Blowing it Back To Bali

Deciding on a holiday destination is probably one of the most stressful decisions a person can make especially when you have to embark on a holiday specifically during holiday season (teacher downfalls) . Everybody has been asking why Bali? How did you book? Tell us more. Who did you book with? So this post somewhat connects to all the questions I've been getting asked of late since I came back from my holiday. There's just so many countries to visit not mentioning the price factors to consider. After jetting off to Dubai, I learnt a valuable lesson... find a travel agent you can count on! I've been liaising with Ayesha Chopdat from Harvey World Travel Newcastle since the beginning of the year and have booked three trips with her thus far. Despite being Johannesburg based and Ayesha being situated in Newcastle our communication has been pretty smooth and effortless. I've had only the most pleasurable holiday experiences when booking with her. In fact when it came to deciding on Bali, it was only because of Ayesha's help that we could settle to stay in Kuta beach (which was ideal due to all the Halaal food places in the vicinity). We assessed the prices of many other holiday destinations and found Bali to suit our budget the most. Futhermore we initially started off with a quote from Holiday Factory which Ayesha managed to beat. By booking with Harvey and being flexible with our dates we even got a free upgrade on our room to a lagoon facing deluxe suite.

Contact Ayesha from Harvey World Travel Newcastle:
Tel : +27 34 312 8127

Cel : +27 72 205 0052

Bali people are certainly friendly but do experience some difficulty when communicating solely in English. So blogging for the International Relax Cafe in Bali was no easy feat. The people behind the scenes of the international relax cafe and I started communicating via Instragram but the communication barriers popped up when I actually visited the place. Nevertheless the International Relax Cafe is situated on the street walk while on the way to Beach Walk mall. The venue requires you to climb stairs to get up to the first floor. If you don't look carefully you may even miss the sign for the cafe. We visited Bali during the World Cup time and was disappointed to realize due to hotel policy, the matches could not be shown. Being England supporters we were desperate to see the game and hence we settled for the International Relax Cafe which has a projected screen on the top most floor. The cafe is a basic, carefree and relaxed spot to let your hair down and enjoy yourself. What we loved the most was that they served Shisha. For those of you who know me well, you know I can never say no to a well-made shisha pipe and a Bali holiday was ideal as shisha was found almost everywhere. The cafe had a vast array of pipes to chose from with some of the most exotic flavours. Shisha is reasonably priced and there is no extra charge for additional coal. The shisha pipe pulls well and the flavour is long lasting and doesn't burn out too quickly. The food menu did not have much choices or options for the Halaal palate but since we had Pizza Hut before we visited the cafe we just wanted drinks. We settled for simple Coco Cola. The night we chose to visit this cafe was a rather quiet night with only about 6 tourists in site, however, I do believe that on most other nights the cafe does pull quite a crowd.They also provide frequent entertainment at the cafe.

If you walk further up in the opposite direction on Legian street, you will stumble across the Arabian styled Shisha Cafe. Naby had read about the cafe before we visited Bali but never did we expect to stumble across it while paying a visit to the everything for R 30 store.  The cafe allows one to escape into an exotic world filled with Lebanese delicacies that are Halaal might I add. The cafe is very well set and takes every minute detail including the clothing of the waiters and waitresses into account to recreate the tale of 1001 Arabian nights that you can escape into. When you in this cafe you feel like you've been whisked away from Indonesia and have landed into an Arabian paradise. The food was so appealing to palate I mostly enjoyed their hummus paste. The shisha options are countless and you go dizzy trying to pick one or two flavours to settle on. From plain vanilla to milk the range of flavours are unbelievable. The pipes are reasonably priced too but you can expect to spend quite a bit more when venturing into Shisha cafe than when you visit the International Relax Cafe. Also they make only the most foamiest, freshest and tastiest orange juice. Yummy! This cafe pulls in quite a crowd so much so that tourist line up outside the venue waiting for a seat. The venue closes very late with belly dancing over the weekend to enjoy.

Last but not least on my list of memorable places is Paperboy. The cafe is so simply made attractive you can't help but venture into the venue. The wallpaper encourages tourist to enter the restaurant with a "tropical state of mind". I loved the setting if the place as well as the scatter cushions that complete the plain concrete seats. They make a wow looking Oreo milkshake that eventually starts to taste too sweet because of the many sweets poured into the tall milkshake glass.  Paperboy also gets rather busy until the wee bits of the morning.

Overall I enjoyed my holiday in Bali so much so that I don't think anything else can compare. Bali sunsets certainly are one for the books