24

Um, right, okay.

SPEAKER_01 30:26

And we were only staying a five-minute walk from port, and we were carrying portable uh gear, so we just walked to where we were staying. Um, and then we spent how many nights? Eight nights, seven nights. Seven nights, I think we spent on Ghillie. Oh, right.

SPEAKER_02 30:39

Um, pretty much so.

SPEAKER_03 30:42

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 30:42

Yeah, yeah, more or less. And there's three Ghili Islands there's Gilea and Gilly Meno, which are the smallest, and then Gilly T, which is the biggest, and the T is Trowangan, I think is how you say it. And it's uh there's a lot more going on on Trowangang.

SPEAKER_02 30:59

We've got a linguist here in the room, and and David's still murdering the pronunciations.

SPEAKER_01 31:06

I know that that shows you what she uh you know, the torture she tries to put me through, forces me to do it. And Giddy T itself, it it's a nightclub destination, although I think they they were telling us one of the bar guys that each night a different nightclub has the license to stay open till 3 a.m. Right and it changes every night, which is kind of nice because it means you never gotta be the all all week next to the the the nightclub that's flaring out till three in the morning.

SPEAKER_02 31:35

I was gonna say, so you did seven different nightclubs, you two party animals.

SPEAKER_01 31:40

We heard seven different nightclubs from our from our uh apartment, yes. Um but you know it it wasn't annoying. I I remember I did wake, I fell asleep each night without worrying about it. And you might wake up, it's 2:30 in the morning or whatever, and you can kind of like hear it. But it's low level in the background, so I don't think it certainly didn't upset our enjoyment. And I when I stayed there in the past, I stayed in the north. And that's not where the nightclub bit I say north, it's like a 20-minute, 30-minute walk to this part of the island. The island itself is four miles long, I think, and something like two miles across. So, you know, you can you can circumnavigate it if you can cope with the heat.

SPEAKER_02 32:20

Please tell me you did drag him to a nightclub, Izzy, for one of these nights. I couldn't, I couldn't.

SPEAKER_05 32:28

Well, we did go to a we did go to a bar. Went to a bar saw some live music. Oh my goodness, that was so amazing because we went past and we thought, oh, he sounds quite good. Yeah. So we went in and the place was empty.

SPEAKER_01 32:39

They were playing chili peppers. Yeah. So that's why I wanted to go.

SPEAKER_05 32:42

And then half an hour later, the place was rammed, wasn't it? It just people just kept flowing in. We started off.

SPEAKER_01 32:56

You get a hat and you get a free welcome drink or whatever. And that's and there's a like theme of tweets developing here, isn't there? Yeah, yeah, there is. There's like 30 people going around in a group from bar to bar, and they just sound like a good laugh. I hope you're gonna do it next time. You are going back.

SPEAKER_02 33:18

We expect to watch on one of these.

SPEAKER_01 33:20

We're not actually going to the Gilly Islands next time. We're gonna spend all our time on uh bar on barley and uh go to Ulawattu, I think, um for the last four or five nights.

SPEAKER_05 33:31

Exactly, and go to Padang Padang Beach.

SPEAKER_01 33:34

But but things to do on the Ghillie Island or Ghili Tea anyway. Uh there's well, all of them, I suppose, snorkeling and scuba. So Izzy and I uh it you had snorkeled a little bit but not a lot.

SPEAKER_05 33:46

I hadn't really snorkeled before, so I really learnt to do it there.

SPEAKER_02 33:50

So we did it as a as a beginner's view on it.

SPEAKER_05 33:54

Perfect, it was really good. Um learnt very, very quickly once I was we had a swimming pool.

SPEAKER_01 34:00

Yeah, uh well, which I spent half an hour. Yeah, I just said, look, get in the pool. Uh I just got her swimming up and down with the the mask and the snorkeling. Then I got her to dive down, feel the snorkel, and to blow it out so that she wouldn't panic if she got water in her snorkel, she'd know how to clear it. Yeah. Um, and you know, I said, Do we need to do any what? No. And we just booked ourselves on a snorkeling trip the next day.

