Since our ferry to Green Island wasn’t until 8:30, we headed to the nearby farmers market to explore and grabbed a smoothie for our walk to the wharf. The boat ride to Green Island was only about 45 minutes so felt much faster than the previous day’s journey to the reef. Since we had booked the glass bottom boat tour along with snorkeling, we walked around the island for a bit before our boat tour at 11 am. 

The boat tour was an interesting way to experience the reef. You could see all the fish swimming below especially when we got to the known feeding area for some of the bigger fish. The guide threw food over our side first and it was amazing how fast they swam and jumped out of the water for the food. After he fed on both sides, we floated over the reef for a few minutes before heading back into the jetty. 

Back on the island, we grabbed some lunch and quickly learned that in Australia they have a 15% surcharge on their food and drink on public holidays. And if you want to grab any alcoholic beverages you have to show a receipt that you have eaten within an hour of purchase (for Good Friday at least). Once we were fed, we put on our gear (same as the reef day) and headed into the water. 

The first part of the reef was super shallow and felt like I was swimming right on top of it. We ran into a family snorkeling who had said the further they went they didn’t see much so we decided to turn around and head towards the jetty. This was the best part of the water to snorkel in. We saw plenty of fish and coral though we both agreed doing another day in the outer reef would have been better views of the reef. But as we learned from the tour company employee, we will only see less than 0.001 % of the reef on our trip.

I didn’t realize how much the goggles from snorkeling would hurt my forehead, but it was definitely sore from the prior day so we decided to head back in and take a break. This also gave us the opportunity to check in on my sister, Brittany, who was heading through LAX to meet us in Syndey. We grabbed a soda and relaxed for a little bit before we decided to hop back in for a final swim and look at the reef. 

It was crazy how low the tide had gotten and the shallow reef we had been swimming in before was now nearly exposed. I only lasted about 15-20 minutes before I got frustrated with my mask and decided to head to the dock while Grant finished exploring and taking videos. On my way back to the dock, I saw something long and grey swimming ahead. I tried to get closer to get a better view, but the shark ended up swimming into the boat area where snorkelers weren’t allowed in. As soon as Grant caught back up with me, I told him I saw a shark swimming below. Thankfully, we were able to see two black tip grey sharks swimming in the waters on our way back to the ferry while we were walking on the pier.

Once back in Cairns, we dropped off the GoPro and headed back to the Airbnb to shower and enjoy our last night in Cairns. We grabbed dinner and headed back to my new favorite churro place for some more churros! Afterwards, we packed up our stuff and headed to bed as we had a 4:30 wake-up call for our flight. 

Great Barrier Reef day! The day started early as we had to check in for the boat at 7:30 am. I woke up with a slight cold so was questioning whether or not I should scuba while Grant’s leg was still looking rough (though finally on the mend). We both really wanted to see the reef so were hoping we could push through the day and enjoy the views! Once boarded, they gave us our goggles, fins, and stinger suits for snorkeling. The stinger suits were a full body wet suit with mitten like hands and head covering in case we ran into small jellyfish out in the water. 

Our seat mates for the boat journey throughout the day were Paul and Lisa from Austria. They were also traveling the world, but unlike us spending just a few days to a week in one place, they were traveling throughout the entirety of a country no matter how long it took. They said they spend about 20-30 days in most countries but had already been in Australia for 1.5 months visiting Melbourne, Sydney, and now Cairns before heading to Perth for the last portion. 

It is always interesting to hear the differences in lifestyles from people around the world. Lisa was in a way getting paid to do online schooling by the government while on this trip and that was a large portion of how they were funding their travels. Paul also noted on his travels to the US how “scary cops are in the US”. He noted that his dad got out of the car when stopped for speeding because that’s what they do in Austria and said that the cop yelled through the speaker to get back in to his vehicle. Good reminder to be friendly to tourists and visitors to our country as it’s probably very different from the culture they’re used to. 

After a 1.5 hour ride to our first reef stop, Saxon Reef, and safety briefing of snorkeling and scuba diving, it was time to head into the waters. The wife in me wanted Grant not to miss out on seeing the reef by snorkeling/scuba diving even though “medical Meghan” knew it wasn’t the right thing as we were risking further infection since some of his wounds had opened and the water was pretty warm….(exactly why you don’t treat your family!) 

