3 weeks! Just 3 weeks left in Bali! Where has the time gone? It only feels like yesterday that we sold Pam and practically ran to the airport.

After our time Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Penida, we headed back to Kuta (on easily the smoothest but fastest boat journey so far – thank goodness!) and decided to make a plan.

We arrived in Kuta mid morning and set to work running errands – easily one of my favourite things to do (I feel so productive after a day of errand running!). First things first, the hostage situation aka collect our passports that we surrendered to immigration well over a month ago! After waiting for 45 minutes…

We had our passports back! SO, we celebrated with a beer..

Next, laundry! And then some shopping. Dave has been wearing the same 5 t-shirts for nearly 5 months now, so off we went… We ended up with new sunglasses, 3 t-shirts for Dave (which he immediately cut the sleeves off because, what on earth are sleeves for anyway?) and some new yoga shorts for me. We stocked up on toiletries, sent a huge parcel home filled with diaries, souvenirs, shells and jumpers and enjoyed a coffee before we escaped, just an hour down the road to Canggu – a surfers paradise.

Our few days in Canggu flew by but included yoga @ Pranava Yoga for me – couldn’t recommend them enough. Surrounded by rice fields and tucked away from the main road. Annies Sunday morning flow session was relaxed but super informative and really encouraging – I managed my first flying crow!! – and plenty of surfing (for Dave).

We ate food at local warungs and had no idea what any of it was..

We continued our ‘Hydrate Beach dogs’ mission and fed starving kittens outside Temples.

We visited Tanah Lot Temple and petted a ‘Holy Snake’ which in fact turned out to be a Balinese Sea snake – the deadliest snake in the world, designed to kill you in 3 minutes. Brilliant.

We visited both the Love Anchor market – perfect if you are after jewellery, clothing or sarongs – as well as the Samardi Market on a Sunday Morning – perfect if you  like your organic, homegrown wears. I bought a beautiful scrunchy from The Bali Bandana Project whose aim is to vaccinate and sterilise Balis street dogs to reduce their suffering and the chance of them bringing yet more puppies into a rather lonely life on the streets.

We then spent our Sunday chilling on Echo Beach, enjoying the sun, sea and surf. On the way back, we witnessed cars nearly fall into rice fields

We worked our way across the ‘road’ through the rice fields – a path built by the locals to make it easier to get from one beach to the other. It has instead turned into a bit of a free for all and cars regularly end up in the rice fields and ditches below. Whoops. It was all very placid when we ventured across it though, thank goodness.

Canggu had been sold to us as the sleepier version of Kuta and the beachside version of Ubud. It was certainly right next to the beach but traffic was as hideous as Kuta and everything felt incredibly spaced out meaning you would need to rent a scooter to really explore the area (and the traffic chaos). Ideal for those wanting to surf though, Echo Beach and Batu Balong Beach are ideal for all levels and conveniently have bars all the way along them. Although Im not so much of a drinker, if at all, Echo Beach was the most ideal place to sit and watch the surf whilst the sun set, which a beer (or orange juice) in hand.

Alas, it was time to head inland a little and across to the eastern side of the island. We chose Sidemen as it had been recommended to us before and was a lot more like the authentic Bali we had been looking for. Those who recommended it weren’t wrong. This was the view from our little wooden home for 2 days:

Sidemen was just what we needed, peaceful and made up of (I’m sure) 95% rice fields with a few rivers thrown in for good measure too.

Our brief stop in Sidemen led us to Lempuyang Temple, also known as Heavens Gate Temple. After an hours moped ride and a super steep incline to the top we were ready for our Heavens Gate experience. We could not have been more underwhelmed if we had tried.. When googling photos of the temple, it would appear you are truly up in the clouds and surrounded by a small body of water. No. Not at all. There is a 45  minute to an hours queue in the blazing sun, to wait for a Balinese man under an umbrella, taking photos (for a price, obviously) with YOUR phone camera. You can’t use your actual camera and do it yourself and the secret to the reflection and apparent body of water? A floor tile! Held up by the balinese man, just under your phone camera. Ive never been one for the instagram likes so we improvised (and got told off in the process… ha!).

Annnddd…. the reality.

So, avoiding all those after their own ‘photogenic experience’ (actual quote from someone in the queue..), we headed back towards Sidemen to the Tirta Gangga Royal Water Palace. We found a nice dog guarding the entrance, sleeping civets and a bat named Bruce that got excited after licking Dave’s arm. What a strange sequence of events. The Royal water palace was a tranquil place to wander around for half an hour in the sun too.

Next stop, one of our favourite things to do – seek out waterfalls. Jagasatru Waterfall is located just 20 minutes east of Sidemen and yet, is fairly unknown. When we arrived, the locals were busy with a digger, clearing mud to build a proper path after securing outside funding to turn the area in to a visitor attraction. Part of the path had already been built, along with a viewing platform that stretched out across the jungle looking towards the ocean and 152 steps down to the base of the waterfall. We were the only people there so got to enjoy the roar of the waterfall and the peace of the jungle floor.

It was time to head for the coast, to Amed, to experience a rather different New Year…