This is a photographic record of the best holiday EVER undertaken by Man and Mewby.

(Just so you know, by “man” I am referring to myself… )

Our first evening, after a hard day’s spa and massage, was spent at the Bali Collection shopping and eating. The second day was mostly spent larking around on the beach or by the hotel pool before heading back to the Bali Collection in the evening…

A lot of restaurants in Bali give you a free taxi service back to your hotel after your meal. On the second night our taxi driver was a friendly chap named Made. We ended up hiring him as our driver for the rest of our trip. A great guy! And on our third night he drove us to the Mata Hari Cafe in Jimbaran for a sunset dinner on the beach. This was one of the best experiences of our trip. Many thanks to Made for introducing us to this place!

On Day 4 our friendly driver Made, took us to a number of places… Pictured here are the monkey temple at Ubud, and the Buana Amertha Sari coffee farm at Tampaksiring.

Day 5 – Sunrise at Nusa Dua. We got up at 5.30 am for this. Totally worth it.

On the 5th day we took HIS’s “New Tatsujin Tour” and the first stop was here: the royal temple of Taman Ayun which dates from 1634. “Taman Ayun” means “Garden Temple” I believe…

Stop 2 on our HIS tour was tea time overlooking the rice terraces at Pacung. Note the Batik dress worn by Mewby and my own Batik shirt, which were bought at Batubulan the day before.

The next stop on our HIS tour was Pura Ulun Danu Beratan – a temple afloat upon a lake.

Lunch-time on our HIS tour at Bagus Agro Pelaga.

The penultimate stop on our HIS tour was Pura Uluwatu, a temple on the cliffs. The monkeys here are way more aggressive than those in Ubud. If they see anything shiny they will grab it off you – a couple of people lost their glasses while we were there and some local chaps had to persuade the cheeky monkeys to give them up in exchange for fruit. Thus a valuable lesson has been learned in the monkey kingdom: Crime Definitely Pays.

This was the last part of our HIS tour. As the sun went down over Uluwatu we settled down in an open air theatre to watch the famous Kechak dance.
The story goes that while Rama is off out hunting a magical golden deer, Rama’s princess Sita is kidnapped by the evil king Ravana. Rama enlists the help of the Red Monkey King and the White Monkey to get her back….
After the show we retreated to another beach-front restaurant in Jimbaran for dinner. It wasn’t as nice as Cafe Mata Hari that Made had taken us to two days before but we did get serenaded by some singers on the beach and they sang something very romantic indeed…

Our last day in Bali. One last day relaxing by the pool and on the beach before Made came to drive us to the airport that night. An unforgettable holiday!

Made & Me

Finally- just a quick word about our driver, Made. If you need a driver in Bali, I Made Sukiada is your man. He speaks English. He drives safely. He’s friendly and funny and he can show you the real “Deep Bali”.
Highly recommended!
Tel: 08179712755
email: sukia_040373@yahoo.com