Once we got our gear on, we hopped into the water and immediately saw a turtle! Grant spotted him first and was able to catch a video of him swimming before he went further down into the reef. It was absolutely incredible to see all the fish swimming in and out of the coral. I quickly became obsessed with the Parrotfish and tried to get as many videos as I could. It was my first time using a GoPro so I struggled for a while remembering to turn off the video before I came back to the surface. 

Near the end of our first hour of snorkeling, both of us were struggling with our goggles flooding with water. They called in our group for the introductory dive so it was perfect time to (hopefully) get things situated. We sat on the edge of the boat with our tanks on before one by one hopping in. When it was my turn to head under, I still struggled with my goggles flooding. The instructor helped me figure out how to clear them under water but I would mess up my breathing technique and freak out. After about the third time going back up to the surface, I tapped out and just headed back to snorkel. Grant was able to get his dive in and said he really enjoyed it! Though he did say after the first 10 minutes or so of being with the instructor, she kind of left them to their own devices for the last 15 minutes or so. I’d be interested in trying it again in a more controlled environment (and not the open ocean for my first time). 

Grant joined back up with me for the last 45 minutes we had to snorkel at this reef before heading back into the boat for lunch. The cruise company definitely had a system between their reef sites and organizing food on the boat. 

After a 45 minute ride to the next site, we hopped in and joined the snorkel tour given by the marine biologist. I switched to child size goggles (small head over here) and finally no more issues with water flooding inside! It was really cool to join the tour since he knew where to find certain things like getting to see Nemo (a clownfish) swimming through the anemone and learning about the different types of coral and fish we were seeing from under the surface. Though it was crazy to realize how many people didn’t know how to swim very well without running into people or swimming on top of them, or even knowing how to swim at all. 

Once the tour was over, we headed to explore the other parts of the reef we didn’t get to see on the tour for the last 45 minutes. We saw more parrot fish and I was able to spot a moray eel! I thought I was getting a video of it swimming away but turned out I was only doing a Timelapse of pictures. Again lack of experience with GoPros…

We had a 1.5 hour ride to Cairns so we enjoyed our complimentary glass of wine and the views as we headed back. We decided to rent the GoPro for another day as we were planning on heading to Green Island the next day to do another day of snorkeling! Since we were both exhausted from the day, we headed back to our place for a shower and grabbed some Asian food nearby. 

Our next morning we headed up the main highway to the edge of the Daintree Rainforest for our crocodile river cruise. It felt like we were in the movie Anaconda just cruising the river looking for danger to come. Our guide told us since it was a warm morning most of the crocodiles were likely to stay in the water to stay cool. For our hour tour, we were only able to catch one crocodile lying on the bank of the river but was still a great cruise nonetheless. After grabbing a couple of pictures of her, we headed back to the marina. One of the tourists did point out a baby crocodile swimming near the boat and I was able to catch a glimpse of him before he swam into the reeds. 

Our guide told us that the crocodiles in the Daintree usually spend more time on the banks in their winter months so as it was still warm we would have to keep looking for heads poking up out of the water. He said it’s illegal in Queensland to feed wild crocodiles unlike in the Far North Queensland where they do things a bit different. Sounds like people in the FNQ are the “rednecks” of Australia. 

Although we weren’t successful in seeing more crocodiles, it was still an insightful tour. We also learned a new Aussie word “budgiesmugglers”. Definitely one everyone should look up and add to their vocabulary (more so because it’s a funny word for the term). We heard it when he was describing a guy in Far North Queensland trying to get social media likes by dressing in his “budgiesmugglers” near crocodile water and his dog ended up getting snatched and killed.

After our cruise, we drove onto the ferry for the short cruise across the river before heading up into the rainforest to Daintree Discovery Centre. Before arriving at the center, we stopped by Alexandra Overlook to take some pictures. A big tour group was analyzing something over by the edge of the parking lot so once they cleared the area we headed over to take a look. Turned out to be a large golden orb spider sitting on her web. Grant took some photos of the spider (even though the long zoom kept trying to zoom past the spider into the trees behind) and we headed up to the discovery center. 

