4 Days in Bali at the 5-star Hilton | Life in Japan Episode 217
Ok, checking into the airport! Checking in. Oh yeah! Second leg! We just spent 4 unforgettable days in Singapore, and now we’re heading to nearby Bali in Indonesia for the last 4 days of our 20th anniversary celebration trip. But before we fly, we take in Singapore’s one-of-a-kind airport. We got ourselves a butterfly garden here. I picked up a fun little visitor! Oh look! I'm the chosen one! I'm the chosen one! Hang on, I've gotta get a picture for the kids! Singapore’s airport is like a mini-version of Singapore, complete with gardens, activities, theme parks, shopping and food.
If you’ve explored the airport, then you know what Singapore is all about. It’s also the gateway to the rest of Asia, and as such our departure point to and from Bali. Oh dude, they do like the white! Look at you! Debbie! Oh! That was hilarious! That was! He's coming back! He's coming back for more! Ruth’s sister Debbie and her husband Ben are joining us for this trip, and we’re having a blast exploring these places we’ve never been.
They're coming out of the cocoon! That one right there is like in the process! But if you think having a butterfly garden is unique for an airport, you should see what else they have. How about the pool in the airport here! Not bad! Well we just checked out the pool at the Cheng Airport. It's amazing. And why not? Have you ever seen a cactus garden in the rain? Here you go. Cool.
Cheng airport is full of interesting discoveries that help you pass time before your flight. These guys are working it so that they can charge... You guys don't even have anything plugged in right now! Just—not even plugged in! The attractions make you want to explore the whole airport, even when you don’t have to. In fact one of our favorite discoveries was riding the tram and going through the Jewel, Cheng airport’s impressive mega mall that anyone can enjoy. Oh look at this! Wow! Oh my goodness! Wave to everybody! Oh man. That's next level, huh?
The bottom floors of the Jewel is a giant food court, while the next several levels are shopping topped with theme-park-like activities on top. But to ride the tram, all you have to do is have a flight. Dude, seriously! That was cool.
Went through the Jewel. Went through the Jewel. Back outside. But this after all is primarily an airport, and we were on our way somewhere special. Alright we are getting on the plane for Bali now. Here we go! A few hours later and we touched down in Bali, Indonesia. After going through customs, we found our ride to the hotel. Alright, look for Nathaniel Reutter.
Yeah! Nathaniel Reutter! OK, good! Thank you! Living in Japan means that our most affordable vacation destinations are no longer in the Americas, but here in Asia itself. We are doing this whole trip for half of the cost of doing an Alaskan Cruise with airfare from Japan, and that includes the amazing deal Ruth found at a 5-star resort in Bali. This will be our first time staying at such a nice resort. I'm impressed. There we go! We made it.
Alright guys, we made it. And what did we get there? Is it kombucha? I don't know what it is, but it's good for you though. It's good for you. It's good for you, just drink it. As we waited to check in, we were served a very interesting local drink. Coconut water? Does it taste like Durian? No! It tastes much better than Durian. So much better than Durian.
No onion taste. I don't know, actually. It tastes like lettuce and— Grass. Lime squeezed into it. Yea.
Lime with grass. I'm trying everything after I've seen everyone else's reactions So I know how to prepare myself. Oh man, I don't know if you do though. It's so delicious. He always does that! I do?! Yes. Take a bigger sip, I want to see.
Take a big gulp! Take a big gulp! Tastes like grass with lemon... It's better than that, I like it. But once we were checked in, we were lead to our rooms, and our first impressions of the Hilton in Bali did not disappoint us. Here we go. There's the cliff right there.
Careful We'll get our workout going to the elevator. Mmmmmmmm. This one... Is on the corner. Yeah. Ha ha! Oh my!! This is their 20th wedding anniversary.
Wow — nice. Oh my goodness. Alright. I feel like I should take off my shoes in here. I know. How about this, huh?! It's so cool! This is awesome! Look at this! Balcony of Balconies! Dude, I think you're going to get a perfect view of the sunrise. Look at that beach Debbie! It's just never-ending.
I tempted to run down and see if the thing [restaurant] is still open. Yea, I know. Well Ruth, our room? Oh my goodness, it's just amazing! The kids are going to freak when they see it! The kids are going to freak out when we call them. All right, Ben and Debbie are checking into their room, We haven't eaten any dinner yet and it's past 10:00 o'clock, So we're going to go find a restaurant and eat.
