I have been super busy during the past two weeks so apologies for the lack of blogs/vlogs! My 8th week at NTU consisted of a recess week (basically a reading week, but zero reading was done). I spent the first weekend on Tioman Island (off the coast of Malaysia), the full week in Bali (South Kuta) and the last weekend/ninth week back in Singapore exploring with my boyfriend.
Friday 29th September – In the afternoon my boyfriend arrived from the UK, we took a taxi back to halls dropped off our stuff and sorted our bags out for our holiday then headed into the city to Lavender where we had booked an AirBnB room for the night. The apartment was great, it was modern and clean and the girl who lived there was so lovely, it also had an amazing skyline view of the city. For dinner we went to Mushu’s Curry house in Little India, it was a little pricey but super tasty.
Saturday 30th September – We woke up really early the next morning to catch our coach journey from the Singapore Flyer to Tanjung Gemok ferry terminal in Malaysia. The journey took 4 hours and we waited around half an hour at the ferry terminal to board the ferry to Tioman Island. The ferry journey took an hour and a half and we got off at the third stop and headed to Juara Beach. To get there we had to get a 20 minute taxi ride up through the jungle to the other side of the island. This was different to say the least as the journey was very steep and the taxi car we were in sounded like it was going to break down at every hill! When we finally got there we searched and searched for our accommodation until we finally found it. It was called Beach Shack Juara and it consisted of around six two storey beach huts and a cafe with cool chill out areas. Again I found this accommodation on Air BnB. The beach hut was beautiful, it was very clean considering we were right on the beach front, it had a fridge and a bathroom as well as a balcony and hammocks. 
We spent the rest of the afternoon swimming in the crystal clear water and eating food at a little cafe close to the beach. I also tried my first coconut water straight from the coconut itself which was cool! In the early evening we took a nap as we were both shattered from travelling then woke up for dinner around 8pm. There was a huge thunderstorm going on outside (classic SE Asia!) but we were starving so ran down to the cafe and got ourselves some food from home, fish and chips!
Sunday 1st October – In the morning we woke up and headed to the cafe for our free breakfast which consisted off a banana pancake and juice sat on the beach front. Again we spent the morning swimming, looking for fish and exploring. Our ferry was at 1.30pm so at 12.30pm we got our taxi back through the jungle towards the ferry terminal. We went to a local cafe near the terminal for lunch and I had some local fried chicken rice. Then we got the long ferry ride back over to mainland Malaysia. After waiting an hour on the coach for other passengers as their ferry was late we finally headed off for Singapore. After an hour’s wait through Malaysian immigration we finally made it through to Singapore immigration. This is where things went wrong. It took a while to get through the Singaporean immigration and when we had passed through we could not find our coach anywhere! After half an hour of searching and calling the company we had been told that it had left without us and the driver thought that we were going home from the checkpoint rather than the coach’s final destination. This was stressful as it was 10pm at this point and we were a bit stranded. We managed to find a taxi and got a ride to our hotel for the night, Hotel 81 Princess in central Singapore. This was a good hotel just for a one night stay. For dinner we went to a local Chinese restaurant.
Monday 2nd October – In the morning we set off for Changi Airport to travel on our flight to Bali! Thanks to my boyfriend we had access to the Premier Lounge in the airport which gave us loads of free food and drink and even a shower in the bathroom if we wanted it! The flight took around 2 hours and when landing in Bali we were greeted by our driver named Paul who had been told to pick us up by our host at our AirBnB in South Kuta. Paul was really lovely and helpful and it took around half an hour to get from the airport to our accommodation. One thing I noticed straight away in Bali was the crazy driving of the people! Two outlined lanes of traffic merged into around 4 lanes and because everyone uses mopeds there were so many people swerving in and out of the cars, it was actually crazy! But surprisingly during my whole time I never witnessed any accidents. The AirBnB we stayed at was called the Quiksilver Surf house and it was amazing. It was super clean, the host (a Czech lady) was super lovely and helpful and the location was perfect. We got upgraded to a bigger room with an en-suite and Yana (the host) was great in helping us borrow a moped so that we could travel around as this was the main type of transport on the island. This only cost $5 USD a day and it only cost around 55p to fill up the moped with fuel! We spent the afternoon finding a local shop to buy snacks and drinks and then headed to Uluwatu beach in an Uber as I had researched it was a cool area to explore. We went down to the beach through walking through a very steep and claustrophobic cave and were a little disappointed when we found no restaurants down there as we were both starving. The beach was beautiful however! We headed back up to the main road and found a beautiful looking resort with an infinity pool and a restaurant we sat down and settled our things but when handed the menu we realised we were way out of our budget so made a run for it and found a burger joint called OmNom Burger which was amazing, that did the job.
In Bali the government doesn’t agree with companies such as Uber and Grab so they are not allowed to pick up from the beach area so we got a lift back to the house with what we thought was a taxi company but I am pretty sure we got scammed as that journey was the most expensive one of the whole trip, you live and learn I guess. Back at the house we did some planning for the week ahead and tried to get our heads around the crazy currency, basically 55p is 10,000 rupiah, so we had a lot of cash notes and we super confused about the conversion rates!
Tuesday 3rd October – We woke up early and took the moped to explore our local area. We arrived at Geger Beach and had some lunch which consisted of chicken satay’s, noodles and chicken rice and different fruit juices. Our lunch came to a grand total of £3 which was actually amazing. We spent the afternoon in the sea and continued on the moped to explore the area. We found a very popular beach called Pantai Pandawa which apparently is very popular with Javanese students as the beach is very popular for canoeing. We walked up and down the beach then headed back to the house to chill for a bit. We relaxed up on the roof terrace in the hammocks and spent the evening playing cards.
