Bali Winter 2020-21
Paris - Doha - Jakarta - Bali: An other epic trip in empty planes!
Finally we can hug Agathe! It has been a much too long wait…
It is a such treat just being together and chill. We rented a Villa for 3 months and Agathe moved in with us.
Our neighborhood: Bingin Beach near Uluwatu on the Bukit Peninsula.
Everybody travels on scooters… So we do!
Going down to Bingin Beach… It is a very narrow steep path to this beach made famous by the surfers.
Nearby at Padang Beach Pierre takes his first surf classes… Alex Magnen, our cousin, whom Agathe met by chance visited from Ubud.
Agathe has been working with Peter & Tatiana, they became friends, we meet them for dinner in a beautiful hotel where they are staying for the week-end: The Alila. Also in Uluwatu.
All these luxurious hotels are open but empty… Only Indonesians can travel to Bali and a few lucky ones like us…
We also explore other Luxurious Hotels: The Legian in Seminyak featuring Stéphane Sensey photos.
The Bulgari Hotel is very close to us… Absolutely gorgeous!
It is all about healthy & peaceful leaving… Sounds great! So we regularly go to The Istana at sunset for steam room, sauna, cold plunge, meditation, etc… Mostly “Bules” (a kind of shorthand to describe a white foreigner) and expats make the clientele…
Portraits of locals, they all are gentle, calm, playful.
At the beginning of our stay Agathe introduces us to some of her friends at a BBQ watching a fabulous sunset at Mana. A very young crowd, fun and friendly!
Still discovering our neighborhood, very cool boutique hotels and restaurants and surf shops: The Temple Lodge, Mú, Ours, Drifter.
We shop mostly at the local vegetables stand and at Nourish for bulk food. Meat or fish and everything else is more complicated… we need to drive with the scooter further away at Pepito supermarkets or specialty stores in Canggu that we discover by word of mouth: Via Emilia for italian, Alam Sari for cheese and foie gras… But, we have Gojek deliver. Gojek is a life saver here, they deliver, take you places or even move you!!! - Uber on steroids!!!
More of our local stores: The toy store, the hardware store, the pet store, etc…
Our gas station… BTW, here we pay in millions… 100.000 Indonesian Rupias is $7!!!!
The ice cream store and the basketry store…
Time to go on a little adventure! We rent a car and drive to the North-West tip of the island to Pemuteran. The drive thru the mountains is a challenge! As we look for our hotel in the middle of nowhere, the car gets into a ditch… and night is falling… The pigs are very amused… Pierre way less… Very quickly we get out of it!
We finally arrive at Sumberkima Hill a beautiful retreat where we stay 3 nights.
Bathrooms are always outdoors, with flowers and plants, sculptures, it is really lovely!
Enjoying the restaurant and watching The Crown when it rains…
Early in the morning, we meet our guides in Sumberkima Bay to go snorkeling by Menjangan Island or Deer Island. This island is situated in the protected marine reserve of the Bali Barat National Park. We snorkel, take a walk around and Pierre plays with the guides flying the drone!
On our way back thru the mountains and along the Lake Beratan, we stop at a Buddhist temple: Ulun Danu Beratan temple.
Next trip is Rote Island for a week. This island is situated to the southwest of the larger island of Timor, about a 3 hours flight from Denpasar. We are very close to Australia over there. Agathe had picked this trip back in March to go celebrate her 40th birthday. It is a surfer paradise and she definitely enjoys this place. She found this very rustic but charming tiny hotel: Boa Vida, our hut was right on the beach and the staff couldn’t have been nicer!
We are right on the beach and we love it!
Agathe surfs until dusk…
We explore the local life at the market. The roads are empty, there is absolutely no tourists and the thousands of pigs that usually run around the island disappeared with the African Swine Fever at the same time as the Covid arrived!
And go on a kayak trip thru the mangroves. It is spectacular!
Happy Birthday Agathe!