Look at the sand! Oh! Yeah! Look at the tower from here, guys! How fun is this guys?! This is a legit resort. This is awesome. Well guys, I think we got the last order in of the day! Don't you think? I think so. This is beautiful! This is amazing! Oh guys, this is great! Ruth, your burger is here! The chicken burger! Oh yes! And Debbie got the same thing. Alright, let's pray and you girls can eat! Oh man, a little beef burger! The first night was in the books, but the next day would reveal the full beauty of Bali and we were super excited to take it all in. The kids, staying with Ruth’s mother back in Japan, were super excited to see it too. Yeah, we just arrived last night.
Here's a little sofa and a chair, And the bed... It's 50 square meters. So it's half the size of our apartment. The view from our room was mesmerizing, and soon we would head out to what would become one of our favorite parts about the Hilton: Breakfast. Good morning guys! Oh boy! Time to explore, huh?! Look at that! I feel like I'm in a spa. Main lobby.
Yea, it feels awesome, doesn't it? This is awesome. We're in Bali! Look at this, huh? Oh yea, there's a cliff and our hotel is that building over there I am just surrounded by people capturing the moment including myself. OK, breakfast time. What do you think Ben? This is just a little out of control, this breakfast. That's exactly right. How cool is that?! Well Ruth, your impressions of the breakfast buffet? Insane. Insane. It's another level.
But then again I've never stayed at a 5-star hotel So maybe this is what all 5-star hotel breakfasts are like I can't believe this breakfast! I know — I was like "I'm going to need more plates. I'm going to need more days!" Unbelievable! Soon Ben arrived and surprised us all. I've never had this for breakfast.
Lamb with hummus. No! I've never even had lamb with hummus. Daal, chutney I don't even know which one is chutney anymore Different kinds of chutney I don't know what this is. I love your spirit of adventure.
I'm going to try it. That is pretty amazing. I— I stuck with the more [western breakfast]... This is pokenan sauce. So that breakfast was next level. I've never had any buffet as big and diverse as that buffet.
And it was amazing, it was like "I'm glad we're here a couple of days so we can try it out. Look at this here! But the buffet wasn’t the only place where we suffered decision paralysis. OK, the big question is: what pool? I don't know, I want to do it all! That's right. This kind of looks like it's one of the main pools, huh? Alright.
We have our spots. We decided our first entrance into the pool should be a grand one. There's the bottom of the waterslide and we're about to try it. Here we go.
Alright! Alrighty! Shall we? We shall. Oh my! Whoo man! Debbie, you were cruising! Who's next? [high pitched scream] Oh it's Ruth. Without a doubt! Whoa! What in the world! Coming in hot! Whoa! The decision was unanimous: do the slide one more time! [High pitched screams] OK! Clear now! [High pitched screams] I think Nate's going to try to go fast.
Go fast? Whoa! Oh my goodness! That was intense! Coming in hot! Aw, that was awesome. This is pretty much exactly the opposite of Singapore, isn't it? And besides enjoying the water, what else did the ladies want to do on their Bali vacation? The girls are getting ready to do their massages. But before the massages would happen, there would be some more excitement. Trying to find the Komodo Dragon. Whatever it was that we saw that ran in here. You see it Ben? I see it! Right there! Oh yea! It doesn't look like a lizard. It looks like a Komodo Dragon.
It's going to come out over here guys! There it goes! There it goes! Oh my goodness! There it is! It's in the wild! Oh man, it's going to the pool! Watch those people there just like "ahhh!" Freak out! No! It's under the bridge right now. What was that?! Well, we lost it, huh? It's in the bushes there somewhere. That was an adventure. We'll refer to that as "The Big Chase." That was intense though. That was cool. No animals were hurt in this case. That's right.
Nor people, humans, wives. Debbie whacked my tummy. Oh my Maybe there was a... She was like Ok, heading up to the observation tower.
It is a lot of stairs to get up here. And here comes the crew. Oh wow! Wow! It's worth it. This is like the drone view, man. Did you bring your drone? I did not. No drones this time, but soon the phones were back out documenting the hotel.
This is some of the rooms, That whole building is the lobby, That slide is so much fun. On a scale of one to ten, this place so far? Oo man, it's a ten. It's great. This is beautiful.
While we probably could have spent all four days at the hotel, we did want to get out and explore around us. It was awful tempting to relax the whole day and not go out, But we are going out to see a mall, a town, and just what Indonesia is like! OK, piling in! Sure... Go ahead Ben! Wow! In the front! Even though we’re headed to a tourist point here in Bali, it will help us get to know the area even better. Driving through town during the day was great for taking in the surroundings and start building a mental picture of Bali. And it didn’t take long for us to arrive at our destination: Bali Collection, where we would have lunch and the girls would shop! Dude. This is sweet.
