Bali is a destination so amazing that we actually couldn't contain everything we wanted to say in a single episode.

So this is your bonus episode on Bali where we're going to focus on culinary experiences, a little bit of beach club, and then we're going to talk about a few of the things that we love to do.

David, how you doing?

I'm doing great, Tim, and happy to be going back to Bali here a few days since we've talked about this last and you know, we really, on our last episode we talked about why you want to go to Bali and you know, we both talked about it.

It is a place that has changed over the years.

It has definitely been impacted by over tourism.

But is it worth going still?

Absolutely.

It's a phenomenal destination and we really want to get into on today's episode.

Once you get there, help help you, you know, get a little further down the road in terms of where to eat, what to do so you're not having to spend a bunch of time researching some of our recommendations on, on some great places that we experienced when we're, when we're in the islands.

Absolutely, absolutely.

I know you have thoughts on this.

I'm going to mention just very quickly.

I don't have as many thoughts, so I'm going to mention just very quickly a couple of places that I really like.

One is, is called Dana.

It's in Ubud and it is, I'm not a big rice person.

I like rice, you know, once a week, Max.

And Dana is a place when you've had enough of the local cuisine.

They've got, it's, it's a Latin American Mediterranean fusion.

So you're going to get your ceviche, you're going to get your paella, you're going to get.

They do a really nice Milanese and it's in this beautiful stylish space, creamy banquettes surrounded by the, you know, they bring the outside inside in terms of the jungle.

It's really beautiful.

And then one quick, quick, quick one is IBU menku, which I'm probably saying that wrong, but it is just a very traditional, simple place that serves Balinese chicken rice.

Cheap and cheerful, simple and beautiful.

The.

Those are my two quick recommendations.

But I know, David, you have eaten more thoughts than me.

And so let's talk about some of your favorites.

Well, when it comes to dying in Bali, I mean, first of all, the local cuisine, I mean your great Indonesian food, things like nasi goreng satay that you're going to find everywhere.

And there are so many places that have great local cuisine.

I'm hesitant to recommend even any one individual one.

And certainly the way we roll when we're on a trip like that.

And in terms of, you know, finding great local cuisine, you look for where the most locals are sitting out on plastic benches out front.

And that's probably the best place you're going to find.

And there is no shortage of those all around Bali.

So when it comes to Indonesian and Balinese cuisine, you really should dig in and explore.

And lots of great opportunities to do cooking classes as well.

We talked a little bit about one in our last episode, but I know there's cooking classes in Ubud and all throughout the island and would highly, highly recommend that.

I'm going to call out three restaurants and these are all in.

In sort of a little bit busier area area around Kangu and Seminyak, which two great sort of surf beaches.

This is where a lot of the, more like modern boutique, I would say, kind of hip hotels on the island are you're going to find in this, these two areas.

And as a result, that's where you're going to find a lot of similar restaurants as well.

A lot of sort of newer and cooler places.

Let's start off with breakfast.

If you're going at the beginning of the day, you're looking for a place with great local produce, nutritious breakfast, smoothie bowls, milk and Madhu in Canggu highly recommend that.

Great spot for just super friendly staff, cool atmosphere, a great place for lunch or breakfast, then for dinner.

I mean, a place we had a great experience, really sort of vibrant, Argentinian inspired dishes, grilled meats, stylish rustic atmosphere.

You can smell, as you walk in, you're hit by the smell of the, the, the, the wooden, you know, the fire back in the back of the restaurant where they're grilling the meats in the back.

And it was just phenomenal, phenomenal dinner place called Barbacoa in, in Canggu that I would definitely, definitely recommend from a dining perspective.

And then also staying in that same area this time around, Seminyak, if you're looking for a fun spot, you know, somewhere not too expensive, but again, quite a, quite a cool kind of lively place for dinner.

The Motel Mexicola in Seminyak.

It's this sort of retro Mexican vibe that they've got delicious tacos, great cocktails, a lot of ambience, super busy places.

So definitely, definitely a great one to check out as well.

But I know we talked a little bit about on our last episode, something that is really popular throughout, throughout the island are beach clubs.

Do you want to talk a bit about like what the beach club experience in Bali, what it's all about.

And I've got two that I would definitely recommend checking out.

Absolutely.

You know, I love a beach club.

If you're, it's often if you're not staying in a hotel that's directly on the beach, that hotel will have a beach club.

And so there are also beach clubs that are not related also to hotels that you can just access, you know, as a, as a member of the public.

A lot of my beach club experiences have been staying in a hotel that say up on a clifftop, it's back from the beach.

So you get the best of that world.

You know, maybe you're up in the rainforest and up on the cliff and you got the view and then they'll take you in a little shuttle and they'll take you down to the beach and then they have their beach club and you can usually there's a restaurant, a bar, a beautiful cushy beach chair and you can just kind of spend the day and relax and enjoy the beach and then you can go back to your beautiful clifftop view at the end of the day.