Time to go back… We had the best time celebrating Agathe!
Back in Bali we need to go to the immigration office. We had applied for retirees visas or kitas and had left our french passport at this office. Happy to get them back!!!
Hiro, our house manager, drives us to visit Semarapura: the market and The Klungkung Palace.
The market: birds (and insects to feed the birds), fishes, fabrics…
… and fashion: Hermès, Balenciaga, Chanel, Vuitton!!!!!!
Some food…
And a huge choice of offerings for the temples… Hinduist Indonesians spend 25% of their income on ceremonies and offerings!
Already Christmas! We host a small party without any xmas tree or decoration but we found some delicious foie gras! Our european guests can’t believe it!!!
Christmas Day lunch at Mú around the corner.
On New Year’s Eve, after a walk with the gods and goddesses, we enjoy the sunset with friends: Catalina & Mau and drinks at Mū! The following day yummy breakfast at Gooseberry Café & Boutique just a couple temples away…
We decide to take a quick trip with Agathe to a famous resort among surfers called Komune in Keramas. It is on our way to Amed where we will spend 2 nights. We drive by beautiful rice fields along the ocean.
Obviously we are surrounded by so much natural beauty and yet we are also easily surrounded by trash! Garbage collection is almost inexistant in Bali and plastic is a nightmare as in many third world countries. Very sad… These little plastic cups are allover for thirsty humans and dumped everywhere among many other items!
In Amed we stayed at The Kampung in a joglo, a traditional Javanese house. Amed is a small fishing village sought after by the divers. Due to Covid, there was really no any activity there but we found two very good french restaurants: Galanga and Rimba Café where we had a very good King’s Cake (galette des rois)! We enjoyed watching the fishermen return after a night at sea.
The driving there is again challenging! Hoping this one is not going to drop his house on us…
We walked thru the village.
We come back on time to celebrate King’s Day with a very delicious galette from Fren’cha a french bakery nearby. Very traditional in our family and Agathe’s favorite so we introduce it to Agathe’s friends: Andrea, Justin, Catalina, Mau and their daughter Brisa who obviously got the “fève”…
It is the rainy season and it rains… A lot! And the nature loves it!
Meanwhile the girls are having fun in Miami: Charlotte reading by the fire and Isabelle asking her gran-ma in Connecticut for more cookies: pleeeeeaaaaase!
We very often go out for lunch or dinner at: Nourish, Casa Asia, le nouveau Chella or La Baracca for very good pizzas..
Mū is also one of our favorite spot, we can walk there, nice way to meet locals:
Sometimes we have company during our lunch…
Today an other day to go scoot around and shopping in Canggu. Pierre is ready for the next video shooting on the scooter!
En route:
In Berawa, nice lunch at Milk and Madu Café, we stop by Cove a pretty store across the street, kids a gogo: very cute! Don’t expect deals… these are very nice stores and not cheap! They are mainly for expats! Ceremony along the way and basketry stores…
Again we enjoy driving thru rice fields on our way back.
Oops the rain is starting… We get ready for a major storm!!!
The fish market! We waited a long time before going not sure it would be worth it… We were not disappointed! It is not Tokyo’s fish market but it was still a great visit.
Very colorful fishes and shellfishes. We can even have them grilled on site in the many “warungs” (restaurants) around the market.
Last little road trip and surf for Agathe to Shangrila beach.
During our 3 months here, we also enjoyed acupuncture with Toto Lee (totally… :)), yoga, meditation and unbelievable breath work with Agathe & Agathepowerbaaaby, amazing wing massages with Justin Fuller and wonderful water therapy with Mau Gomez. Last one at this crazy spa: Udara!
Absolute relaxation and harmony…
Time to leave…
Pierre worked a lot and finished his Bali Life Episodes. We all had fun helping.
… And getting ready for Covid time traveling with PCR Tests…
Bye, bye our home, beach and neighborhood.
We celebrated being together!