This is pretty legit here Afterwards, we went back to the hotel to a very interesting discovery. It's the afternoon now, and the waves were breaking right here on the beach earlier, And now look — they are way out there! You can almost walk all the way out there, in fact people are walking all the way out there. How crazy is that? So different from this morning. Soon we formed an expedition group to go check it out ourselves.
Look at these, I don't want to touch it! The amount of wild sea life found on the ocean floor was astounding. Is it seaweed? Is it seaweed or is it a crab?! Oh my goodness! Watch it just go in... You can't tell. Look here, there's a big crab! Blends in with the sand, I can't even hardly see it. Look!
Ah! Oh that thing! That's huge! Oh man! Look it, they're just everywhere, these live crabs. After all that excitement, the girls went to get their Balinesian massages while Ben and I enjoyed hanging out on the beach. Well — our ladies are getting massages Getting massages! And we're chilling here on the beach, With this wedding couple here... We're celebrating them in our own way. That's right. That's right. Why not? Why not? That night the resort was hopping with a huge wedding party, but we were so relaxed we slept the night away.
The next day we had big plans and we wanted to be ready. We found Ben! Checking all this stuff out. Look at all the things you can put! I might get some cereal. Oh, get it today. Get it.
Ruth! I can't do it. She can't do it, she needs an extra hand. I better give her some help here. After a hearty breakfast, we were on our way to a speedboat that would take us across the bay to nearby islands that are famous for their beaches and snorkeling. This is as close as we’ll get to seeing local life while we’re here, and we’ll have our own guide with us to tell us all about it.
But getting to these remote places will be an Indonesian adventure all their own. Here's our boat! Thank you! Thank you. Is everything good? Everything's good. Soon we were off and heading out into the open ocean.
In protocol that reminded me of Brazil, the names of everyone on the boat were read off and confirmed. Then, we were really ready to go. Heading out! Going! Into the ocean! Yep. Once the captain successfully navigated the waves heading out into the ocean, we were invited to some very special seats on top of the boat.
Look at this! Oh man! Check this out, huh? Favor. This is great! This is very cool. Well the name of the island that we're going to is Nusa Penida.
And we're going to explore some of the beaches here, And then have a Balinesian lunch And we're going to do some snorkeling, And come back. That volcano over there is pretty close to the size of Mt Fuji. A couple hundred meters shorter.
Very nice. Yeah it's great. Look at the water here though. Look how blue it is! We'll take one of those [boats] I think to go snorkeling. That's right. This is probably our base camp where we're eating lunch maybe? Yeah probably. Oh Fernando! Our wonderful guide for today.
Thank you. OK, picture time! Cheers to 20 years! 20 years! Wow, that's delicious. It's tangerine. Oh, tangerine juice! Once everything was ready, we headed to a car that would take us to the scenic places on the island. Here we go! And our excursion continues... Begins!
[This] small island is only 200km2 and not so big like Bali As we drove almost 45 minutes to our first stop, Fernando told us all about the island. Here is no water, no river, no lake. Wow. Really? Where do you get fresh water? Ah, the fresh water, they have a spring water Only one for the whole island. Oh wow. So like where lots of people live they have traditional tank water underground.
To collect the rain water. You do what you got to do. As we approached our first point, we felt like we were getting a better idea about the place and the people. Soon we would see in person one of the points that makes this island so special. And we made it! We made it.
We got here and I had to go to the bathroom so bad, So here's the bathroom, you have to pay Rp 5,000 to use them, but it's worth it. That may sound expensive, but that’s only a little over 30 cents, and considering they collect all the water so you can use the the bathroom, it’s not a bad deal. I should mention it was very clean. Wow! Oh that's beautiful! Oh my word! What?! We are so high! Oh dude. That's beautiful.
Ben showing up in style. You guys monkey! Look at this monkey! No no no no! Don't feed it, don't feed it! I'm not feeding it! This monkey's like "No ice cream! You give me ice cream!" A monkey, but do you know who he's looking at? He's looking at Uncle Ben because he's eating ice cream. This is mine! He is staring the death stare! There's a monkey! Look at this place, amazing! Look at the people down there! It's one hour walking down One hour walk down there, huh?! Kelingking. Kelingking Cliff.
Did you see down there though? Look at the path to walk down there! It's an hour though and it's so hot. There's people swimming down there though. I know. I want to do a private tour down there. This is like something you'd see in the movies. Here's the most beautiful beach in the world. You may look. Cute. What's happening?