I know you have a couple of specific ones that you love in Bali.

Let's talk about those.

Yeah.

And the, the other thing I would say about a beach club is if you like, you want to stay at somewhere a little bit more expensive on your shop, let's say you're staying at an Airbnb or you're staying inland somewhere, but you still want to get that great beach experience.

There are all these, these private beach clubs, as you say, throughout the island.

And two that I, that I want to call out, one that we spent a ton of time at a place called Sundays Beach Club.

This is sort of an exclusive club on the shores of Luatu.

It's at a very nice, you know, five star resort that, that has this separate beach club that they let you know.

Guests who aren't staying at that hotel pay a day rate, come in and stay.

I remember correctly, I think it was about admission was about 50 or 60 US dollars per person.

But then whatever food or drinks you, you ordered at the resort was offset with that, that basically it was a credit that, that you would spend at the resort.

But what was great about this, first of all, they've got a glass elevator built right into the cliffs.

So taking you from the cliff cops in Uluwatu down onto this isolated sort of COVID with this beautiful white sand beach, crystal clear waters.

And of everywhere that we went in Bali, at least it was one of the best places for offshore.

Offshore snorkeling.

Right.

So you just go straight off, off of your, you know, from your lounger into the water and you're going to see coral, you're going to see a wide variety of fish.

They've got kayaks that you can take out.

They've got cool music, great drinks.

It was.

And then in the evening, they do sort of a sunset bonfire as well.

So super popular place for daytime relaxing experiences.

Very much would recommend that.

And then the other one was a bit more surf focused hot spot, a place called the Single Single Fin Beach Club Here.

Here you're not right up on the beach.

This is, this is more overlooking one of the best surf beaches out on that Uluwatu part of the island.

Very much a place centered around surf culture, lively atmosphere, cliffside views.

And what I really liked here, great music.

Like this is a great place to go for sunset.

They'd always have a great band playing, great drinks.

So the beach club experience there, highly, highly recommend for.

Sure.

Fantastic.

And I know, I know we want to talk a little bit about activities.

So, you know, a lot of people go to Bali, they go to just go to the beach and relax.

And I think that that is perfectly wonderful and justified, but I think some people also want to get out and do a few things.

And I know I want to mention a couple, but I want to ask you first, you know, what are some of your favorite things when you go on an excursion, when you get away from the beach, when you go and do something, what do you like to do?

In Bali, we really enjoyed Batur Natural Hot Springs was a great sort of hot springs resort always.

I love a good spa or hot springs.

And that was like, you know, in the interior of the island, it makes a great day trip.

And it's also those stunning views, right?

You're right beneath the Batur volcano, still an active volcano.

So, you know, you can get some unbelievable views there as well as a chance to relax at the hot springs.

But overall, in terms of things to do, if I had one like top tip, it would be get a car and dryer for the day.

You know, if you're using the Grab app and the gojek app or sort of their equivalents of Uber or Lyft there, they're very popular on the islands.

They're a great way, very inexpensive way of getting around and we found, you know, once we had taken, you know, or connected with a few drivers through grab, a lot of them would offer to, for quite a low, low cost, would offer to take you for the whole day and do a day tour around the island.

And by doing that, you know, it really let you get much further away from the typical tourist trail.

We got to visit remote waterfalls, we got to visit, you know, temples where we were the only people there other than the local villagers visiting.

And, and just having that, you know, booking out the car and driver for the day gave you so much more that you had access to.

And it could really be done quite cost effectively using some of those apps to first get to know the drivers, try them out a little bit, and then go from there.

But how about you?

What, what's your favorite things to do?

Well, well, first of all, I want to say I totally agree with the car and driver thing.

You know, I, I, I haven't done it in Bali, but I've done it in a number of other places.

And it is, it's a wonderful experience.

The flexibility is wonderful to be able to see a variety of destinations.

You don't feel like you're necessarily in a rush.

You're not making anybody wait.

You're not wait, you're not on a bus schedule or a train schedule or anything like that.

And then the other part of that that I love so much is the, the interaction with the driver.

You know, you inevitably get exposure to the culture through the driver.

You know, they're going to share stories, they're going to share their own reflections on the places that you're visiting.

And that's absolutely one of my favorite things.

I'm just going to wrap up with two quick ones.

One is the Noosa Islands, which is a great day trip spot.

You go get on a boat, go out 45 minutes, you can dive, snorkel, surf.

Beautiful.

And again, you get away a little bit from those crowds in the main, the main beaches of Bali.

And I want to talk to you, Dave, a little bit about the Monkey Forest, which is something that is very popular.

It's on a lot of day trip itineraries in Bali.

People love it.

Lots of people love it.

I am not one of those people.

