Adventure

Next Stop – El Nido!

SarahLeave a comment

Sunday 7th May 2023

We were up at a decent time to actually enjoy breakfast today! Our rate at our hotel didn’t include breakfast, however they did have an Abaca Bakery & Cafe downstairs that served a buffet breakfast for anyone staying at the hotel for around AUD$17 per person.

We decided to give this a go as we had our hair appointments at 10am so didn’t want to go around trying to find something to eat. I’m usually a big buffet person, however I’m always a little disappointed in buffet breakfasts in Asia. Mainly because I find the food so dry. The pancakes are dry, the waffles are dry, the little mini muffins and croissants they serve you are always dry. Safe to say, everything I had was pretty dry 😅 but oh well, we had food and that’s all that really matters.

After our breakfast, we took a GRAB to the mall for our blow-wave appointment. I was called first and was in the middle of having my hair washed when Bree came over and told me that they told her they couldn’t do her at the same time and she would have to go after me. As we had a flight that afternoon, we didn’t want to waste time so Bree said she’d find somewhere else in the mall to do her hair. It was quite disappointing as I had double checked with the receptionist the night before and she said they could do us both at the same time. They tried saying it was because two staff had called in sick however I didn’t quite believe that as when we arrived that morning there was a customer asking if they could do her hair right away even though she didn’t have an appointment and they said yes 🤔

Actual photo evidence of said lady asking them if they could do her hair for her. 😂

The blow wave was fine for $10 – nothing amazing but I wasn’t expecting much either. I was hoping there would be some kind of scalp massage in the conditioner process but sadly there was not (me over here just dying for a good massage somewhere 😩)

Bree did find somewhere a few shops down that could fit her in for a blow wave so with our freshly washed hair, we headed back to the hotel so we could pack up the rest of our gear, check-out and head to the airport.

Blow wave – straightened by me as the humidity made it frizz on the way home 😅

The drive to the airport was around 40 minutes so we arrived about 3 hours prior to departure – plenty of time to spare! (The check-in actually wasn’t even opened when we arrived) so we were quite early.

Once check-in opened, we checked in and received our boarding passes for our flight to El Nido which is on Palawan Island. I also had to sign a document saying I was less than 34 weeks pregnant and was able to fly without a medical certificate (you usually only need a note if you’re 26 weeks+)

If you’re ever going to El Nido, the fastest way is to fly with Airswift (which is the only airline that fly directly to El Nido Town). However, this can be expensive at around AUD$200-$300 per person. The cheapest way most people do it is by flying to Puerto Princesa which is the main international airport on Palawan and where the major airlines like Cebu Pacific & Philippine Airlines fly to. The only downfall to this is there is then a 6 hour drive to El Nido. 😩 however the flights are probably around AUD$30-$50 from Manila or Cebu and the transport is AUD$20 to El Nido which makes for a cheap trip if you have the time. We however, were only in The Philippines for a week so went with the nicer option of a 1.5 hour flight with a pick up from the airport by the hotel and a quick 15 minute drive to El Nido ☺️

There were quite a few food options at Cebu Airport and even though I probably had enough to eat already that day after the breakfast 😒 I got a yummy punnet of fries with this sour cream seasoning for lunch and a little Dunkin Donut 🍩 to eat on the plane.

By the time we had browsed a couple of the shops and walked around a little, we had an hour until boarding so we sat at our gate waiting for the call to board the bus that would take us to our plane on the tarmac. I remember at one stage the name “Sarah” being called over the intercom but I didn’t really register as they CONSTANTLY were talking about gate changes and saying peoples names over the intercom. I think Bree mentioned something like “hey was that your name?” And I probably said “nah I don’t think so” however the gate agent came over to me and asked if I was Sarah. I said I was and she asked if I had a medical certificate to fly as I was pregnant. I told her I’m sure I didn’t need one as I was under 26 weeks but she said I did and I’d have to go with another gate agent to be seen by the airport doctor. Bree and I were a little confused as it was literally about 5 minutes from boarding. I went with her anyways and someone (I assume the doctor) took my blood pressure and temperature at the medical office they had at the airport. Then they kept having discussions with each other in Filipino (obviously about me and whether to let me fly or not) i overhead the doctor say the number 34 so I quickly said “excuse me, I’m actually 24 weeks” – they looked puzzled and someone else said “no your age is 34” which I replied “no I’m 31, I’m 24 weeks though” but I still don’t think they understood and actually thought I was 34 weeks pregnant. Bree messaged me on Messenger at this stage and said everyone had boarded the bus so I got a bit nervous worried that I was gonna miss the flight. I mentioned it to the gate agent sitting next to me and she said no one was boarding yet but when I told her that my friend had messaged me and said they were she was like “oh really?” And then started messaging someone else 🫣