It was a small center with several walkways going between the rainforest with guides discussing the different fauna located there. They also had a canopy tower you could climb up to get an aerial view of the rainforest. It took about 2 hours to go through and listen to most of the guided tour along with viewing the reptile center and aquarium attached to the center. As we headed out, we asked for recommendations from one of the center’s workers who suggested we grab ice cream at one of the local places and continue our drive up to Cape Tribulation, or “Cape Trib” as he called it – Australians love to abbreviate any word they can we discovered.

Our first stop was the ice creamery he had mentioned and we tried their taster. It was a small cup with four scoops of the following flavors: coconut, jackfruit, passion fruit, and wattleseed. Our favorite was of course the passion fruit, but the wattleseed had an interesting hazelnut like flavor to it and was local to the region. 

We continued our journey winding through the rainforest up to Cape Tribulation. We stopped at the Kulki lookout and walked along the beach. It was surprising how many beaches we walked on that were nearly empty if not completely desolate. Guess people really don’t want to visit them if you run the risk of running into crocodiles or marine stingers (jellyfish). We stopped by a local market to grab some waters and snacks for our drive back to Cairns and hit the road for the 2 hour journey. 

On our way back towards Cairns, we made a quick pit stop at one of the beaches along the coastline to get some more drone footage. Of course the beach was completely empty (like most of them were that didn’t have any marked swimming areas). We think most people in Queenstown really abide by the no swimming areas since they don’t know where “Salties” (aka saltwater crocodiles) may be. We stopped by another beach spot to let Grant take his drone out and fly it around. We were the only ones on the beach except for one guy that drove by on his 4 wheeler with his dogs. 

Grant had seen Mossman Gorge previously on his research of Cairns so we stopped by to see what it was about. As we didn’t have the best service on the drive, we couldn’t get an exact answer on when it closed. However, when we arrived, we overheard the worker telling a group the last shuttle back to the visitor center was at 5:30 leaving only about 10 minutes to explore the area. As it was $45/person for us to visit, we decided it wasn’t worth it for that little of time so we headed back out on the road.

Getting back into Cairns, we headed straight to the airport to drop off our rental car. We had been told that if we arrived back into Cairns after 5pm to drop it off at the airport instead of the city center for an extra charge. The lady we gave the keys to was so nice and said that she would change the drop off time to 5pm so we didn’t incur any extra charges. We grabbed an Uber back in town and had some dinner before prepping for an early morning on a boat headed to the Great Barrier Reef. 

Grant headed to the clinic around 6:30 AM to try and get in line to be seen. We had been advised to get there at least 30 mins before opening which was good advice because there was already seven people in line and they had already opened the doors to allow people to fill out paperwork. About an hour and a half later, he was diagnosed with cellulitis and given a much higher dose of antibiotics to hopefully clear the infection. The doctor told him that most doctors in Asia are used to a smaller frame so don’t always prescribe a high enough dose to effectively treat patients especially foreigners. They performed a swab on him and unlike in the US, they just gave him the bag and told him to walk it down the street to the lab.

Once medicine was in hand and overnight bags packed, we were ready to head up the coastline to Daintree Rainforest. We stopped in Palm Cove and grabbed some breakfast with an ocean view. Then it was off to Hartley’s Crocodile Adventure. There they have a man made river where they’ve taken in/rescued saltwater crocodiles. When you get your tickets, they give you a boat tour time so we had about an hour to kill before it was time to board our boat. 

We walked through the koala section along with the kangaroo and wallaby area. I was surprised they had the kangaroos and wallabies just free roaming the area where you could go up to and feed or pet them. We were both a little nervous to get close but did end up petting a wallaby laying down. They had a reptile center (Grant’s favorite as he just loves snakes…just like my love for frogs which is more of a strong dislike) along with some lizards including a Komodo dragon. Grant is already “planning” a trip to head back to Indonesia to see the Sumatran tigers and visit Komodo island. 

The boat tour was very interesting as there were several crocodiles to see in the water and along the banks of the river. They have one big male in the river along with 22 females. Part of the boat tour was a crocodile feeding. That was crazy to see as they kind of tease them with it to get some head shakes, jaw snaps, and jumping before they release the chicken to them. 