Baby monkey. Baby monkey walking down the street, Baby monkey, Soon we came across the alpha monkey of the clan. We decided to appease him with some bananas. Oh well. Don't take it back, he will bite.
That's right! Don't take it back! With the alpha happy, we could feed the other ones. This one this one! Oh my word! It's a mom. It's a momma. That's a momma, give her extra. She's got to work hard. She wants it. Aww, cute.
That's sweet when they do that like that. Oh my! Did it bite you?! Did it bite you?! Fernando's waiting for us. That little kid needs to learn how to take a banana! Wow! Is it? One foot in front and one foot in back, yo. Wow, beautiful.
Wow! Can we paraglide down there? But there was still another spot to go and check out with the crowds. OK, this is a good view here. This is like super-drone, right? Manual drone. After Fernando's "Super Drone Shot" it was time to move on.
Oh! Thirsty. He's like "That's my drink!" My water. Would you share a little with me, buddy? Oh! All done.
I don't want it anymore. It's not the people that litter, it's these monkeys. It's just like kids, isn't it? I'm done. Boom.
After you feed the monkey, give yourself a good wash. Good wash. This tour guide is on point. He is. OK. Hey Fernando... Yea...
How many people fall off of that? Uh, right here? Yes. So far, it's never. Never?! But at the Broken Beach where we are going, there's lots of people who have fallen down. Oh! So be more careful where we are going. Yeah, be more careful.
It's a Broken Beach. And with that, we drove 30 minutes down Broken Road to Broken Beach. Keep focusing on the road. This is Monta Bay. Monta Bay.
Dolphins. Look at the dolphins out there! Cool. Monta Bay. Very nice. Very cool. So this over here is the Indian Ocean! Wow.
Very cool. These are decent sized stairs here. These sure are. So Ben. Hey. You going to do a cliff dive here? Yeah, right from that spot I think would be good. Yeah, there you go! Straight in.
Go get it, huh? There's just no way to get back up. What happened? The water went up over that red flag. 3 days ago! Moving on! Paz Coffee? Whoa! Look at that! Oh my goodness! There's a cool breeze from here. Can you feel that? We made our way around Broken Beach, being very careful with our steps.
The heat was so intense that we longed to go for a swim, but somewhere other than Broken Beach. Oh my! OK, let's stand right here. Look at these two. Aww. All done? OK, we're going over that land bridge now. Climbing up, going over.
After Broken beach, we were broken from the heat, hunger and hike. So it was another 45 minutes by car back to base camp where we had a refreshing lunch and swim waiting for us. Here goes Ruth. How is it? Um, it's good.
Our food has arrived. Yes! Ruth, are you excited about this? I am excited about this. And it looks good.
It's a Balinese lunch they say. But they do have some things I recognize like satay, Tofu I think... Tofu And this one is the tempe. It's made from soya bean right here.
After our tasty lunch and another swim, it was time for the main event: snorkeling. We would take a boat out to the first of two locations off shore. Neither Ruth nor I have snorkeled before, so we’re excited and a bit apprehensive about how it all will go. Ruth had some lip work done here, look at that. Alright, you ready? OK, one, two, three The first time we were learning the ropes. We soon realized we didn’t need the life jackets, in fact they got in the way of snorkeling.
After our first run, we were ready for the main snorkeling event: the Wall. First time, how'd it go? Oh it was amazing. All right, next time I'm trying no life vest, and maybe with the Go Pro. Look, we're going to go right up here. By the Wall. This is phenomenal here! It just goes down steep! Yea, it's super cool! Swimming while breathing through the snorkel certainly took some getting used to, but the whole experience was surreal.
I felt like we too were fish in a giant aquarium. I wanted to dive deeper still! Dude, my Go Pro came off and I caught it in my hand! Nice! Time seemed to stand still as we swam through the water, taking it all in. With each dive we tried to stay down longer and go further.
And of course there were some diving techniques we learned along the way. My ears hurt so bad. You gotta pop them. But we didn’t let that stop us, and far too quickly the whole allotted time went by. I’ve seen lots of these things on TV before, but it’s a whole other thing when you’re the one swimming through the water. What is it Ruth? What is it? Big fish! That was cool Dude. That was cool! All too soon, our time was done and it was time to begin the trek back.
We would certainly be talking about this along the way. [Indistinct conversation] What did you guys think? It was so beautiful. Clear. Tons of fish. It was awesome. We would get off one boat and get on the other to go back to Bali. The voyage back would take about 45 minutes and we hoped for good conditions so we could ride up top again.
