BALI
Leif and I just got back from adventuring in Bali and it was UNREAL. one of my favorite places I have ever been! We started planning this trip before we even got married, and were so so excited to go! I can't believe it is already over.
The first half of our trip was spent in a village called Canggu. We stayed in the cutest villa with a private pool which was amazing. I strongly suggest staying in airbnb's! It is by far my favorite way to travel because it honestly feels like you are living there for the week instead of visiting. Our host gave us lists of good restaurants and things to do in the area which was super helpful.
The day after we got to Canggu was Leif's golden birthday! I was obviously so excited that we were celebrating his birthday in Bali but at the same time kind of felt bad because I wanted to make him breakfast in bed or a cake or something but I knew that would be kind of a hard in a foreign country. SO, I brought a few little decorations from home and stuck birthday candles in Reese's peanut butter cups to act as a birthday cake. It turned out cute! Then we went to breakfast at the yummiest place called Crate Cafe. Leif got a breakfast burrito and I got French toast with strawberries and bananas. Then, we went and got 60 minute full body massages. Moment of silence bc WOW. We seriously felt so relaxed-that was definitely my favorite part of the day. We kind of just hung out and relaxed for the rest of the day. We ended the night at dinner at a place right on the ocean with the best view. It was magical! And I have to give him a little birthday tribute because he is just the best. It does not get sweeter, more humble or more genuine than Leif. I hit the absolute jackpot. I am so glad we were able to explore such an amazing place on his special day!
One of our favorite parts of the whole trip was riding our scooter around everywhere. It was SO FUN! It is seriously $6/day to rent one of these and is definitely the way to go if you are going to visit Bali. There are basically no rules/traffic signs anywhere so it is kind of chaotic. But it is such a fun experience! I don't have any photos of us on the scooter but there is some footage of us on it in the video we made. :) I'll link it at the end of this post!
Our favorite restaurants in Canggu:
Marakuja
Betelnut Cafe
Crate Cafe
Cloud 9
Deus Cafe
Balifornia
Potato Head Beach Club
Nalu Bowls (get the Uluwatu bowl if you like dragonfruit-amaaazing. the J-Bay bowl was so good too if you are a peanut butter lover!)
Here are some pictures from the rest of our time spent there! Also, I saw a cute couple on the beach one of the days and asked if they would model for me for a few pics. They were so cool about it; I love people like that. Made my day!
Next we went off to a different part of the island-Ubud.
We stayed at an Airbnb there as well-this one was seriously in the middle of the jungle! So cool.
We were really close to Yellow Flower Cafe which we ate at a few times. I think the Mango Coconut shake changed my life. And I loved the vibe there-it was super relaxing.
Another place we ate at that I loved was Clear Cafe! It was so colorful and fun with the most amazing view.
On one of our days we visited Tegenungan Waterfall. I loved this because all we had to do was walk down a bunch of steps to get to it! Not even an intense hike or anything and it was so beautiful.
If you are visiting Bali, the Monkey Forest is a must!! It was the craziest experience. Seriously just monkeys everywhere, jumping around and climbing on people that have food. We bought some bananas which I feel like is totally necessary if you want them to interact with you. If you don't have food they will pretty much just leave you be. The only bad part of our day was that a monkey climbed on Leif's shoulder and peed on him...and about five minutes later a different one bit him!! So scary hahaha. The reason it bit him is because he accidentally looked it in the eye which you are not supposed to do. But it was more of a scratch then a bite; it didn't break skin or anything so all is well! But if you plan on going to play with the monkeys I would recommend having your rabies shots! For real though, it was the coolest! Seeing the baby monkeys was probably my favorite part-they were so cute!!
We hopped on our scooter one afternoon and drove about 15 minutes to see the Tegallalang Rice Terraces. SO INCREDIBLE. I honestly could not even believe they were real-it was like nothing I've ever seen! Leif got the coolest drone shots there. They are in our Bali video! Also, how cute are these workers there? They were so kind and happy!
I will never forget the memories we made here! It was such a fun adventure. We will definitely be back!!