Yes, two days. Only two days.
Bet you’re wondering how that happened right? I know I take some short vacations, but I was most definitely not supposed to be there for only two days.
Let me get into how all of this transpired and I’m sorry it took two months to write this, a girl is busy.
Continue reading “2 Days in Grenada Recap”Ah yes, arrival in one of the most expensive places on the planet. Nothing changed with Singapore when it comes to that.
Continue reading “2 Days in Singapore Recap”I loved Bali, I really did. But goodness was I excited for the next stop.
It was time to make my triumphant return to my favourite food city in the world – Kuala Lumpur!!
Continue reading “2 Days in Kuala Lumpur Recap”Alas, I have returned to Bali!!!!
I had been here back in 2016 and knew I’d come back one day. That is how much I liked it.
Wonderful island with so many things to do and enjoy, stop #3 on this trip.
If you are interested in how much this all cost and the visas/entry forms needed – click here.
If you are interested in the preceding trip to Ho Chi Minh – click here.
We arrived in Bali around 4pm.
I had read that the airport in Bali had become super busy since the last time I was there, but I was well prepared. If you read the budget breakdown I had linked at the beginning of this post – you will see ALL the necessary requirements to enter Bali and how much they cost.
Let me tell you…. having ALL those things prepared and ready? We landed and got out of the airport in under 10 minutes. Be prepared. Move fast.
Because I had the epiphany some weeks before to pick a hotel close to the airport, we arrived really fast from the airport.
The hotel we were staying at was Risata Bali Resort & Spa.
During the 12-minute or so drive to this hotel from the airport, I spoke to our Grab driver. I mentioned to him that we had initially booked a villa out in Canggu and he said to me, ‘if you were booked there, our drive now would have been almost three hours to get there in traffic.’
So. About that epiphany? Good decision making.
The hotel was cool. Nothing particularly outstanding, but for location it was especially perfect.
Aside from the location being prime, the second best thing about the hotel was the Indian restaurant they had on site.
Annapoorna.
We were SO hungry so we went there after we dropped our bags. Listteeennn. The food here was outstanding. Delicious. Loved it. The best garlic naan I’ve ever eaten as well. If you are in Bali and around the Kuta beach area, or staying at this hotel, make sure you eat here.
After eating we took a little nap and then we were off to a nightclub. Yay dancing.
The plan was to go to this weekly Sunday event named Afroroots.
The club location was only 16km away. We decided to leave at 930pm so we would get there with enough time to get in before 11pm, because it was free.
HA.
We arrived at 1210am.
Over 2.5 hours after we left the fucking hotel. TWO AND A HALF HOURS IN THE CAR to go 16 kilometers. We were so pissed. The only saving grace was that the party was really good! The place is small but the vibes were great.
At least when we left back to the hotel at 230am, it only took 30 minutes to get back. The traffic had subsided. Thank goodness.
I want to say we did a lot today, but not really? We woke up, and went to another beach club and stayed there for ten hours. Literally, the entire day.
Time for the ‘worlds best beach club‘ – Finns Beach Club!
We booked our table/bed way ahead of time, and we were in the VIP Adults Only Section, which had its own entrance and our pool area was for adults only. Hallelujah. I hate being drunk near children.
Finns was so much fun, I don’t think writing or photos will really do it justice. Living it in the moment was everything. My boyfriend and I just had an absolute ball.
The staff was AMAZING and took such good care of us, the drinks were flowing and there were eight different restaurants to order from. EIGHT. While we loved our time on Yona Beach Club for Christmas, this? This was soooo much more fun. The music as well. But specifically, the food. Having eight different cuisines at your whim is quite the situation for a foodie like myself.
Booking the bed came with a minimum spend, which was like $400.00 CAD equivalent. We were there for ten hours eating and drinking, and we still came up $100 short. I couldn’t believe how much we indulged and still didn’t spend it all. We just gave it to the staff as a tip.
I will tell everyone to go here just for one day if they are in Bali. Great time will be had and also, we had the best luck ever. This is rainy season in Bali and we got zero rain. Beautiful sunshine all day, and trust me, I got burned bad. I had the physical proof of how nice it was.
Make sure you get the pizza and make sure you get the 10-person drink. I know, we were just two people. But, YOLO.
We made it to New Years Eve.
Today we were trying to do some relaxation and chose to do it at Bodyworks Spa.
This place was so beautiful. You see it in person and it is heavenly. We both got individual massages along with rose baths. Great experience. It was also really neat that when looking through my massage bed the word staring back at me was ‘gratitude‘ – wonderful moment for me. Exactly the message you’d want to see before you enter a new year.