Anyways, 15-20 minutes later I signed some documents and got a medical certificate saying I was fit to fly (funnily enough throughout this process I actually realised I was now 25 weeks pregnant but I didn’t want to say anything Incase I caused any confusion and more doubt 🫠)

With certificate in hand, I was back at the gate where Bree was waiting for me with my carry on suitcase. Not to mention everyone on our flight was waiting for us on the bus 🫣 woops.

When we got to the plane, we got off the bus and were escorted onto the plane first. I assumed everyone was coming behind us but we must have been getting the special pregnancy treatment 😂 we were shown to our seats, helped with our luggage and told if we needed any help from the attendant to just call the call button. All the while everyone else was stopped to wait on the tarmac while we were seated. I had kept joking to Bree throughout the trip “when am I gonna get my special pregnancy treatment” and I definitely finally got it 😂

The flight to El Nido was about 1.5 hours and apart from a bumpy landing onto the runway, it was quite enjoyable!

We had a driver from our hotel waiting for us at the airport to take us to our accommodation which was nice not having to organise anything.

Already we knew we would enjoy El Nido more than Cebu. Driving through to the main centre of town, everything looked more relaxed and there were more tourists which was a relief as I’m not sure how much longer we could cope with being stared at in Cebu being the two white tourist girls 😅

Our hotel was nice. H Hotel is a relatively new hotel right in the centre of El Nido (about a 3 minute walk to the beach and to where all the boat tours leave from). The staff were really welcoming and helpful and the room was nice – albeit a bit small. The had decorated it for Bree as a ‘congratulations on her upcoming wedding’ but the colours they used made it seem more like a honeymoon set up 😂 maybe they misunderstood my request.

The only thing I didn’t like about the room was the random swing which actually ended up being kind of annoying as it was in the way when you were getting in and out of bed. Plus when you sat in it it kept swinging into the bedside table so there was a bit of a design flaw there. Also the bathroom lighting wasn’t ideal for applying make up (girl issues) as the light was right above the mirror so it was hard to see and there was absolutely no bench space for your toiletries. In the picture below it looks like there’s a cupboard but it doesn’t actually open. Plus the little shelf hadn’t been screwed into the tiles properly so it was on a lean the whole time and all our toiletries kept slipping off. They also had a cupboard with a rack to hang your clothes but no coat hangers?

Once we’d checked in and dumped out bags, we explored the streets of El Nido which were so cute! It definitely had the beachy island vibe we were looking for on our holiday.

We saw a place that had a happy hour going so we stopped there to get some drinks & nibbles before going out for dinner. (Well, Bree had the 2-4-1 cocktails and I had to buy a lonely mocktail haha)

We decided to have dinner at the hotel restaurant on the first night which was their Vegan restaurant called Ver De. I don’t know why we ordered so much food because we definitely couldn’t eat it all!

Everything was really yummy! Even if we couldn’t finish it all 😩

I really wanted a cupcake too but was too full 😞

I was eager to finish my night with a massage as my last two were pretty mediocre. I went to the Spa underneath the hotel that had really great reviews. They did cost more than the other massage places on the island but I assumed it would be because they were really great. Anyways, I paid for a 1 hour Pregnancy massage and it was even worse than the last two 😭 I specifically told her when she started massaging me to please go firm. And she kind of just smiled and nodded but didn’t apply a different pressure so I said to her again I wanted a strong massage. She then says “it is relaxing because you are pregnant” and I said “no it’s fine, I really want firm, strong pressure” but then she said that because I’m pregnant they only do it lightly. GRRRR I wanted to say “I’m not going to give birth right then and there because you massaged my neck too hard” but of course I didn’t and I suffered through another wasted massage. It was so hot in the room too that I just became uncomfortable and irritated the whole time. All she really did was rub oil onto my skin, there was no actual ‘massaging’ going on. I rub oil into my skin harder than the pressure she used for me 😣

By the time I got to bed, it was around 11:30pm (not quite the semi early night I had hoped for). Luckily we had a private boat tour booked for the next day and to avoid the crowds we were starting around 9:45am so we had a semi-early sleep in which was nice ☺️.

