Gem's Bali Adventures :): The love affair begins!

Well here it is, my very first attempt at blogging :) and just in time to work it all out before our next trip!!!

My Bali adventures began 10 years ago, when I was 18 and had just finished year 12. Mum was dead against me going on schoolies so she offered to take me on an overseas trip anywhere in the world instead. I chose Bali & that's where the love affair began!

That first trip was a little daunting, it was November 2003, not long after the first anniversary of the first bombings. Everyone I spoke to about how excited I was to be heading off to Bali said "Oh, why Bali? Aren't you scared? Watch out for white vans" Nobody was very positive about it & I started to panic, had I made the right choice?

We left home on our big mother daughter adventure a little nervous, but still very excited! We boarded our Air Paradise flight and were instantly taken by the friendly smiles of the Indonesian flight crew. It was my first international flight and I remember that take off seemed a lot steeper than domestic take off, I never notice anymore but still remember thinking "what the?" The rest of the flight was smooth.

I'll never forget the sensory overload stepping off the plane at Denpasar for the first time, the smells, the humidity, the excitement!! Walking through the airport the "Death penalty for drugs" signs were everywhere and a little intimidating... And then there was the porters, oh the porters... We had newbies written all over us, a porter grabbed our bags off us and started heading towards customs before we knew what was going on, and given that we were shaken by the death penalty signs (not that we had anything to worry about) and the fact that these guys were in uniform we let them go and paid until they stopped signalling for more money, it was a scary but soon forgotten experience.

We stepped outside the airport into the incredible heat, humidity & swarm of drivers and passengers looking for drivers at the door. After looking around for a few minutes we managed to find our driver and off we went to our bus. There were a few other people travelling with us so we got to go on a little tour around a few different hotels on the way to ours, a great way to have a look around. Every hotel we stopped at had security out the front with metal detectors and under car mirrors, they were certainly doing their jobs.

We stayed at Jayakarta in Legian for the first 8 nights. I don't remember much of what we did, but I do remember that it took that first week to settle in and stop worrying everytime we walked past a white van.

We then headed over to Nusa Lembongan on the Bali Hai beach club cruise, it was a fantastic day and the BBQ lunch was delish. And we were lucky enough to be staying for the next 3 nights at the Hai Tide Huts! We had a wonderful time on Lembongan, it was so relaxing and quiet, and to this day is still my favourite place :) On the day that we were to go back to the mainland we managed to get seats on the fast ocean raft boat for the trip home, it was AWESOME!

We arrived back on the mainland and as we drove back to Legian I remember being so spun out at the change of pace, it was so crazy compared to Lembongan!

Our last hotel for the trip was Melasti Beach Resort in Legian. This is when I really fell in love with Legian ( now it's like home away from home)! We spent our time here doing what everyone in Legian does, shopping, eating, swimming, relaxing!!

The drive back to the airport was sad, I didn't want to leave!