A delightful journey to Bali

Bali is one of the islands of Indonesia, and unlike Jakarta where most people are Muslim, in Bali 90% of the population is Hindu. The best season to travel to Bali is summer. Their currency is the IDR, and literally every 50 meters you walk in Bali, you’ll see a money exchange shop. In short, it’s super easy and you can exchange dollars anytime you want. So it’s better to exchange your dollars little by little. That said, dollars are accepted almost everywhere for purchases too.

Since I’d heard so much about the beauty of Bali, I decided to take this trip with my wife. There’s no direct flight from Tehran to Bali, so we flew with Mahan Air to Kuala Lumpur, and from there took an AirAsia flight to Bali. To avoid getting too exhausted from the long journey, we chose to stay two nights in Kuala Lumpur on the way there, and spend five nights in Bali.

To be honest, I wasn’t really on board with the idea at first, because I knew we’d enjoy being in Bali much more than in Kuala Lumpur. But after we got back to Tehran and experienced how exhausting it was to take two back-to-back flights on the return journey, I realized it was actually a smart move to have stayed two nights in Kuala Lumpur on the way there to rest.

There were other flight options to Bali too, like Qatar Airways and Emirates. But Mahan Air was the most convenient, because for example, the Qatar Airways flight has three legs — one stop in Qatar, another in Jakarta, and then finally to Bali. Still, in my opinion, visiting this incredibly beautiful island is totally worth the hassle of the journey.

On our first day in Bali, we were greeted with a very warm welcome from the hotel staff, who served us fresh juice upon arrival. We had booked the Discovery Hotel, which is located right on Kuta Beach. When we entered our room, we found the bed beautifully decorated with scattered rose petals and towels folded into the shape of swans. There was also a fruit basket, a cake, and a postcard from hotel management congratulating us on our honeymoon.

One thing I can say about the people of Indonesia is that they are incredibly polite and kind. From the hotel staff to the shopkeepers, the tour operators, and even those working at the resorts — everyone was courteous, friendly, and always smiling. Whenever we asked for help or directions, they responded with genuine politeness and did their best to assist us.

On our first day, we relaxed at the hotel and watched the sunset. Kuta Beach is known for its sunsets, while Nusa Dua — which is on the opposite side — is famous for its sunrises. That night, there was a performance by traditional Indonesian dancers at the hotel restaurant. Since we hadn’t known about it, we’d already had dinner at Burger King. So, following the waiter’s suggestion, we ordered a coffee at the hotel restaurant and enjoyed the Balinese dance show.

Next to our hotel, there was a shopping mall called Discovery, which had both Burger King and KFC.

Nusa Dua Beach is lined with five-star hotels and doesn’t have much else besides the resorts. It’s ideal for those who come to Bali just to relax. In contrast, Kuta Beach has a lively street full of shops and restaurants, and the nights are full of excitement — almost every restaurant has live music.

The next day, we went to Nusa Dua Beach, which is the hub for water activities. Jet skiing, banana boats — you name it, they had it. We chose sea walking, since most of the other activities are also available in Kish or northern Iran. One interesting thing about Bali is that, unlike many other places, they actually let you take your camera everywhere. Even during sea walking, people with waterproof cameras were taking selfies, and the photographer — who normally sells your photos and videos on a CD for a high price — told us that if we had a waterproof camera, he’d be happy to take photos for us with it for free. Since we didn’t have one, we ended up buying the CD with our photos and video. We paid $50 per person for sea walking, but if we had chosen a package with multiple activities like jet skiing, parasailing, and others, it would’ve been much cheaper.

After that, our free tour took us to Uluwatu Temple. The scenery there was absolutely stunning, and we took lots of photos. To enter the temple, we had to wrap a purple cloth around ourselves, secured with a yellow belt. One of the most fascinating sights in Bali is the trees that grow around the island and even in the ocean. These trees rise and fall with the tides — they’re massive and sturdy, and it’s truly amazing how they manage to survive in the salty ocean water.

In Bali, almost every house has its own temple. Small houses have small temples, and large houses have larger ones. Around 95% of the homes in Bali are single-story villas with yards. Most of them are quite small, and the doors are usually left open — just like in the tiny villages of northern Iran.

The temples inside the houses are actually family tombs that hold the ashes of their ancestors, and they’re really beautiful. Even our hotel had a temple. They themselves call it a “temple.” Small houses that don’t have space for a big temple usually place a small stone seat at the entrance — raised up high — which is a symbol of the same temple.

In Bali, even getting stuck in traffic on narrow streets or simply walking along the road can be enjoyable — and that’s because of the unique and beautiful architecture of Balinese homes. Each house has its own distinct temple design, which feels fresh and fascinating to us. Hindus there pray three times a day, placing a small offering in a plate that usually contains flowers, greenery, and sometimes even a biscuit. They light incense and set the plate — often made of paper — in front of their house or shop.