First time in The Philippines 🇵🇭 Flying Scoot & Arrival into Cebu

SarahLeave a comment

So much has happened since I last wrote a post, however I have no time for a life update as I’m currently on Day 1 on my trip in The Philippines!

I’ve never been to The Philippines and to be honest, I hadn’t thought much about going. I’ve never done much research on this beautiful place in Southeast Asia, however my friend Bree is getting married in July and she mentioned she was thinking about doing a trip to Asia as a pre-wedding celebration so I jumped on board! She’s a bit like me where she could hop on a plane and travel solo anywhere so when she said she thought she’d tick off a country she hadn’t been to, it would have been rude of me to let her go all alone…. (Well, that’s what I told the husband anyways 🤫)

So Thursday evening, Bree’s fiancé Jack dropped us off at the airport where we had a smooth check-in with Scoot Airlines then made our way to the Airport Aspire lounge for drinks, dinner & some yummy little carrot cakes for dessert 🍰

Thank god we had the lounge because our flight was meant to depart at 9:45pm but was delayed until 11pm so it was nice to have somewhere to relax to pass the time. By the time we boarded the flight and everyone had taken their seats we took off for Singapore around 11:30pm

When we looked at going to The Philippines originally, the flights were around AUS$480 each. By the time we decided on dates, I got time off work and we booked online the flights came to around AUS$800 per person. When you add your seat selection and baggage etc… it’s not as ‘cheap’ as advertised but still not a bad price. We considered going with Singapore Airlines instead of their budget airline sister Scoot, however the flight departure and arrival times weren’t ideal so we stuck with Scoot.

The flight was scheduled to take 5 hours, 50 minutes however it only took 4 hours 30 minutes which was a relief because it was definitely in the top 5 worst flights I’ve had. Not because the weather was bad or anything but because it was a red eye flight and I barely slept. Firstly both Bree and my seats wouldn’t recline at all, then it was too hot in the cabin so I started fanning my face with the emergency instruction card when we had taken off. THEN I started thinking about how hot it was and started to feel claustrophobic and got anxious feeling that I would pass out. This has happened to me in the past (like mini panic attacks) and usually I put my head between my legs and I kind of come right but because the seats were tight and my belly is 6 months pregnant 🤰 than it was all just impossible! I even got up to ask a flight attendant if there was an empty row I could just lay down as I felt like fainting and she just said “no sorry” then went back to preparing the meals people had ordered. I wasn’t expecting her to find a row out of nowhere but at least act concerned 🙄

Anyways, it was not an enjoyable flight so I was relieved when we finally arrived in Singapore. As we only had an hour before our connecting flight, we found our gate and I found a little spot on the floor to have a 30 minute nap before we boarded.

Luckily our flight was on time and we got into Cebu exactly at 10:04am, 1 minute earlier than originally scheduled. This flight i actually had a seat that reclined and I got a tiny amount of sleep to make me feel normal again so it was automatically better than the first!

Once we’d collected our suitcase, we headed outside and grabbed a taxi to our hotel. The taxi was about 650 pesos which works out to be around $17-18AUD for the 30-40 minute drive. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the currency here as I’m so used to going to Bali and automatically knowing how much things are in AUD.

One of the first things I noticed here was everyone drives on the right hand side like they do in America. And the cars are all left-wheel drive. The roads are similar to Bali in terms of its infrastructure however I didn’t feel Cebu was as full on as Bali was with the traffic. Plus they have traffic lights that people actually wait at haha!

We had booked 2 nights at Citadines Cebu which was a serviced apartment type accommodation in the city. Check-in was easy and the room was nice. They even decorated the room with some balloons and cupcakes to celebrate Bree getting married which was nice of them. Unfortunately though the ants got into the cupcakes a little but we were so hungry we blew them off and ate them anyways 😂

Once we had both showered and made ourselves look a bit normal after not sleeping for 24 hours, we went downstairs to the corner store and bought a couple of SIM cards for our phones. There was also this cute lemonade stand/store outside our hotel and I got us a couple of lemonades for like AUS$2 each which were yum!