By the time we left the spa, the crazy traffic had begun again. Shocker. It was so bad that our Grab driver at one point suggested maybe we should hop out and take motorbikes. Yeah, really bad.
Luckily he also mentioned there was a toll road for $2.00 CAD or so, and yeah it was the long way around, but there was zero traffic that way. So we took that route to get back to our hotel, much faster.
Naturally, took a nap again.
At about 1130pm we walked over to the beach by our hotel. Another bonus of the location of the hotel, the beach was super close.
Fireworks on Kuta beach were fun. You could see damn near the entire side of that island lit up.
Welcoming 2025 on a beach in Bali – happy and memorable moments in my life.
The Bali shenanigans were done on January 1st, it was time to go to the next country.
I did enjoy Bali on this second trip there, especially the food and Finns Beach Club.
However, the overcrowding of the island is ridiculous. I know I am a tourist and therefore a hypocrite saying this, but it really is a problem. I was in Bali in 2016 during this exact same time of year as well (Christmas/NYE), it was nothing like this.
The traffic situation is a catastrophe. I complained last year about the traffic in Lagos, Nigeria – but that is a city of many many millions and also, not an island. And also, it isn’t foreigners, the city is populous, that is why Lagos is so busy. But Bali? No no no. This is all tourists.
Anyone who travels has definitely been in places like Cairo or Lagos where the traffic is nuts. But you never feel unsafe, because it is locals driving. They know what they are doing, they know their country roads.
With Bali, so many people on the motorbikes are foreigners and this makes it anxiety-inducing on the roads. Maybe just for me? Maybe.
Not sure I have the same ‘want‘ to return to Bali like I did after my trip in 2016, but you can’t trust me when I say things like that……if I ever see a flight deal, I might fly right back.
This was stop #2 out of our whirlwind five-country-jaunt through Southeast Asia.
If you’re interested in the preceding trip to Phuket, click here.
If you’re interested in how much it all cost, click here.
I was really excited to get o Ho Chi Minh, been waiting to visit Vietnam since I was in middle school. I love the food and I knew this would be a goodie! Country #67.
(…..as always, links to the places, restaurants, tours etc. are embedded in the names! If you’d like to do some of these activities on your trip to Ho Chi Minh)
So on departure from Phuket, our flight with VietJet Air was an hour delayed. We thought okay, that’s not too bad……until we got to Ho Chi Minh.
We landed at Ho Chi Minh airport and waited in line FOR TWO FUCKING HOURS to get through security. Between the delay in Phuket and this, we pretty much lost an entire afternoon of shenanigans in Ho Chi Minh. We didn’t get to our AirBnB until 830pm!!
Once we arrived at our AirBnB, we were happy at how spacious it was. The building has a 7/11 at the base of it, a pharmacy, another market and a pool as well.
If you’re interested in the AirBnB – click here. We liked the location, the space and the host was responsive. Nothing super duper impressive, but it did the job.
We made an attempt to walk around to get some food, but the area was all like bridges? It was super confusing and we were so tired. Totally not in the mood for any particularly long walks.
Such a waste, we just walked back to the AirBnB and ordered some Popeyes on Grab. That is how tired we were and over this day. Stupid airport.
Woke up today and ordered some more food on Grab. Don’t judge. This was really good!
Today we had a reservation at Emerald Spa.
I had contacted them a month or so before and made our bookings.
My boyfriend was going to get the 105 minute premium hair wash, 45 minute basic facial package and the 50 minute salt soak for his feet. I was going to also get the 105 minute premium hair wash and a 90 minute back massage.
Total: 2,496,000 VND = $142.61 CAD.
What a freaking deal!!! If you use TikTok I am sure you have seen those viral head massages with the hair wash. Yes, they are as amazing as they look. You MUST get one. I fell asleep during mine, that is how relaxed I was.
The masseuse was wonderful, the facilities were clean and at the end you got to enjoy some soup and yogurt. Loved it.
After the spa we were actually supposed to go on a food tour, but there was a torrential downpour outside. See photo below.
No way I was walking around in that.
We rescheduled the food tour and went back to the AirBnB.
At the concierge desk we had seen these cards for a laundry service. We were messaging them on WhatsApp and they came to pick up all the dirty clothes we brought from Thailand. Very clutch service.
Again, we ordered some food on Grab and watched Netflix. The weather really messed up the evening plans. The banh mi was really good though! Small win.
To salvage SOME part of this day, we woke up from our naps at 1130pm and decided to go out to the infamous Bui Vien Walking Street.