SPEAKER_02 34:25

You couldn't just go from the beach then or out of the room. You could, and we tried.

SPEAKER_01 34:30

Yeah, we did do that, and it it wasn't great for a beginner because it the although it wasn't that rough, it did knock you off your feet a bit. The the surf did turn up churn up all of the uh the sand. So it was just an and you know, I think it cost us eight quid for a day's snorkeling. Yeah, and uh so you know you might as well pay for the boat. They took us out to a turtle sanctuary on one of the other islands. Yeah, uh we're gonna yeah, we saw we swam with a turtle, a proper, you know, untamed one out on the in the ocean. So absolutely brilliant. And then the other thing we did was because I said it's so hot, we didn't actually walk around the island.

SPEAKER_02 35:11

We hired turtle soup for dinner, was it?

SPEAKER_01 35:14

Turtle fin, yeah. No, it wasn't. We rented an electric scooter uh and drove around the island that way, stopping off at various bars for uh a little because you know it's it yeah, we had a beer.

SPEAKER_02 35:28

I was wondering whether to say it or not, but you know you were saying that you should always follow the legal prescriptions in each country. Uh and you were saying that, weren't you? I'm gonna have to find that and edit it in. You don't, you don't yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:41

Charlie says don't be in get on. Yeah, but I only had one. And you know, it's just a lovely way you can sort of because all the all the bars in the north are so much more laid back and chilled than the other ones, which are nice, don't get me wrong.

SPEAKER_02 35:55

But if you've got a scooter, you can get to them quite quickly without sort of ending up it's my argument for electric bikes, and then as I've said in check, uh loads of the guys drive those little sort of half motorbike, half-electric scooters because the the you can drive them and drink you've you've reminded me actually, there's um you can hire electric bikes in Ubbard as well.

SPEAKER_01 36:18

And since we're there for longer next next year, next year I think we're spending five.

SPEAKER_02 36:22

I was gonna say now you're knowing it much better. You why don't you do your own transport?

SPEAKER_01 36:26

I th well I think we might. I think we might just hire the bikes and just sort of uh because we're already in a very pretty place, so everywhere from where we're staying will be pretty. So I think we might well organise bikes for a day or two.

SPEAKER_05 36:38

Although the roads are very windy, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:41

But I think with a sharp line. If it's a bicycle rather than a scooter, it'll be something we're familiar with, so it won't feel so hard.

SPEAKER_02 36:50

They're quite heavy though, that's what we've found. The sort of centre of gravity is different to them. Getting on and off them, yeah, it is it it you're just a little less stable because they are so heavy. You know, when you try and get your foot down onto the ground, you you it requires a little bit more care than it would with a normal body scooter.

SPEAKER_01 37:06

I know I must say I found that a little bit with the electric scooter, although I think it's because I'm not used to having an opinion on it. And you know, when we were moving, absolutely fine. But as soon as you try to do anything slow manoeuvring, it was a little bit more challenging. A couple of occasions I think I might have scared a few people near me. But nothing too untoward happened.

SPEAKER_02 37:27

When we when we talk about driving, we'll we'll do a whole episode on driving. Uh I I Stuart and I hired mopeds in um in Thailand, my brother Stuart, and we had two accidents in about an hour.

SPEAKER_04 37:41

Oh what? No.

SPEAKER_01 37:43

Anyway, I I've hired them in Thailand as well, and I plan to do that uh because Izzy and I are going there in uh October, and we may hire them for a day as well. Uh have another go. It's a bit easier driving around Thailand than it was, than I think Ubbard, particularly, just because it's all the hills.

SPEAKER_02 37:58

And you were mentioning earlier about food. Food was a bit different in yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:04

When we were in Ubbard, we really did just eat local food, although it was maybe the western version of it. When we were in Ghili Tea, it was all I mean, there was a lot of seafood, wasn't there? I mean, you we had some good seafood.

SPEAKER_05 38:16

Yeah, we did. We did have some lovely seafood, but then we were eating what we had Mexican food?