The SIM cards were a bit of a nightmare to figure out how to work but we tried setting them up anyways and Bree ordered a GRAB car for us (like Uber) to somewhere nearby where we could get our nails done. The first place we went to looked super quiet and we weren’t 100% sure on the treatments so we went to another place a couple of doors down that looked a little better and asked if we could get two pedicures.

This was not the finished result, this was when I started haha

It wasn’t until we sat down that they said only one lady could do us so we would have to go one at a time. (Which was weird as I’m not sure what the other 5 ladies who worked there were doing) I went first and it was a terrible Pedicure! 😂 she took my old gel colour off with a nail file and when she was doing my cuticles she made me bleed. Bree and I were messaging each other while we sat there and quickly agreed that she wouldn’t be getting one. The pedicure was only about AUD$24 altogether but I wouldn’t be going back.

My toes didn’t end up looking too bad in the end – even if it wasn’t the most pleasant experience. After the pedicure we took another GRAB to the biggest mall in Cebu, Ayala Center. It was definitely big! I think there were about 4 levels and every time we explored one level there were just more and more corners or shops we hadn’t explored yet. I bought myself a dress, crop jacket and crop shirt (for after pregnancy haha) and Bree bought some pants & a top.

We had barely eaten apart from some lollies when we were boarding the plane to Cebu and the ant cupcakes so we had a semi-early dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant at the mall. For 2x plates of spring rolls, veges, rice, satay chicken and 2x drinks it came to around AUD$50 which wasn’t bad. What was funny were the staff kept yelling out something to the other staff members and they all responded at once with “YES!”. We’re not sure if they were saying something like “Asked customer if they would like desert?” “YES!” And they did it every time they did something customer service-wise but it was so random that we kept laughing through our dinner. Not to mention we were asked about 3 times if we wanted more cutlery. Even a spoon was offered a couple of times when we weren’t eating anything that really required a spoon. As soon as we started the dinner too, they came over and asked us if we wanted to look at the menu for dessert. I felt like saying “can I finish my first meal first and then decide?” Haha. Filipino people are very helpful and kind but also lack a little common sense/need to read the room a little better 😂 (I have more stories regarding this to come)

Once we’d finished dinner we went and had the most delicious gelato’s afterwards – I think we tried about 5 flavours each before settling on 2. I ordered a white chocolate and caramel flavour along with a chocolate Malteser flavour.

We had said we were going to try and get as many massages as we could so we went to a massage place in the mall and paid about AUD$10 each for hour long massages 😅 as I’m pregnant I couldn’t sit in one of those massage chair so they just had me sitting on this stool which if I’m honest probably made my back ache more. The massage wasn’t terrible, she could have gone a little harder but I also don’t want to complain for $10 haha. I nearly fell asleep as I was so tired so it must have relaxed me anyways.

After the massages, we thought we would check out the Metro Supermarket in the mall and it did not disappoint. They had soooo many types of groceries from around the world. Bree was especially impressed as there were heaps of things from Canada that she can’t get in Australia. As we have a night in Cebu before we head home, we said we’d definitely come back for a grocery shop before heading back to Australia 🇦🇺 hopefully we don’t over-do our luggage limit with Scoot Airlines!

A quick GRAB ride back to the hotel and we were asleep by 11pm. To be honest, we were wanting an early night but we spent way too much time at the mall! We decided we wouldn’t set our alarms and wake up at whatever time the next day so we could catch up on some sleep.

Next post: Beauty treatments & yummy bagels 🥯

Rice Fields & Swings in Ubud (Bali) – 21st August 2022

Sarah1 Comment

This morning we had breakfast at the our resort’s Deeva Restaurant. (By the way, anything I highlight is usually a link to whatever the place is I mentioned)

We started off with fresh fruit, a home made bread selection basket and a couple of Pineapple Juices. They didn’t have a buffet so we ordered off their menu. I got the scrambled eggs with a side of tomato, sausage and potato hash brown. Nathan got something similar but I didn’t rate the food that highly. I found the portions very small and simple and to be honest – a little underwhelming.