Afterwards, we grabbed a quick snack and debated heading up to Port Douglas or staying for the 3pm croc attack show. We decided to stay and finish our tour around the center to see the other crocodiles before the show. The show was interesting to watch as it is just one trainer and the crocodile to show the audience what the croc can do when hunting. She told us at the beginning that she had only worked with him a couple of times and this wasn’t the usual croc they used for the show so she had a whole crew ready to back her up if anything went south. Thankfully nothing bad happened but it was intense to watch. We didn’t realize what they actually did during the show in order to show the death roll and head shake maneuvers a crocodile does to kill its prey. Her voice was noticeably shaky throughout so you could tell she was legitimately nervous about working with the new croc.

Once the show was finished, we headed off to Port Douglas. This time I got to try my hand at driving on the left hand side of the road. It definitely takes a little bit to get the hang of where your car should be in the lane and there were a couple of times I was too close to the edge of the road on Grant’s side. We stopped for a quick pit stop at Rex Lookout to get some drone footage and pictures. 

Once in Port Douglas, we grabbed an early dinner at a Mexican restaurant but we were both getting to the “headache stage of hunger” so just chose the first thing we saw. While there, we tried to plan out the rest of the evening. We looked for hotels in the area as well as closer to Daintree and decided it was best to stay with the short drive and stay in town. 

We swung by Four Mile Beach to catch a glimpse of sunset before heading to our hotel for the evening. The beaches here along the Queensland coastline have signs everywhere warning about marine stingers (or jellyfish as we call them) and crocodiles. I guess that makes sense why most of the beaches we would stop by were pretty empty. 

Our flight out of Bali went smoother than the initial flight in. We again stopped through Singapore for a short layover before heading to Cairns. Australia was very big on biodiversity and since we were coming from Indonesia they wanted to make sure we hadn’t come in contact with any game animals during our stay there. We even walked through an area right off the plane that cleaned our shoes before heading in to the immigration area. 

Our walk through customs was relatively smooth and all electronic (which meant no Australia stamp for us). We checked in via a kiosk that gave us a ticket to use further down the line that took our picture. Once we grabbed our bags, they again asked us about any exposure to farm animals in Indonesia as they were trying to prevent the spread of Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease to their livestock here. They even asked to look at the bottom of our shoes. When we were through with everything, we were finally out to grab our Uber to the Airbnb. It was nice to be able to walk out of the airport being greeted with English and not be bombarded by taxi drivers asking if we needed a ride.  

Since we arrived in Cairns in the evening, we were ready for some dinner. We found a local burger place to grab food and some milkshakes. It was definitely back to western prices and were already missing those cheap meals of Southeast Asia. Back at the Airbnb, we unpacked for the week and decided to end the evening watching Tetris on AppleTV. If you haven’t seen it, I would recommend it! I never realized the whole story behind the popular game but it’s a pretty interesting and intense one. 

The next morning Grant headed to the barber shop to grab a haircut and beard trim as he left his shaver back home to reduce the weight for our Africa leg. He also swung by the medical clinic as his leg was not improving on the medicine he was currently on. He quickly learned the setbacks of socialized medicine as the receptionist told him the doctor was likely to be booked out all day and the next available appointment was Wednesday evening (2 days later). We decided to just head to the clinic early the next morning to hopefully get seen and figure out why it was getting worse instead of better.

Afterwards, we stopped by the Cairns Central shopping center to grab my 6th pair of sunglasses on the trip. We grabbed lunch in the food court (which shamefully was McDonalds) and stopped by Target on the way out. The first Target we had seen all trip so of course we had to stop in. Grant grabbed a pair of “Aussie man short shorts” as he calls them to help keep from rubbing on his wound.  

Since we had booked a reef trip for Thursday, we decided to rent a car to head up to the Daintree Rainforest and explore that area for the next two days. We picked up our rental car and dropped it back at our place before heading to the esplanade to stroll along the beachside. We stopped by one of the tourist centers to ask for tips on what to see and do in Cairns and got some information regarding the reef. He told us that he’s been diving for the last 10-15 years and still has only seen a small percentage of the reef. He said if we enjoyed the reef day to do it again on Friday or head to one of the local islands to snorkel. We also asked about the hype regarding the Great Barrier Reef dying and only having so many years left and he passionately explained that he felt that was media hype and that portions of the reef go through the circle of life all the time.

One of the cool things about Cairns was that they had a large public swimming pool that was free to anyone and backed up almost right to the ocean. We tested out the water and continued our walk around the beachfront before stopping at an Italian restaurant for some pizza. They had a churro place nearby that looked delicious so we gave it a try and did the three mini churros. These were honestly some of the best churros I have ever had. I could have gone there every night (but we didn’t)! 