SPEAKER_01 38:21

Was it well tiki bar, yeah. I don't know if it's it's more Hawaiian. Yeah, it's Hawaiian influence, Italian. You're probably gonna hate all this, Malcolm, because it was all Western food. We had a great burger, yeah, great pizza.

SPEAKER_02 38:34

I went to New York and I didn't even have pizza.

SPEAKER_01 38:38

But you're talking, I mean, this is good versions of the Western food, and you're talking about five quid for a meal. Yeah, yeah. Um, so you know it's really good value. And there were local woranges there. Uh we did uh have a couple of um uh questions.

SPEAKER_05 38:53

We did go twice.

SPEAKER_01 38:54

Yeah, went for lunch once and went for dinner once. Really? Different different places, and these are restaurants. This isn't street food, is it? It's restaurants. No, this is restaurants. Um the street food tended to be sort of like barbecue type stuff. Yeah. Um, yeah, exact exactly. Yeah. Um, but you know, we've it I kind of like a these days, I kind of like a sit-down at the end with a maybe a cocktail and a beer and make a whole thing of the evening. Whereas if you just eat street food, it tends to be over quite quickly.

SPEAKER_05 39:23

Um something about food and water, because we were careful in that we were drinking all the all the places we stayed had bottled water in the rooms as standard. Um, and uh before going, my friend Rosanna had told me to prepare prepare your stomach for barley. And so I was drinking those little yakls, a yakl today for a couple of weeks before going, and the food was clean and it was wonderful, and neither of us got ill. Yeah, so because you hear all these stories and no, we if you're sensible, you won't get ill.

SPEAKER_01 39:52

Yeah, that's the approach I always think. Just be careful about what you're and I think I mentioned on a previous one that I maybe got a little bit lax in the Philippines and forgot to ask about the ice. But that's it all boils down to how well the place is set up for tourism, and a place like the Gilly Islands and Ubbard, you know, it is tourist, so that they they know how to keep keep things hygienic and uh not poison their customers. Yeah, well, um, and yeah, so there isn't really a lot to do on the Ghilly Islands other than what I've just mentioned, but oh that sounds great. Lots of snorkeling, lots of diving, chilling out, brilliant food and drinks and all that sort of stuff.

SPEAKER_02 40:30

Um and nightclubbing every night. I mean, I'm surprised you had time to do anything during the day.

SPEAKER_01 40:35

Yeah, well, exactly. We were sleeping into about two.

SPEAKER_05 40:38

The people are so warm, aren't they? They're so friendly and warm, and it's lovely. You feel like they welcome, they see you once, and then they'll welcome you back the second time, like you're an old friend.

SPEAKER_01 40:48

Yeah, exactly. We did go to the same bar a couple of times in the evening. Yeah, and then from there, we were worried because Izzy had a set flight and had to be at work. We were worried before we went out there whether we could get the same boat back. What happened if the seas were a bit rough? Because they it was unlike a deep channel between, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 41:10

Isn't it quite a deep channel?

SPEAKER_01 41:12

Yeah, it is. It can get rough. Um, and it's at the end of the rainy season, as I said uh earlier. So we weren't 100% certain. So I said, Well, we can do this, we can get the boat to Lombok because that's like a five-minute hop, and you'll be able to get a boat, even if you just hire somebody to take you, you will get to Lombok. And then Lombok's got an airport, so then we can fly back to Bali and then be back in Bali the night before our flights view. So we ended up doing that. So we ex had a an extra night, which was on Lombok in the end.

SPEAKER_02 41:45

This is unravel travel on Bali and the surrounding islands.

SPEAKER_01 41:51

Uh, and I've been to Lombok before, I do really like Lombok, although was that the minimum court sentence?

SPEAKER_02 41:57

Was that the minimum jail sentence?

