One of the greatest things about being in Singapore is that so many amazing destinations are only a few hours away. I’ve always wanted to visit Bali so I decided it would be the perfect destination for my first weekend trip. I only had 2 days there but I made the most of my time!

Seminyak: Bali’s Trendy Resort Town

I flew into Denpasar (Bali’s capital), which is less than 3 hours from Singapore. If you go to Bali, I would suggest arranging for a car to pick you up from the airport because it can be a zoo. After I landed, it was about a 1-hour car ride to Seminyak, the trendy resort town where I stayed. Seminyak is known for its great restaurants and boutiques, and is much less crowded and laid-back than the really popular resort town of Kuta.

I stayed at a quirky boutique hotel called Dash.

The hotel’s mascot must have been this upside down red bunny because he was everywhere, along with more naked mannequins.

The hotel had a nice roof patio and lounge, though I didn’t use it at all.

Exploring Seminyak

After checking in, I wandered the streets of Seminyak and started exploring.

Some random thoughts about Bali I had as I walked around Seminyak:

First, people in Bali are aggressive, although friendly. Every cab that drives by honks at you to see if you want a ride. Since cabs are everywhere, you may get honked at 50 times while trying to walk 4 or 5 blocks. Similarly, every 5 or so feet, someone will either offer you a ride on the back of a scooter (uh, no thanks) or try to sell you some tour or excursion. Eventually I just learned to politely say no and ignore their sales pitches. Fortunately, everyone was really polite so I never felt uncomfortable and they always went away after I said no the first time.

Second, everything is Bali is so cheap. Like, unreasonably cheap. I got an amazing one-hour massage for $11 USD and felt like I was robbing the poor lady.

Third, the resort towns in Bali looked nothing like I expected. For some reason I was expecting Seminyak to look like Cannes, when in reality it looked like this:

Fourth, these wooden penis things were everywhere. What on earth?

Potato Head Beach Club

After shopping and exploring, I went to Potato Head Beach Club by my hotel to check out the beach and catch one of the famous Bali sunsets. Sadly, it was pretty cloudy and rainy that afternoon so the sunset wasn’t visible. Otherwise, Potato Head was fun and a great place to hang out and have a few drinks.

I have to admit that Bali’s beaches did not live up to my expectations. But there are lots of beaches I didn’t visit in different parts of Bali, so maybe some of those have the white sand I was imagining.

Dinner at Sarong

I had dinner the first night at Sarong, a high-end restaurant in Seminyak serving Indonesian and Indian cuisine. Everything was amazing, and I couldn’t believe my tab including drinks only came to $38 USD.

Sarong had a beautiful open-air dining room that was very tastefully decorated.

I started with some smoked pork cheek (aka guanciale) and truffle naan with some kind of eggplant spread, it was amazing! I wanted to save room for my main but this was so tasty I ate the whole thing.

My main course was a skewer of seafood cooked in a tandoori oven. It was delicious and not too heavy.

I was walking back to my hotel after dinner ready to pass out  when I saw that my hotel had live music in the bar. I was sooo exhausted from getting almost no sleep the night before but the singer had such a cool voice that I had to stop for a drink and listen. Definitely a great way to end the night!