Wednesday 4th October – We went to a cafe called Jiwa Juice for breakfast and I chose the natural yogurt, banana and granola bowl. In the Uber back to the house we had a lovely driver named Bonik who actually said he was a private driver as well as working for Uber so gave us his card and we used him a lot during our stay. Private drivers are a lot more reliable than other public drivers and can sometimes be a little cheaper. We spent the afternoon on Nusa Dua beach, we rented a jet ski for half and hour which was amazing and walked really far out to the sea when the tide had gone out. We had a traditional Balinese lunch and then met our driver at 3.30pm. We went back to the house to chill then took the moped down to Dreamland Beach to watch the sunset and the surfers. It was an amazing beach! In the evening we went to Casa Asia restaurant for dinner and I had a Hawaiian pizza which was delicious.
Thursday 5th October – We spent this day doing something amazing and new for me, scuba diving! We decided to go with a company called IndoDiving which had been recommended to us by a few people. We got dropped in Jimbaran by our driver then got picked up by a mini bus from the company who took us to the diving office. Here we were briefed on what the plan was for the day and I was shown all the equipment. It was a little daunting but exciting nonetheless. We took a mini bus on an hour’s journey towards Pangai Bai port on the East coast of the island. This was a the main port for all the journeys to the neighbouring islands so it was a very busy area. We took a traditional Indonesian boat or ‘pump boat’ out around the side of the port to the area where we were going to dive called Blue Lagoon. The water was unbelievably clear and beautiful and we did two 1 hour dives and it was one of the best experiences of my life. Something I will hopefully be able to do again.
After the dive we had food at a local cafe which was included in our trip itinerary and then got the mini bus back to the office. We then got dropped back in Jimbaran and our driver picked us up and dropped us back at the house. Again we chilled for a bit then headed out to a restaurant called The Alchemist, we again I would recommend.
Friday 6th October – Because we had loved DreamLand beach so much we spent the day there. We took the moped down to the beach, rented a beach bed for the day and a body board and chilled all day. The waves on the beach were some of the biggest I have ever seen and literally took your breath away when you got stuck in them. We had a traditional Balinese meal on the beach and then in the late afternoon we headed back to the house. In the evening we went to the main tourist area of Kuta, specifically Jalan Legian, which was a lot more built up and commercial in comparison to the area we were staying in. We had a lovely meal in a restaurant called Kopi House and had a cocktail in a local hotel to finish the night off.
Saturday 7th October – We didn’t do much on this day as it rained all day, and I mean all day. Also, like Singapore, when it rains, it pours, a lot. We had breakfast in a lovely cafe called Yum Yum and the eggs Benedict were amazing! We chilled all day and went to Casa Asia again for lunch and had a lovely dinner in a restaurant called Balicious.
Sunday 8th October – So I turned 21 on Sunday and had the best birthday to date! We spent the whole day at Sundays Beach Club. It cost around £16 for the day which included: a beach bed, towel, £8 food and drink voucher, access to equipment such as snorkels, paddle boards and canoes and access to the private beach. We literally chilled all day (and got burnt a little) and it was an amazing day of luxury! To get down to the beach was pretty cool, you got a little cart from the resort on the cliff down a small rollercoaster-like track to the beach club. For breakfast I had beautiful poached eggs on bread and for lunch we shared a pizza and a burger, both of which were amazing.
Monday 9th October – Sadly this was our last day in Bali and we left very early to get a taxi to the airport. Again we were lucky and got access to the premier lounge and a free breakfast then got our flight back to Singapore at 10am. Once back on campus at NTU I gave my boyfriend a little tour of the university then we headed to a nearby shopping mall at Jurong East to do a little retail therapy.
Tuesday 10th October – We spent the day exploring the city, I showed my boyfriend the whole area of Marina Bay, cliched I know, we did a lot of walking and watched the sunset over the Clarke Quay area then headed to China Town for dinner. Also considering I had just turned 21, the legal age for gambling in Singapore, we headed to the prestigious Marina Bay Sands Casino which was MASSIVE, just purely to look around. I am not a gambler by the way it was just something I had to tick of the Singapore list as it is a very famous casino!
Wednesday 11th October – Again we spent the day travelling across Singapore. We began at Bukit Gomok Town Park which was lovely except it was super hot and we were both super exhausted. Then we headed to Sentosa Island and got the cable cars across to the island which were amazing and the views were so cool. We walked around Sentosa then really randomly decided to go to Universal Studios for the afternoon! I have a 6 month pass so that was cool and my boyfriend really enjoyed the park so it was very worthwhile. We got the cable cars over to Mount Faber point watched the sunset then walked down the many steps through the park to head towards to MRT station. We went down to the Bayfront to watch the Gardens by the Bay light show then headed over to the Harbour Front near Marina Bay Sands to watch the light show there which was also really good.
Thursday 12th October – We spent the day back at Jurong East shopping malls doing a lot of retail therapy! One mall in particular is really good as it is a massive outlet complex, this includes Nike and Adidas, two of my favourite shops! I got an amazing pair of Nike leggings which were reduced from $219 to $29, I couldn’t actually believe the price considering they were Nike, they were amazing quality and even better for me, they were super long in length! The bargain was that good I bought two pairs! We had lunch at a Hong Kong restaurant then headed back to campus. We had a quick swim in the pool, went to the canteen for dinner then headed to the airport as my boyfriend was flying back to the UK. It was a pretty sad evening but I have had the best two weeks travelling and spending time with him and I’m going back to university with a much better mind-set and outlook and looking forward to the weeks ahead!
Daniela Mizzen 
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