The rain had stopped, this was our chance to see some action.
This was akin to the fun party street in Phuket. Best comparison. Only thing I didn’t enjoy was that unlike the street in Phuket, they allowed vehicles on this walking street. I really hated that. In Phuket you were able to walk peacefully without worrying a motorcycle or car would hit you. No such peace here.
We just picked two different bars and ordered some drinks to people watch. Very entertaining.
So many people. So many clubs and bars. Soooo many shenanigans to watch.
Woke up today and made our way to this gorgeous cafe named Cafe Miền Thảo Mộc.
While you’re in Ho Chi Minh, you have to stop by here. It is STUNNING.
Might be the biggest cafe I have ever seen and you can tell so much thought went into it looking beautiful. If you’re into pretty photos, this place is for you.
Also, the food and the smoothies were really good and cheap. We tried not to eat too much before our food tour, but this was lovely.
We went back to the AirBnB for a bit, because our laundry was scheduled to be returned.
For 8.1kg of laundry picked up, washed, dried, folded and delivered back to us.
Total? About $24.00 CAD. HELL YEAH. USE THIS SERVICE. Totally worth it.
No hardcore rain today, food tour time!! Booyah.
The one we booked is called ‘Ho Chi Minh City: Walking Food Tour with 13 Tastings‘.
I want to apologize ahead of time, I have NO clue where my photos from this food tour went. Every night during my trip I upload everything to my drive, but for this? I truly have no idea where all the photos went. All I have is the photos I had uploaded to my Instagram. Sorry for the captions. But at least I have something!
Here are all the items we ate on this food tour:
1 : Bún Cá Kiên Giang (Kien Giang Fish Noodle Soup) – this was MY FAVE item
2 : Bánh Tráng Nướng (Vietnamese Pizza) – hearty
3 : Bò Lụi Xả (Grilled Beef With Lemon Grass) – my second favourite thing, but everyone else on the tour said this was their favourite
4 : Khoai Lang Bong Bóng (Balloon or Sweet Potato) – I liked the sweet potato one
5 : Ốc Nhồi Thịt (Snails Stuffed with Pork) – I know this sounds crazy, but I love snails and I love pork so??? Duh. Delicious for me..
6 : Bánh Tráng Mè (Cracker with Coconut tasted) – yummy!
(Also the drink in this stop is Nước Mía – Sugar Cane Juice) – this was SO good. You can get it with cumquat. First time I ever had that, must mix it.
7 : Bánh Mì (Vietnamese Banhmi) – when is banh mi not delicious?
8 : Bánh Bao Chiên (Savory Dumpling) – very good
9 : Bánh Tiêu (Empty Donuts) – when are donuts bad? Yeah. Exactly.
10 : Cơm Cháy Chà Bông (Crispy Fried Rice) – my boyfriend really liked this dish
11 : Bánh Xèo (Vietnamese Pancake) – I liked all the stuff in this
12 : Bò Nướng Lá Lốt (Grilled Beef with Betel Leaf) – I failed miserable at putting this together
13 : Bánh Plan (Flan cake) – good
14 : Chè Bắp hoặc Chè Bà Ba (Sweet Soup with Corn or Mixed Sweep Soup) – I had the sweet soup corn option and I liked it! Great finish.
This food tour was probably the best deal you will ever get in your life. All those items were $30.00 CAD per person. That was the cost of the tour. Unbeatable.
We loved our guides and the other people on the tour from USA and Europe were cool. Great walking tour, yummy food. Totally stuffed.
Today we were leaving for our next stop, Bali.
Catastrophe at airport again. I can’t even make this shit up.
First you show up, and have to go stand in the check-in line for your airline (for us it was VietJet again). We only had carry-ons and we checked in online, but no, that doesn’t matter. At this airport you MUST have the physical boarding pass to go through security. Also, we had the exact same bags flying TO Ho Chi Minh, but the VietJet person at the counter made my boyfriend check his bag (for free) for this flight to Bali? Didn’t understand that. It was the same bag, same airline, same size. Just another nuisance for when we land in our next destination.
Please see photos below for how long this fucking line was again. Two hours of standing, part two.
If it wasn’t for the damn airport, Ho Chi Minh would have been damn near perfect. But the two hours on arrival of waiting and two hours of waiting on departure, no thank you. I will not be returning here until someone posts that this has been fixed in some way. For a massive city with many tourists, this is unacceptable.
Maybe enter somewhere less busy and get to Ho Chi Minh by car? I don’t know. You have to get there just for the food alone.