We had organised a driver to take us around Ubud for the day as we wanted to see a few temples, waterfalls and rice-fields while we were in the area. Surya from Bali Customized Tours was waiting in our lobby at 8:00am to take us on our adventure which I had booked prior to arriving in Bali.
First stop was the Tegallalang Rice Terraces which is the most popular rice field in Ubud.  As it’s located on a high roadside, the fields are nice and cool and breezy – a well-known spot for tourists to stop and take photos. I’m happy we went early in the morning as we did a bit of walking up and down steps which would have been way hotter in the afternoon. The rice terraces also have great Bali photo opportunities which we definitely took advantage of! Thankfully our tour guide Surya was a pro on the camera and took some great snaps.
I presume over the years, Balinese tour guides have been trying hard to up-skill themselves so they stand out from other tour guides. With the rise of social media and everyone taking photos, you can really tell that they’ve spent a lot of time learning how to take amazing photos on your phone.

We learnt that the soil in Bali as well as the humid tropical climate is great for growing rice. All the crops are watered from a Subak system which is the water management system in Bali. As rice is seen as the gift of god, and the Subak system is part of temple culture. Water from springs and canals flows through the temples and out onto the rice paddy fields which Balinese communities jointly help to manage as they are working together for the good of the community instead of thinking of the individual farmer. As there is a lot of water and muddy areas, I wouldn’t recommend walking around the rice fields if you don’t have good fitness as the path is uneven and slippery due to the mud and water.

While we were at the Rice Fields, I did one of the famous Rice Terrace Swings (AUD$20 per person).
A little bucket list item to tick off, however I definitely didn’t get any amazing photos hahaha! Was just a fun little experience to do.

After we’d finished at the Rice Fields, we went and saw a couple of Temples.

A little learning for you all – In Balinese culture they follow Hinduism. Hinduism has five pillars of faith:

  • belief in one Supreme God
  • belief in the soul as the universal principle of life and consciousness
  • belief in the process of reincarnation
  • belief in the fruition of one’s deeds and
  • belief in ultimate release, unity with God

Reincarnation in Bali is usually within the family, so every newborn baby is believed to have one of the ancestors’ soul. When it comes to Karma, what you give is what you get. You bring your karma from your past life into the present life and will take karma from this life to your future one – your next reincarnation. Our tour guide was explaining that’s why Balinese always try and do good things in life so they can have a good ‘next life’
After death, your soul passes to another body, but is always seeking to free itself from incarnation so that it can attain enlightenment – the unity with the God. When a person dies, but its soul has not yet achieved this state, it continues with the incarnations.

If you ever come to visit Bali, you must see at least one of the temples. And if you come during a big ceremony, you’ll witness the crowd of people dressed in white or colourful traditional clothes, bringing plenty of offerings made mostly of food, fruit and flowers. After they place the offerings, they sit together and follow the praying ritual led by a priest.

After learning more about the way Balinese people are and how they’re so spiritual throughout their every day life, it really made us understand why they’re all so kind, welcoming and hospitable. You get bad people in every country, however I find Balinese to be some of the friendliest people – especially compared to other places I’ve been to in South East Asia.

After the temples, we went and saw one of the waterfalls in Bali! Probably the most famous one in Ubud – Tegenungan Waterfall which is located in a tropical jungle. Our tour guide said this was one of the smaller waterfalls but lots of people come to visit it.
If you’re looking at visiting some other waterfalls in Bali, I’ve read Sekumpul Waterfall in Singaraja is one of the most beautiful waterfalls but is a tough trek to get to. Otherwise Aling-Aling Waterfall in Sambangan is a natural water slide Waterfall. The waterfall falls from a steep cliff and is surrounded by lush jungle. It’s about 35m long which you can slip and slide down. The journey to get there can be a little tiresome, with treks across rice fields and up and down many steps but I see it in lots of TikTok videos so it must be worth it!

I highly recommend going to the Omma Day Club if you’re in Ubud for the day and don’t want to do anything too strenuous. They day club is situated right next to the Tegenungan waterfall so you can have a couple of drinks while you watch the 25 meter waterfall cascade into the pool below!
I really wanted to chill at the day club however we ran out of time on this particular day 😦 oh well – next time!

By this stage, I had seen two temples, a waterfall, rice paddies and done about 300 sets of stairs haha. I was getting hot and kind of just wanted to go and get lunch and chill back at our resort for a bit. We asked out driver Surya if he could take us to one more place and then drop us off somewhere for lunch. He agreed so we headed to our last stop, a traditional Balinese compound where we saw how the locals lived.

