TO BALI!

Well, that was a pretty major weekend of birthday celebrations! With the surprise party over and done with (and Nick’s planned early night thrown utterly out of the window), it was finally time to go back to Bali.

Having just about survived the earlier than normal start on Friday morning to get to the airport in good time for our 9am flight, the birthday weekend started with a bang and a gin on the roof top bar at the airport, with Kate and Duncan flying out a day early with us too.

The door to our villa

There were early morning drinks at the airport, very much needed naps on the heavily delayed plane, and we arrived in Bali just in time for a quick afternoon snack and check in at our villa before heading out on our first adventure.

            Friday night was spent at two utterly fabulous locations.  Firstly we headed south to Rock Bar to meet up with a couple of Duncan and Kate’s friends who were just ending their holiday and were about to fly back to London.  Rock Bar can only be accessed by an open sided lift that takes you down the cliff face to a beach bar that is nestled into sheer rock face. The DJ booth is perched at the top of a small cliff remnant around 100 feet away from the main bar area, which is completely open to the elements, and serving some really great cocktails. It would have been amazing to see it at sunset, but in the dead of night, with the waves smashing against the cliff, it was an incredibly strong start to our three-day adventure.

Birdseye view of Rock Bar - with the DJ booth high on the left

After a few drinks we took the lift back up the cliff and made our way to Sardine, a restaurant I found online almost by accident, and which from the front looks fairly unimpressive, but which opens up into a glorious open sided shack in a the middle of a paddy field, serving incredible food and very tasty wine.  Seafood, wine, fantastic service and some great music in the background – this has quickly become one of my favourite places in Asia, and one that I couldn’t wait to get back to!

Sardine - my new happy place

After a delicious dinner (and a wander through the paddy fields for me) we took a taxi back to our villa, and settled in for a brilliant and very much needed night sleep ahead of Liv and Flash’s arrival the following morning.  Despite the late night, I was up and about from around 8am the next morning, and so I took myself off to find breakfast in a local café called Shelter (a fantastic Australian style café that served me Balinese coffee and Aussie avocado on toast with a smile and a great soundtrack on in the background).

Early morning activities in Bali

By the time I got back to the villa there was just about time for the others to go in search of food, Nick to get out of bed and the others to arrive before our lunch reservation. We had booked to go back to the restaurant that we discovered when we were last in Bali with Debbie, and so we had a fantastic lunch, rounded off with a candle and decorated plate for Nick. Well, it was his birthday trip after all!

            The rest of the day was spent sunning ourselves at the villa, listening to music and power napping through most of the remains of the day. Dinner was fantastic, and rounded off with a couple of drinks at Sardine (I knew we would be back before too long) and then another late night back at the villa.

Villa Time 

By Sunday, I was pretty much running on empty. Whilst the boys slept through the morning, the girls headed off for avocado and coffee breakfasts and spent a good two hours nattering rubbish at each other. Then it was time to pack our bags and be on our way. We stopped off at the W Hotel to spend a bit of time on the beach during the afternoon, and then by four we were on route back to the airport. Even though we saw a lot and did as much as we could, it still feels like the weekend was a flying visit, and one that needed to be a couple of days longer to really have been at all relaxing.

Still, it was a brilliant weekend, and I like to think that it rounded off Nick’s birthday perfectly.