Bali - Days 2-3

Each morning has started with a traditional Balinese breakfast, which is brave as my stomach had felt quite fragile by the second day. Initially I was helped by one of the dear chefs who basically made my bowl up for me whilst explaining what every single ingredient was. He looked excited for me to try it so I was mightily relieved when I bravely took a large spoonful in front of him and it was, in actual fact, bloody delicious. It’s called Bubur Ayam and is essentially an Indonesian style congee. So a runny rice porridge, chicken broth and then shredded meat, in this case chicken. Then various toppings. Of which my chef selected “all.” There was peanuts, fried garlic, fried shallots, salted egg, prawn crackers, fried bread and a spicy sambal. I’m convinced that it was actually a really good choice for a slightly upset tummy as I perked right up. Which was good. Because we were off to the spa for aqua Pilates.

One of the quadrillion things I love about the Favourite Husband is his willingness to participate in pretty much anything to humour me. I’m quite sure he’s no real desire to be splashing around with a pool noodle doing stretches, but he does it with a smile and a chuckle.

We followed on from aqua pilates with a couple of hours poolside drinking mojitos and essentially replacing all the calories burned from Pilates earlier. Every day has been super hot and we had both had enough sun after a couple of hours. So a quick shower and change and off for a traditional Balinese massage. This was lovely and really relaxing. But then we were straight off for dinner and more cocktails. This “doing nothing” is exhausting.

As this is our first trip to Bali I was interested to know more about the country or province to give it its official title. As the people here are so friendly I asked our waiter a little bit about the area we are in, Jimbaran. When we were researching where to base ourselves there wasn’t a huge amount of information about Jimbaran. The waiter explained it’s a less developed area, tourist wise, than a lot of Bali. And that post-covid Bali has had a really bad press in terms of being “ruined” by tourism and terrible pollution of the beaches. Bali is officially a victim of “over tourism” and that is partly why we visitors pay a tourist levy on entering. Of course tourism is Bali’s biggest economy driver and as a result means Bali is one of Indonesia’s wealthiest areas. Jimbaran started life as a fishing village and is now renowned for its seafood markets and restaurants on the beach, where the seafood is traditionally cooked over fires using coconut husks. We will see tomorrow …

I promise tomorrow will be more exciting, it’s all on …

So day 2 or it could be 3, I’ve lost count, saw us head down through the monkey forest to Kubu beach. Two inquisitive monkeys immediately started towards us as we approached, which duly terrified me. But thankfully they weren’t particularly interested once they realised even if I did have food it was clear from the size of my arse I was not going to share it. We had a paddle in the (deliciously warm) Indian Ocean and lazed around for a few hours. Then it was back up to position myself poolside and send the Favourite Husband off to his personal trainer session for Muay Thai. When he told the PT that his wife had booked him in he replied with “oh that’s really nice …” But the Favourite Husband wasn’t so sure. He thought it might have been a life insurance ploy until he remembered he’d cancelled it so is currently more use to me alive. He came back buzzing though and quite full of how strong and powerful he is for his age. Apparently. And sweaty. Very sweaty. So after a swim and a shower we were off down to Jimbaran Beach. It was absolutely perfect. Not too much rubbish on the beach (which is a constant battle here) and a huge selection of seafood restaurants with front row seats for the sunset and to watch the surfers and Instagram influencer wannabes. Which does make me chuckle. The girl with long flowing blonde hair on her white horse, like a pale Boudicea, with long dress artfully arranged just perfectly, clicking a million selfies where she’ll find me and the Favourite Husband in the background sweating profusely, whilst picking prawn meat from our teeth. Or the girls changed into their best dresses whilst their doting boyfriends run behind them with various pieces of camera equipment as they bark orders. Got to be honest, it looks exhausting. We did catch our usual, poorly angled to capture as many chins as possible, squinty, toothy selfie for prosperity and had a lovely walk along the beach. The Favourite Husband even insisted on holding my hand, but that could have been to avoid the influencer scrum to be fair. He did suggest I pose with them but with my life experiences etched all over my body and face, I declined.

A wonderful day in Paradise.