It was interesting that when we said Bali is full of beautiful flowering trees, the locals told us they need flowers every day for their prayers — that’s why every house has flower trees. Uluwatu Temple is a local Hindu temple where a fire dance is performed every night at 7 PM, which is actually a form of worship. We only found out about the fire dance after visiting the temple in the morning, and we really regretted not going there at night. But because of the heavy traffic that’s always present on Bali’s narrow streets, we couldn’t make it back for the fire dance.

That evening, we once again enjoyed the beach and the beautiful sunset from the hotel. We went for a swim in the pool, and since it was Sunday night, there was live music and fireworks at the Discovery shopping mall by the beach.

That night, we bought a rafting tour from one of the many booths along Kuta Street that sell day tours to tourists. Lunch was included in the package. Rafting in Bali is usually done on two rivers — I can’t recall their names exactly, but one was more expensive, with a larger river and more excitement. We paid $35 per person for the rafting tour. It’s definitely worth negotiating for discounts when buying these tours.

The rafting experience was amazing — 14 kilometers of pure adrenaline. We had tried rafting before in Antalya, but this one was on a whole different level. After the rafting, we had lunch right there. Since it was Indonesian food, it wasn’t particularly tasty for us, but we were really hungry and there weren’t any other options around.

After rafting, we were so exhausted that we slept until the next day. The following day, we went to Waterbom Water Park, which was located right across from our hotel. The ticket price was $35 per person, but the night before, we bought tickets from one of the street booths that sell day tours for just $28. The water park was really great — I’d even say it was better than Yas Waterworld in Dubai. What was interesting was that each ride had two versions side by side: one scary and thrilling, and the other more gentle. One of the best things about this water park was that we could bring our cameras. People with waterproof cameras were taking selfies while coming down the scary rides, and once again, we really regretted not having a waterproof camera.

The photos taken by the park’s own photographers were extremely expensive — I think each one was around $50, so we didn’t buy any.

After the water park, we rested for a bit and then went to the hotel restaurant, which had a barbecue buffet along with a fire dance performance. We were really happy because we got to see the same beautiful fire dance that we had missed at Uluwatu Temple — right here at our own hotel. Dinner that night cost $22 per person, which I think was very reasonable. The buffet included a variety of meats, chicken, fish, and shrimp with different sauces, plus lots of salads and desserts — all buffet-style. After that, there was coffee and tea, followed by two hours of various dance performances in the hotel garden.

One of the good things about food in Bali is that, since it’s a Muslim country, halal food is easy to find.
The next day, the tour car we had booked came to pick us up right at 8 AM. We were supposed to visit a few sightseeing spots in Bali together. First, there was a dance called Barong Dance, which tells a story from the Hindu religion. Then we went to a fabric painting workshop, followed by a canvas painting studio. After that, we visited a woodcraft workshop — all three were handmade art studios and really beautiful. Of course, we bought a few things from them too. After that, we went to the Kintamani volcano, which is still active, and the views were truly stunning.

After that, we went to a coffee workshop where you could taste different flavored coffees. Bali produces its own coffee, and its famous one is called Luwak Coffee. This coffee is made by an animal that looks like a civet — it eats the coffee beans, and then they make low-caffeine coffee from its poop, which is actually quite expensive. But we really didn’t feel like trying it, and they were pretty surprised that we didn’t want to taste it. They kept saying it’s clean. They said, "We wash the animal’s poop."

Anyway, after that we saw the beautiful rice terraces that are built on hills. Then we went to Ubud. Ubud is a neighborhood in the center of Bali — it’s kind of forested, and there were lots of tourists there, especially Australians. That’s because, besides its beautiful jungle vibe, it has wide streets full of bars, restaurants, and shops, and the hotels in this area are much cheaper than the ones near Kuta Beach or Nusa Dua.

Inside Ubud, there was the Monkey Forest. You could really see a true tropical jungle there. It was full of monkeys that were super calm and running around everywhere. You could take really cute photos with the monkeys, and if you weren’t scared, you could even hold them. It was a really, really beautiful place.

The island tour we had booked was a standard one — they take all tourists on the same route, but with private cars. For dinner, they were supposed to take us to a place called Jimbaran, which has a beautiful beach, but we didn’t go because we were too tired. Of course, lunch, dinner, and all entrance fees were on us, but none of them were expensive compared to Iran.

The next day, we stayed at the hotel until noon. We took lots of photos and bought some coffee, chocolate, and chili sauces as souvenirs from the supermarket across the street. Around noon, we headed to the airport.

Bali Island has other attractions too — like the Elephant Park, where you can ride elephants and watch elephant shows. There’s also a zoo that we heard is really beautiful and even has a safari. But since we had already experienced elephant rides and safari in Thailand, we didn’t go there.

Before the trip, one issue I had was not knowing whether it’s better to book a hotel near Kuta Beach or Nusa Dua Beach — and none of the travel blogs really gave any guidance on that. In my opinion, Kuta Beach is better for staying. The nightlife along Kuta Street is full of energy and really worth seeing, and there are more reasonably priced restaurants along Jalan Kuta, which is the beachside street. The beach itself is also cleaner. The beach in Nusa Dua, which is the center for water sports, was full of seaweed. Of course, I assume the beaches of the 5-star hotels in Nusa Dua must be cleaner.

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