The Kitchen

The Balinese traditional compound is basically divided into three parts on which each part has a different purpose. The holy structures like shrines are built at the mountain side of the compound, in the middle of the yard you’ll find all the living structures and in the direction of the sea is where the kitchen is.

The kitchen is usually shared by the family’s married children if they all live together. However if the parents are more well-off, than the children are provided with a new compound in another village. Water is taken from the wells in the compound if it’s available, if not they take water from a nearby stream or natural spring. They also have no special dining room and just eat wherever and whenever they feel like it. When we turned up, the family that lived there was spoon-feeding some type of mushy liquid that looked like baby-food to what looked like a small bird. I’m not sure what it was but our tour guide tried explaining it saying it was some type of small animal that fell from a tree that the man was now looking after. Interesting?..

If you do any tour in Ubud they’ll be happy to take you to a Balinese Compound. You just pay a small donation while you’re there which goes to the family.

After the compound, we asked Surya to take us to an ATM as we were running out of cash. He stopped somewhere and I went with Nathan to get about AUD$300 out from the machine. The cash was ejected but when it came time to take the card, it wouldn’t come out. You could see the machine was trying to push the card out but it was stuck. I tried getting it with my long fingernails but I still couldn’t reach. In the end the machine swallowed the card and Nathan had to block the card on his banking app. Weirdly enough, I had such a gut feeling this was going to happen on our trip. When I was packing my suitcase before we left I thought to myself, I wonder if I bring one credit card or two…. I decided on two as I just knew something was going to happen to one of our cards.

Good thing to note, always make sure to use an ATM in Bali that’s attached to a Bank. Or just bring two separate bank cards incase this happens to you.

Our driver was super apologetic! (Not that it was his fault) and offered to call the bank for us. Even took pictures of the Machine and the location of where it was so we could follow it up. To be honest, we weren’t overly concerned. The card was blocked and Nathan moved the money out of the account just on the off chance the card was skimmed. Just meant we had to use our Credit Cards to withdraw money for the rest of the trip.
Luckily most places in Bali take card anyways. All the hotels and resorts will take card, as well as the restaurants, day clubs, day spas, at the shopping malls etc… The only time you’d use cash is if you were shopping at the markets, paying cash to your driver or getting a cheap massage or spa treatment where it makes sense to just pay in cash.

After the card incident, Surya dropped us off at Melali for lunch which was only a 2 minute walk from our resort (I didn’t even know this until we got there) but it made it easy as we ended the tour there and told Surya we’d walk back to our accommodation without him having to wait around for us. We paid USD$35 each for the day tour which I thought was pretty reasonable especially for all the driving around he did for us and the great pictures he took haha!

I ordered a Falafel Wrap for lunch and Nathan got Beer-battered Fish & Chips as well as a Chorizo flat-bread pizza from Melali. So good! I highly recommend this place if anyone is staying in Ubud. The staff are also really lovely 🙂 Great prices too, we paid around AUD$30 for all of this.

When we’d finished our meals, we headed back to our resort and had a little swim in our private pool!

Even though Bali is warm, Ubud is a bit cooler so I didn’t last very long in the pool as I was too cold haha! We had the afternoon free and my hair felt like it needed a wash so I Googled the somewhere in Ubud to find if there were any hairdressers nearby. Unfortunately all the ones with good reviews were either closed as it was Sunday or booked up for the day.

I eventually found a day spa called Fresh Spa Ubud and they had good reviews so I booked in for a Wash & Blow-Wave at their blow-bar for AUD$20 and a Gel Pedicure AUD$39 for that afternoon.
After quickly having a shower I ordered a Gojek and got to the spa around 4pm.
The spa looked cute when I walked in with all the chairs set up nicely looking out to the street. But had a slightly ‘cheap’ feel. As in, they were selling products on the shelves that you could tell had been sitting there for ages.