We headed back to the apartment as it was an early morning for Grant to head to the clinic. 

Our last day in Bali was finally a rest and relax day. I got up early to get a workout in at the resort gym which was nice and empty! We grabbed breakfast at a different hotel on the resort property and were a little worried at first because the tram driver said it was a Japanese themed restaurant. It turned out they had a huge buffet of western breakfast foods along with some Asian foods. Isiah and Ellen were finally able to try some snake fruit and had the same assessment as Grant: that it was a more bland apple or pear.

Once our bellies were full, we headed down to enjoy some relaxation at Kubu Beach. To get there, you had to take a glass lift built into the cliffside to the bottom. It gave a great view of the ocean below and we got to see a couple of sea turtles pop their heads out of the water before diving deeper!

The water was pretty warm but like in Vietnam, the waves were pretty choppy. We grabbed some tropical drinks from the cliffside bar to enjoy while Grant and I browsed things to do for our coming days in Cairns. And yet again, I lost another pair of sunglasses (ones that isiah had just brought out) to the ocean waves. Will I ever learn not to stand in the ocean no matter how shallow with my glasses on? Who knows…

Since Grant and I were staying another night at the resort, we had received complimentary thalassotherapy massages. Neither one of us had done a water massage before so we decided to give it a try before our 5pm reservation at Rock Bar. We headed off to the spa while Ellen and Isiah showered and packed up their things to check out.

Turned out the massage was a bunch of different jets in a large pool that you would shuffle through. The jets were at certain heights to hit various parts of your back and legs along with feet. My favorite part was actually the waterfall one that targeted the neck and shoulders. We didn’t realize the clock at the pool was a little behind so we ended up rushing through a shower to get ready for our reservation.

Grant had previously seen this bar on the internet before we had booked the resort and it turned out to be on the same property so it was just a short tram ride away. We’re not sure if we actually had a reservation as they just put us in the same line as everyone else and sat us at a table nearby the water. We thought it would be a neat experience watching sunset by the water, but with the rain and umbrellas opened up in front of us it was hard to see for a portion of time. When it was closer to sunset, the rain fortunately stopped to view the sun descending and we were able to get some good pictures of the view. However, if you travel to Bali, we wouldn’t recommend it unless you want to overpay for drinks and experience the club vibes on a cliff.

We headed back up to our hotel to get one last skyline view on the rooftop bar before we had to say goodbye to Ellen and Isiah as they still had a day and a half left in Bali while we headed to our last continent of the trip, Australia.

Our last morning in Ubud, we grabbed breakfast at Dough Darlings as we had seen the cafe earlier in the week and wanted to give it a try. Grant and I tried the vanilla glaze, salted caramel and red velvet donuts. We learned that morning that a piccolo was basically a small latte. Isiah and Ellen tried a Green Tea and a Chocolate cake filled donut. They were good but too rich for them to finish.

After breakfast, we stopped by an ATM to grab some cash to close out our bills for the Airbnb and begin our journey down to Uluwatu. This time Galih was our driver for the morning. It is funny when these drivers say their English isn’t that good, but Galih’s was actually pretty decent. We could easily have a conversation with him throughout the 1.5 hour drive. The crazy thing that we have seen a lot of, is Galih had no formal English teaching. He learned just from driving people around and listening to American music. He’d only been speaking English for 1.5 years or so and was pretty good.

When we arrived at the resort, we were greeted by the concierge with a lei that was placed around us. It was like what you see in the movies (sorry neither one of us had experienced that before!). As we had checked in prior to our rooms being ready, we headed up to the rooftop bar to take in the ocean view and enjoy their welcome drink.

Grant and I headed to our room while Ellen and Isiah explored the resort grounds. They headed down to the beach to take a look and feel the water and were able to see monkeys on their tram ride back!

We had read that it was best to get to the Uluwatu temple early especially if viewing the Kecak dance at 6 pm to ensure a good seat. We weren’t sure how big the property was, but when we were there it seemed like they had some areas that were closed off. My friend had said to watch out for the monkeys as they were again aggressive like the ones in the sanctuary and will steal stuff like sunglasses. We actually witnessed two ladies lose their glasses to a monkey and a friendly man had to use trickery to get them back from the monkeys. He found some candy to “trade” them but it seems the monkeys have trained the humans in that the monkeys now know they’ll get a treat if they steal shiny things off humans!

