You need a visa to visit Indonesia now. You can get a Visa on Arrival at the airport for IDR500,000 ($33), good for 30 days. Because we were arriving by ship, it was more difficult to get a visa and we let Oceania process the paperwork for us. Oceania charged $99/visa. This was good for only 1 visit.
Our ship arrived in Benoa, which has a modern port. We arranged to have a driver for our 2 days in Bali. Charge was IDR550,000 ($36.50)/day. He met us at the port and drove us wherever we wanted to go.
Leaving the Port of Benoa.
We wanted to visit Tegalalang Rice Paddies, 1h 32min from the port, just north of Ubud. Admission was IDR50,000 ($3.33) per person. This was totally NOT worth it. It was Instagram Central. At 9:30am, it was crowded with Instagramers sitting in bird nests, ziplining and changing into flowing gowns and being photographed while swinging over the rice paddies. Gone are the peaceful paddies from 25 years ago when we first visited.
Lonely Planet had a walking tour of the Kajeng Rice Fields in Ubud. Your driver can drop you off at the start just behind Saraswati Temple. It's a very pleasant 45 minute loop walk and there weren't too many tourists.
At times, you'll follow a river.
Back in Ubud, we had coconut ice cream at Tukie's Coconut Shop.
It's not cheap by Indonesian standards--IDR56,000 ($3.70) for two scoops of coconut ice cream with young coconut, roasted coconut and roasted coconut brittle. It was okay, not the most flavorful coconut ice cream I have had.
We wanted a locals' lunch and our driver took us to Teba Sari. It's definitely not where the locals eat--it was full of tourists.
Complimentary casava chips with spicy sambal.
Chicken Laksa--IDR73,500 ($4.90). This was okay. Not as good as in Singapore.
Bebek Tebasari--IDR143,500 ($9.50). Breaded crispy fried duck served with Jukut Urab, a mixed vegetable salad, steamed rice and a soup. The duck was over crisped but still tasty.
You get a nice view of the rice paddies while dining and the restrooms were clean.
After lunch, we drove to Sanur, a seaside town in the southeast corner of Bali. There were fishing boats lined up in the water.
We had reservations for massages at Le'Ha-Le'Ha Spa. https://leha-leha-spa.business.site/?utm_source=gmb&utm_medium=referral
It was easy to make reservations online for massages. It's not a fancy place but it was clean and the massages were wonderful. I got the 90 min Balinese Full Body Massage for IDR250K ($16.60) and a 30 min facial for IDR100K ($6.60) while my husband got the 90 min Leha Leha De-Stress Muscle Massage for IDR350K ($23) and 30 min Foot Reflexology for IDR90K ($6). We left relaxed.
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