SPEAKER_01 41:59

Yeah, exactly. They wouldn't let me out before. Uh but blows Lombok out. I've seen lots of things saying Lombok is the new Bali. Um for me, it it's well worth visiting, but it's not the new Bali, it's different. Uh, we we were talking earlier about the spiritual nature of um of um Bali and the fact that it's a Hindu religion. Um the different main difference with Lombok is Lombok is very much Muslim, so it has a completely different feel to it. And if you're in the north, I remember I stayed in one place there. The call to prayer as I was travelling north was getting earlier and earlier, and at one point it was about three in the morning, and it's not just one call to prayer, all of the mosques, and there must be 30 mosques that I could hear, were all doing the call to prayer, slightly staggered at different times, so it was appalling. You just you know, I I kind of like the call to prayer, I find it quite soothing. But when there's 30 of them trying to compete with each other, it just was a bit much. Um, but the upside of Lombok is again some of the most amazing waterfalls. You've got the uh the volcano in the north, um, which I I didn't decide to go, but it was so tempting because you've you can basically sleep on the crater of the volcano, so you hike up one day, sleep there, and then go to the so I guess it's the the crater Caldera, and then there's an actual peak which you go up for for uh sunrise. Uh, but looks like an amazing trek if anybody's interested and want to do that. And then the beaches. Um, I like Sengigi, which is where we stayed, is you and I stayed when we went back. It it's a bit faded glory in that it used to be the most touristy beach in on Lombok, but these days it's all moved to Kuta, which is the uh the same name as the Kuta on Bali, but this one is on Lombok. Um and Kuta is nothing like as busy as Kuta Bali, uh, but it is busy, got loads of great bars, uh really good. good food, good restaurants there. But yeah, that that's Lombok. Probably similar size to Bali. I spent two weeks getting a taxi from place to place, just spending two, three nights in each place. And it took me about probably took me ten days to do the to circumnavigate it, staying in three, four different places. But yeah, worth a visit as well. But that very very different to Bali I would say.

SPEAKER_02 44:25

As a first time visitor, Izzy, which was your preference of the three I loved Ubbard and I loved um Gilly Tea.

SPEAKER_05 44:36

I really did. But I felt that when we were on Gilly Tea we were there for a week and I think we did see everything. We really really enjoyed our that place and we really saw everything it had to offer and enjoyed it all so I felt like we hadn't gone in Ubbard. We had just touched on the potential there. Yeah. And so that's why we're going back next year and we're gonna really focus on Ubbard and uh and the surrounding areas. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:01

Do some of the things we didn't do. I've since found out that if you go to the north you can go swimming with dolphins in barley which I've done that in um in Africa. I forget which island it was now but uh yeah that that'll be quite good fun now Izzy's a an expert snorkeler she can go snorkelling with some dolphins.

SPEAKER_05 45:18

I absolutely love it.

SPEAKER_02 45:20

Yeah so there's something left in the cupboard in Ubbard is there? Did that just come to you or you had that one in your pocket for a while no spur of the moment Dave. Right well and and so you've booked your you got back obviously Izzy went straight to work and David lounged around and did the normal sort of thing he does very much and and look looked at flights for going back again.

SPEAKER_01 45:44

Correct is that that's basically what you did is it a week after we got the we booked it within a couple of weeks uh got the accommodation all booked and everything.

SPEAKER_02 45:52

Is that uh will that be Easter again? Yes.

SPEAKER_01 45:56

Yeah that's the main reason is that you know to get you need two weeks don't you yeah it's no point going for a week no no point the way the school holidays fall next year we've actually got an extra day don't we? Because of the wet where Easter falls there's actually an extra day's holiday for for the school which is good.

SPEAKER_02 46:14

Yeah so looking forward to to trying new stuff doing some of the stuff that we did this year again because it you know it was really really good thing and scooters and yeah most definitely would you consider have you got the bug from the snorkeling easy to think about doing a a scuba course or you you do a bit more snorkeling first or just stick at snorkel oh you you did you and how did you find and um so I went along to the place where you trained I think and Gilly divers.