Prior to the show, they gave a handout explaining the different acts we were going to see and thankfully they did because I would have been so confused during the show. The dance was astounding to witness especially when the monkey freed himself and started kicking real fire around. I didn’t catch the moment it went too close to the crowd but you can see in the video how wildly he was just flicking the fire through the arena.

Afterwards, we headed back to the resort to grab some dinner. Isiah and Ellen decided to try the special being offered which was a traditional Balinese meal. We learned they cook a lot of their food with a shrimp paste so I had to avoid it with my shellfish allergy. Grant and I tried a couple of things off their platter and it was really good. But definitely safer that we didn’t get it with my allergy. We ended the evening with three different desserts as we couldn’t decide between the couples which one to get so we chose our top three. We learned over the course of the week that Grant and Ellen had similar tastes while Isiah and I shared similar tastes.

As we learned the previous day during our coffee tour, cinnamon is locally grown there in Ubud. Also, we didn’t realize cinnamon comes from tree bark (they showed us some at the coffee plantation). Our minds were blown but the bark seriously smells like cinnamon. So of course we had to try breakfast at Ubud Cinnamon and it was only 200 meters from our place so just a quick walk there! We tried the cream cheese and salted caramel mini cinnamon rolls and they tasted like the Cinnabon rolls if not better!

After breakfast, we met up with Agus to head out for another tour day. Our first stop was at Aloha Ubud to grab those swing pictures you see all over Instagram. They have dresses for rent in several colors and it was only $12 to rent so I said “why not?” When in Bali right?? (Warning: lots of pictures ahead)

They were pretty efficient in shuffling people through the the six swings and picture spots. And then hit you at the end with “Here’s your professional pics, buy them”. Grant had been taking pictures from behind but since he had missed a couple shots we decided to go with their deal since it was “cheap.” And they some of them turned out pretty well!

Our next stop was at a local waterfall. Isiah’s one request was to head to a waterfall that’s not crowded with a bunch of tourists. Agus knew exactly where to go and took us to Gua Rangreng waterfall. We headed down a set of stairs that opened up to the base of the first waterfall. Grant and Isiah climbed up the side and had the guide help them down through the water. Ellen and I were initially confused as we thought from our angle that the guide was going to have them slide on their backs through a bunch of rocks to the base. Thankfully he was just showing them various spots that would feel nice under the water and helped them make it back down safely. We all got a good laugh in that the guide knew the fall so well he just walked down it the whole time while Grant and Isiah stayed on their butts so as to not fall.

Afterwards, Agus told us that the guide could take us through the river to the other two waterfalls so we decided to take him up on the offer. None of us were prepared for the trek we were about to make through the river. I can’t remember if he told us to take our shoes off or just thought that’s what was best, but those of us wearing sandals should have kept them on. The walk through the river was just walking over various sized rocks throughout 95% of the hike. At one point I turned to Grant and told him “This is not enjoyable!”. Thankfully, two other guides headed back had a bag of shoes that he gave me and Ellen to wear for the final portion of the hike.

Once to the sandbar area, we took off the shoes and swam through the river to the other waterfalls. There was a swing that you could get on while the guide would take pictures. You could tell he had done this a bunch and had his photo spots to get that “right picture.” We swam further into the river to the final spot before turning to head back.

Once back through the last waterfall, the guide stopped to ask if any of us wanted to jump off the small ledge above us. We all took turns but you definitely had to keep your legs in a cannonball position or you were going to hit the bottom. The walk back was a little better (at least for me as I had those shoes) but Grant and Isiah were still struggling walking over the rocks. They ended up sharing the pair of shoes Ellen was using and ended up with one shoe each. Ellen was a trooper and did the best barefoot on the rocks.

We all were exhausted by that point and were ready for a shower and quick reprieve before dinner. Ellen had found a nice dinner place to try which turned out to be in a nearby resort. We were surprised to find the menu prices weren’t that bad as we thought the prices would have been higher at a nice resort like this. Even with the four of us, dinner and drinks was under $100.