The ‘Blow-Bar’ they took me into was a room with two hairdressing stations but the basin to wash hair in was in the corner and was not very comfortable when I had my head in the sink. It was awkwardly close to one of the hairdressing stations too and I had my feet up on a swivel chair when my hair was getting washed haha! Not to mention my neck was hurting from the basin as it barely had any support.
It really only got worse from here, the hairdryer they used wasn’t the best so it felt like forever to blow dry my hair. They used no protectant product in my hair before they used any of the heat tools (however I must say maybe this is a Bali thing because I swear no place I went to put any serums or sprays in my hair before they used heat tools – which I find weird as don’t hairdressers go on about the heat protectant products being A MUST!??)
Once she finished blow drying my hair, she started to curl it with a flat iron (totally fine) however the iron was old so it wasn’t smooth and easy curls like your GHD or Cloud Nine Iron would be. I could just see my hair absolutely being FRIED in the mirror as she held my hair in the iron to make the curl then I watched as my hair got roughly dragged through the iron to finish the curl off! 😦 . Not to mention the smell! She got about two curls through before I thought to myself, maybe I should say something but I’m too polite so I just sat there and let my hair suffer. I think I kept just telling myself “you’re going to get new hair extensions for the wedding so saying goodbye to this hair isn’t the end of the world” I think if I’d just bought new hair I would have mentioned something. Anyways, the hair looked fine afterwards even if it felt like crusty toast haha.

Next were my toenails. Negative points for taking my previous gel polish off with a nail file (I’ve had this happen before and find it weird, Gel should really be soaked off. Not filed off) however the rest of the pedicure was fine. Not heaps of colors to choose from so I went with just a basic white but the equipment they used looked clean and the chairs they had were relaxing.

I probably would go back to this spa for my nails, but not for anything else.
I’ve read Rob Peetoom | Hair Spa in Ubud is meant to be the best for hair (They use Davines hair products) or Rasa Gaya Hair Studio (Davines, Keune, Sachajuan)

Nathan came and met me after my appointment as we were going to go and grab some dinner. We walked around Ubud markets for a bit first though and I did lots of bartering for a set of 4x wooden bowls and 1x wooden chopping board. In Ubud they sell lots of wooden items which I thought would look good in the new house we’re building. I went to about 5 different vendors before I got my bowls for the price of AUD$30 hahaha.
I do feel really bad though as one lady really wanted to sell me some bowls but she only had 3 in stock when I wanted to buy 4. I thought she’d just be able to get another bowl off someone else but she couldn’t and she started to look a bit upset frantically looking around everywhere for another one to make a sale. I suppose looking back I could have bought 3 off her and 1 from someone else but all the bowls were slightly different shades of wood.

Nathan was fretting I wouldn’t be able to bring the bowls and chopping board back into Australia as they were wood but we were absolutely fine. They’re pretty much the only things that took up room in my suitcase as I really didn’t buy much at all in Bali.

A little picture I found on the internet of some of the wooden things they had to buy at the markets

Once we’d done our shopping, we went to a little Mexican place called Taco & Grill Ubud for happy hour. We ordered some nachos to nibble on while we drunk our cocktails. I ordered the Vege Nachos so I assumed it would come with beans, salsa etc… but it came with cooked frozen vegetables (like peas and corn) with Avocado, salsa and cheese – super random!
After finishing our drinks (and probably getting a little tipsy) we walked to Milk & Madu for a proper dinner as they were doing 2-4-1 Pizzas.

I have no idea why we ordered a Large Pizza EACH as we were literally not even that hungry after our big lunch. I think when you’re in Bali you’re like ‘Oh wow the food is so cheap I’m going to order this and that and some of that’ and then you end up with far too much food. I ordered a Pineapple pizza called ‘The Pipeline’ that came with caramalized onions, ham and bacon while Nathan got the BBQ Chicken Pizza. We also ordered a side of this garlic bread loaf thing that was super tasty!

If you’re in Ubud, I highly recommend this place! If you follow them on Instagram you’ll find when they have all their deals (like 2-4-1 Pizza). We didn’t have breakfast there but the menu has lots to choose from like French Toast, Breakfast Burritos, Omlettes, Corn Fritters…. can you tell it’s lunch time as I’m writing this? *drool* I might have to go back when I’m in Bali in October. I know they also have a Cafe in Canggu and Berawa too.

After a few more drinks we ordered Gojek’s and had a slightly tipsy ride back to our accommodation. Of course knowing me when I drink I was fast asleep as soon as I got into bed haha!

Tomorrow – Spa Morning & Jimbaran