SPEAKER_05 46:45

Yeah guy divers they're it they're really good but I went I was with three girls who are like six forms like my form group basically and um one of them had already done the course and she'd brought her two friends along and so we just went into a pool you sit at the bottom of the pool and you had to just get used to the regulator so firstly breathing through the regulator then you know sweeping it out of your mouth and then scooping it back in again putting it in your mouth it you know getting rid of the water breathe normally then you had to take your um the coach's regulator like imagine you've lost yours completely and they put you there and all of this sort of stuff and pretend your David running out of air yeah no but honestly I found it it it was beyond it was outside too far out of my comfort zone I felt quite and it's important because if you want to enjoy it you've got to be in your comfort zone haven't you no and my heart was going my heart was racing I was afraid and I was thinking this just doesn't feel natural of course it's not natural but I was even getting spooked by the sound of my breathing I was like this is really it is very ailing spooky and um and I thought okay if I'm feeling like this at the bottom of a pool how am I going to feel in half an hour's time when they put me 12 metres below the sea because that was the plan you have okay 45 minutes in the pool and then they take you out in a boat and you go 12 metres down and I thought I I'm not gonna do that. I thought if I do go out with them because it's they these three girls were doing brilliantly they were not spooked and um I thought if I go down with them one of the because we had two instructors and one of those instructors would have had to come up with me or maybe we'd all have had to come back up and it would have just ruined it for the others. So I thought this is not my bag I I'm happy with snorkeling but not you you gave it a go though which I think was very commendable.

SPEAKER_01 48:35

It was a step too far I would say it's a gille islands if you get there and you don't scuba dive I think doing the tri-dive is an excellent way of finding out if you want to do it without having to commit a load of money. But if you do decide you want to do it it's good value that doing it there and you know great weather the warm seas.

SPEAKER_02 48:50

But also you can see so much in those sort of places just snorkeling you don't need to necessarily scuba dive yeah absolutely I think you know if you want to go and see the the the the really fantastic stuff then you've got to do what you did before live a board and go away more substantially but you're not going to get that much of a difference I think from snorkeling as opposed to scuba diving and be more comfortable with it.

SPEAKER_01 49:12

The difference is that uh you can go to sort of like ledges that hang out. So they generally the baby sharks are sort of like hidden away so you won't see them snorkeling. Um but and there's the other thing is that the um the dive masters know where everything is so that they'll take you to stuff that's some of some of the micro stuff like the pygmy seahorses or whatever or uh you you're just not gonna find it yourself but the dive masters know it's exactly here they beckon you over and show you it should shine the light on it. So but I agree with you you if you've not dived you see so much snorkeling you just think well I don't need to see you know I'm seeing everything which is true you kind of are um but it just takes you to another level when you're in literally down a level that's not bad Dave you keep working on it getting better yeah I know I know good that's really uh that's yeah that's been good and and it's great you know you're going back again that's a good indictment endorsement also but we did find that we met quite a few people who had gone for a couple of weeks or a month and they were still there like 18 years later.

SPEAKER_05 50:24

Yes there were quite a few people who'd gone for a holiday and not left you know from three years they've been there to 18 years and I can I can honestly see why yeah I can I can see I could imagine totally wasted yeah highly recommended but let's make sure that not too many people go extra because we don't want too many people there.

SPEAKER_02 50:46

Yeah well I think that's been really good introduction to uh to barley and gilly and sort of Lombok we might come back and do that again another time as you spent more time there Dave but good to hear that you enjoyed it so much you want to go back again and then we'll move on to talking about something different I think next week after a few international trips.

SPEAKER_01 51:06

Exactly no very much enjoyed uh being able to revisit it because it's still quite fresh for us so it's nice to uh to remember how lovely it was and go over it again.

SPEAKER_02 51:17

I'm out in check at the moment arrived today um what's the temperature like there? It's scorchio the same as it is in England.

SPEAKER_01 51:25

Right same yeah yeah I am literally melting while we're talking you look like you're in an air conditioned office but that's obviously your uh my backdrop yeah backdrop indeed cool right thank you very much um thank you we'll speak to you all again soon yeah bye everybody ciao