We headed back to our villa to figure out the last two days Grant and I had in Bali. The next airline we were flying, Jetstar, had emailed us and pulled our departure date in by one day which gave us less Bali time. We decided to head down south towards Uluwatu and spend the time relaxing at a resort there. Since the resort was closer to the airport, Grant and I spent the rest of the night packing up our things before closing our eyes for the night.

Our second morning was very relaxed with the exception of determining whether or not to check out the nearby medical clinic for Grant’s heat rash and mosquito bite that he got while in Cambodia as things started to look worse.

We had decided the night before as a group to let the Airbnb staff make us breakfast as it was an option available in the guide book given to us at check in. It turned out to be a full spread with a fruit plate, smoothie, coffee/tea, pastries, and a plate with scrambled eggs, veggies, sausage and toast. Everything tasted so fresh and was prepared in the kitchen attached to your Airbnb, and ended up being no more than maybe $5 / person.

After breakfast, Grant and I headed to the clinic while Ellen and Isiah headed back to their place as she had to work on some homework for her online class. We were surprised how quick we got in and out of the clinic. The doctor gave Grant some oral antibiotics, steroids, and a steroid/antibiotic cream. We were hoping this would help as it was starting to hurt while he was walking and I could tell it was infected. We grabbed the meds/receipt and headed back to the villa to start the adventures for the day.

This time we had Ellen and Isiah’s driver, Agus, drive us around for the day. Our first stop was a nearby coffee plantation where she gave us a short tour about the coffee plants and other spices they grow on the property. We also got to meet the civets they use to make the Luwak coffee which is made by collecting the coffee beans from the civet dung. Supposedly makes the coffee less caffeinated but with a slight bitter taste. It wasn’t too bad but still wasn’t an absolute favorite of mine. It’s pretty expensive coffee, even locally in Indonesia, mainly because they only pick up the dung from wild civets naturally out eating beans in the field (in other words, it is pretty sparse).

We got a tasting of 5 coffees and 5 teas. You could tell they definitely added a bunch of sugar to all the drinks because they were really sweet. They had a ginger tea that made it seem like you just ate a whole ginger root. Isiah was the only fan of that one.

Grant was actually surprised they let him fly his drone around to snag a couple of videos and photos. This turned out to be the only place that didn’t have any No Drone signs around the property.

Our next stop was the Tegalalang Rice Terrace which is supposedly a UNESCO world heritage site. The site was really pretty but you could tell they had ramped the tourism portion up with adding stops to take photos like you were an authentic rice field worker, a zipline, a bicycle tightrope, along with some more swings. I didn’t realize that these swings were everywhere here. I thought there was really only one Bali swing but turns out every place has turned it into a tourist attraction.

Our last stop was the elephant cave which was one of the temples near Ubud. They have certain rules about people who cannot enter the temple (look up if you’re curious) so I decided to stay back to respect their culture. Turns out once in there, Grant, Isiah and Ellen ended up getting a tour from a local inside and could only understand about 25% of what he was saying.

As we were all hungry for a snack/late lunch, Agus dropped us off at a local restaurant near a rice field. We again got to sit up on a gazebo above the water. We learned that Ubud is known for their duck so Isiah was the brave one and tried out the crispy duck entree. He said it was actually pretty decent. Once finished, we headed back to the villas to rest for a moment and shower before heading to get pedicures and massages. Turns out Grant and Isiah had never had a pedicure and isiah had never had a massage before so we figured since they were so cheap here they needed to give it a try.

The pedicures weren’t the same as they are in the states but at least the guys could say they tried them out. Isiah loved his massage so much that Ellen and him decided to stay for foot massages while Grant and I headed for some food. We grabbed a drink and dinner at Taco Casa which thankfully turned out to be loads better than the chain we have in the states. (We were a little weary at first but the food was delicious!)

When we met up back up with them, we stopped by a restaurant nearby that had live music playing. He seemed like a local trying to be Jamaican but he did have a decent voice singing some Bob Marley. While there, we figured out our plans for the next day and then headed back to our villas to get some rest!

Real talk: I had originally chosen Bali as a place for relaxation with some sight seeing built in. I had seen some of my friends and people I follow on Instagram visit the island and it looked beautiful. There is no doubt this place is beautiful but the terrible traffic and having the big things I wanted being so spread out made it harder to truly enjoy. Don’t get me wrong, we enjoyed our time here in Bali and were glad Isiah and Ellen could come but it just wasn’t what we initially thought the week would be.