I'll be honest.

It is.

I had a slightly traumatic experience in Gibraltar many years ago as a backpacker.

I made a poor choice, I'll be honest.

I was given the opportunity to have my photo taken with a, in Gibraltar.

Not in Bali, but in Gibraltar with, with a Barbary ape on my head.

And it was a, you know, kind of a once in a lifetime opportunity.

And that ape did bite me.

And so I was, he was reaching for my glasses.

I went to try to, you know, just a knee jerk reaction to try to stop the monkey from taking my glasses.

And the monkey did not like that and bit my finger.

And so I have been to the Monkey Forest.

I think I've been twice in Bali.

I don't know why I went back the second time.

I think I was on a trip that, that was part of the itinerary for me.

It was just, you know, you've got all, it's filled with monkeys.

If you like monkeys.

They're everywhere.

But I wear, I'm a man who enjoys wearing cargo shorts.

And I'll tell you what, monkeys, they think that there's bananas in those shorts.

They do.

They think there's bananas in the, in the cargo side shorts or, or maybe some sort of other snack that they are going to find delicious and they will approach you in a fairly aggressive manner.

And so if it were me, I would not go to the Monkey Forest again ever in my life.

But, but it is probably, if you have not been bitten by a monkey in your life, you might enjoy the up close and personal experience of hanging out with the monkeys at the Monkey Forest.

Nobody's going to enjoy it, Tim.

The Monkey Forest just don't go.

I'm totally with you on that.

Like when we're talking about places that are over touristed, you know, we, we with the, you know, when we were going around with the driver, he took us by the Monkey Forest and it was so packed with people, we didn't even stop.

We're just like, okay, let's, let's, let's move on.

We saw lots of monkeys at Uluwatu Temple and we've seen monkeys elsewhere.

We don't need to go to the Monkey Forest.

And yeah, I totally, I concur with your not a can't miss, but a do miss recommendation for Bob.

For the record, I just want to say you made the right choice.

You made the right choice.

I fully support your choice in that.

So yeah, that was a good decision.

One thing I will say, Uluwatu Temple, I mean, a lot of monkeys around there too.

And you do need to be cautious of that.

And Uluwatu Temple is also a place that's very much on the tourist trail and it's busy.

But that being said, I do think going there for the, they do this fire dance performance at sunset in the Evenings.

And it's a combination of sort of storytelling and ritual set against this stunning coastal backdrop and the sunset.

It really is one of Bali's most iconic experiences.

And, yes, there's a lot of people.

Yes, there's a lot of monkeys, but that is one that I would say, like, put up with the crowds, put up with the monkeys.

That is very much worth doing.

It is a great cultural experience and, yeah, something you definitely want to see.

Absolutely, absolutely.

And I agree with you.

I've been to the temple.

I couldn't agree more.

So, yeah, that.

That sounds like an excellent recommendation.

And that.

And that being said, too, there are.

Although that is a great one to see and the stunning sunset views.

There are so many other stunning temples all around the islands that, yeah, if you just do take the time and get out and dig a little further and get out with a local driver, there is a lot of other amazing temples to be seen all around as well.

Well, Tim, I will let you get back to.

I know you are sailing today.

What's the cruise ship you're on?

I'm on the beautiful, beautiful Seabourn Venture.

It's the primary expedition ship for Seabourn Cruises.

So the last couple weeks, I've been in the Amazon rainforest, getting out on Zodiacs, interacting with some of the local people, seeing all kinds of wildlife, and at the moment, there's a beautiful sunset just about to form out the window.

There we are sailing south on the coast of Brazil in the Atlantic, headed for Rio de Janeiro.

So good things ahead as well.

Amazing.

Well, we'll have to do an episode on Rio soon, and if people are interested in checking out some of the places that we've talked about on today's episode, we'll definitely mention those in the show notes.

Also, we're building out some digitally downloadable guides for some of the destinations that we've talked about this season.

So those will be available on our website soon@voyescape.com as well as a bunch of other travel podcasts from around the world.

Both the podcasts that Tim and I have recorded, and we've started bringing on additional podcasters with more travel podcasts from other destinations around the world.

So would really encourage people to go on to voicegate.com our network website that we've.

We've launched earlier this summer, and it really has become a hub for, if you like travel podcasts, you're looking for audio content for anywhere that you're going around the world.

We're really building up a great bank of different destinations and different things that you can check out as well.

And then finally, I will say, if you're enjoying what we're doing and you're finding it useful, we would love to hear from you.

Whether that's a comment on our website, whether that's a review or comments on the Apple Podcast or Spotify, we certainly are reading it all and incorporating it all into future episodes of what we're doing.

And we would love to hear from those of you who are listening.

Great to chat with you this this week, David.

Always great to chat about travel and can't wait till we chat again next week.

Sounds great.

Thanks.

D.