My hair is just a mess! A mess! Standing over 3,000 meters tall, Mount Agung rises over Bali much like Mount Fuji rises over Japan. We were fortunate to be able to see it so clearly on our way back. Soon Ben was making the case for letting us go back up top.
The conditions were in his favor, and we went up. Upon arrival, the sun was setting, but the day was not done. We would be dropped off at the Bali Collection.
We needed dinner and the girls had seen something, something very different that they just had to try. It's very ticklish. Feed the fish! Oh my goodness Debbie. Oh my word, Debbie! Get close to you. No joke, huh?
Oh my word! Oh my goodness! They're like little leeches. Oh they are! Oh my! Oh, they're leeching! It's very ticklish! It's a weird feeling! It feels like little bubbles! Oh I can't think about it! It feels like you put your foot in just a bunch of bubbles. This is so funny! Debbie has a whole colony around her. Oh my word.
I don't want my pedicure to get messed up with fish. Fish, oh my! Oh my word Ruth! So 10 minutes? Oh, 10 minutes is plenty. That was weird! Weirder than weird. It was a crazy. A crazy experience. Defiantly worth having. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Soon we were back at the hotel with an update to the huge wedding.
It's like a giant reception tonight, huh? Man. Dude. They did done get hitched, and that's the reception. They're all in white.
The next day was a big day — you could say, it was the big day. Breakfast here? Oh, just out of this world. I forgot salt again. Oh no, I brought it over here. Oh, this is salt? Salt and pepper. What did you get today? Went a little wild.
Started with desserts, moved to western style, Kept going and found some Indian food that looked amazing. Oh the lattes are here, yes! This was not only our last full day at the hotel, it was a day to truly celebrate. That was awesome. You didn't go under Ben!
I didn't! Life is not always as fun as a waterslide, but it does go by fast like one. My contact about fell out. Twenty years ago today I took the plunge and married the girl of my dreams.
I’ve been chasing her down ever since. Whoa! Nate man! Into the ocean, here we go! Taking a 20th anniversary trip like this is not easy, but neither is marriage. Whoa! These milestones are worth celebrating, because marriage is something worth celebrating.
Twenty years later, I still say “I do" Look at these, that's a chocolate milkshake, That is! That's a strawberry milkshake. That's intense! My goodness! Happy 20th! Yea, this here is to 20 years! But as it would turn out, Ben and I would also be lassoed into the spa madness Oh man! Going in! Here we go! I'm going to let you draw them... Oh uh, here they come! It's so weird! You've been in there for 30 seconds — less! It tickles! It tickles! What's happening there Ben? Oh man, we're getting attacked by these fish and I don't like it. Oh my goodness, it feels so weird! These fish are all over! Why are they all over at Nate's feet and not at Ben's? Oh, I wonder why. Benjamin! It stresses me out! Open your toes, Ben! Open your toes! Oh man, it tickles me too! When it came to celebrating our 20th anniversary, we wanted to do it right. Ruth found an incredible deal on this 2-part Singapore/Bali trip, and it has been the most amazing way to celebrate.
At the end of our trip, we find ourselves wishing we had more time to spend in beautiful Bali. The people have been so friendly and the experience unforgettable. Look at that sunset! Well it's our last sunset in Bali, huh? So sad. So sad, boy. Hopefully, we will be back. Hopefully, this was great.
And the YouTube videos don't capture it. Oh no. Ours will do a better job, but still... You can't really capture this with a video.
Because it's a whole experience. Oh my goodness, look at the moon! Is that Venus? I think it's Venus... Oh my goodness. Oh! Well, here we go. Let's go to the look out tower? Yeah. And a special thanks to Ruth’s mom Becky and our friend Nicole who watched the kids at home so we were able to do this. Nicole has her own YouTube channel and you can check it out and see what the kids did while we were gone.
But for now, we take in Bali and the Hilton one last time. It's hard to express just how beautiful it is to arrive here at night, It's just like tropical magic. So beautiful! It's so beautiful, isn't it? This is just next level. Look at that sunset. Look at, look at that beach over there.
In the neighbor's beach. Look how far out it is. Well how about this for our 20th anniversary! What a day! What a day! So fun! Only one thing could make it better. Aww.
Getting pregnant one more time. Next time on Life in Japan, we begin our big return back to Japan, but getting back comes with it’s challenges. We can’t wait to see our kids again, but how did they do while we were gone? Subscribe to Life in Japan to not miss out and don’t forget to leave a comment — what was your favorite part of Bali?
2023-07-10 21:22