After our slight delay in Singapore, we finally arrived in Bali. Grant had read that Americans didn’t need to buy a tourist visa but when we got there they had a huge list of countries requiring a visa so headed in line to purchase ours. They had a QR code declaration form that we filled out prior to boarding which allowed us to get through customs quickly while others had to go back to nearby stands to fill them out.

With bags in hand, we headed to meet our driver, Galih. The drive from Denpasar to Ubud that night was about 1 hour so we enjoyed viewing the sights along the way and talking to Galih. Once he knew we were from LA, the majority of the conversation turned to questions about marijuana – funny how even halfway around the world he’s aware that it’s legal there. He really wants to try it but says it is way too expensive in Bali (and still illegal there).

Once at the Airbnb, we met our host Dewa who we think maybe was our driver’s uncle. Grant’s friend isiah and his fiancé joined us this leg of the trip and their driver, Agus, was also part of the family. He toured us around the place and asked if we knew our plans for the next day. We told him we would meet with our friends and try to plan out our week (which turned into more of a day by day planning).

The next morning we woke up to a view of the rice paddy field behind our place and workers already starting their day. We met up with Isiah and Ellen who were staying just across the road (very convenient!). Walking down the street, we stopped into one of the first breakfast places we saw that looked appealing. We tried some Balinese coffee which was actually really good. I don’t usually drink black coffee but this one didn’t need any sugar or cream added to it. The food was also delicious and seemed very fresh. I honestly don’t think we’ve been too disappointed with food on this trip besides Grant’s steak fiascos.

After breakfast, we headed to our first stop of the trip: Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary. This houses hundreds of Balinese long-tailed macaques. My friend, Kelsey, had just visited Bali the previous week and said the monkeys were mean and kind of terrifying. Even hearing that I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. It felt like Jurassic Park meets Planet of the Apes. I was on alert the entire time as monkeys literally surrounded you from the ground nearby to up in the tree tops.

We of course did the obligatory monkey selfie. Don’t worry, the monkey isn’t actually holding your phone. The trainer takes the pics and hands the monkey pieces of corn to make it look like he’s taking it. We did get a little suspicious of doing it as the lady before us got bit by the monkey. We think it was because she was wearing shiny sunglasses and he got scared of his reflection. Thankfully nothing happened to us! Well while we were sitting there. I grabbed our water bottle to take a drink and had a monkey run up to my legs. I may have let out a scream and tried to walk away fast so thankfully no scratches or bites there.

As we continued through the forest, we saw a monkey jump on a guy to get his souvenir that was in a plastic bag. They have signs all around saying to hide any plastic you have because the monkey will try to steal. We also witnessed a monkey charge a kid and the boy’s mom tried to scare it off by getting in between and yelling at it (which they say not to do). Definitely some heart pumping action there (a little too much for my liking!).

On our way out of the forest, we got our first major rain since Victoria Falls which felt refreshing after all the heat we’ve been in. Hopping into a restaurant to get dry, we grabbed a light lunch and some drinks before heading off to explore some more. We walked through a street market and ended up taking a long detour through some rice paddy fields to head to the Campuhan Ridge walk. The views along the ridge were stunning and headed into a little village of shops and restaurants. We stopped by one of them to grab some fresh juice and smoothies. The table we sat at was under a gazebo out in a pond-like area. We would find this was a common set up at some restaurants in Ubud.

We made the trek back down to our Airbnb, which was about a 5km walk turning our relaxing day into 11miles of exploring. As no one was in the mood to go back out in the rain for a restaurant, we tried our hand at the food ordering app in Bali, called Grab. Our Villa didn’t have a name nor an actual address so Grant and Isiah had a fun time trying to meet up with the driver who was delivering our pizza. They ended up having to hop on a phone call to try to figure out where the other person was, however the driver spoke almost no English and Grant spoke no Balinese. Grant ended up taking a picture of the sign he was standing near and the guy just happened to know where that was! He had been just around the corner it turned out. Grant tried to tip the guy especially since he was delivering our food in the rain, but he adamantly refused any amount of extra money. Seems like we’re one of the few countries that expects tips, especially higher than 10%.

Even with their struggles of meeting the driver, the food turned out great! We finished our pizza and planned out the next day of activities.