Bali Day 1 - Fox Harris Hotel + Kayumanis Restaurant

Bali Day 1 - Fox Harris Hotel + Kayumanis Restaurant

• January 24, 2019

Bali really is one of those places I've always wanted to go to for the longest of times and thanks to one of my best friends who decided to get married there in October last year, it was the perfect excuse to tick it off my bucket list. And not only did we get to enjoy 6 beautiful days in Bali, we also got to experience our first beach wedding which was just incredible.

Isaac was such a good boy on both connecting flights to Bali and managed to sleep most of it or be happily entertained. Travel has gotten better as he's become older, and he loves nothing more than getting on a plane!

Stepping off the plane and into the tropical heat felt great, even though we were already a sweaty mess after a long ass 20 hour flight. As we made our way out of the airport, we saw glimpses of the local culture; lively and theatrical statues and palm trees lining the outer part of the airport, and roundabouts filled with more statues reflecting in the luminous coloured light show. It really was a wonderful sight and welcome to Bali!   

We arrived at our hotel at midnight and were so glad to fall into a clean bed in a spacious air conditioned room. The timings meant we could sleep right through the night, wake up normal time in the morning and hopefully avoid jetlag.

Woke up perky and ready to start his holiday!

We're staying at the Fox Harris Hotel and I am super happy with everything on offer at this 'budget' hotel. Our room is large, clean, has a huge bed and sofa, a large bathroom, all inclusive breakfast every morning and free use of the luscious pool..... all for £48 a night. Yep, you heard right! I'd definitely come back again for this price (it's now only £40 a night for Feb dates!).

The main restaurant and pool is on the rooftop of the hotel, providing a great view of the neighbouring resorts and hotels.

We are ravishing after skipping dinner when we landed the night before. There's quite a good choice of hot and cold food, Indonesian food or Western style and a fresh pancake, waffle and egg station. The mie goreng fried noodles are ace and the pancakes go down a treat. The tropical fruits on offer also get our attention and we load up on them every morning without fail. 

The pool is just stunning! There are 3 varying heights, the shallowest part being where the deck chairs are and deepest is around 1 metre throughout the length of the pool. There's a children's pool at this end of the pool which you just hop over into from the main pool. It is so perfectly catered for all and I am so pleased. We're spending the morning and lunch just chilling out here.

Isaac is so ready to dive in and he is the happiest little boy all day! The views over the edge is fantastic and we can see planes coming in and flying away.

We order lunch at the bar. The nasi goreng (fried rice) and nasi campur (rice with a bit of everything) is nothing special but it's cheap (around £10 for both) and we don't have to leave the pool. After lunch, we all head down to our room for a lovely afternoon siesta and wait for our friends who are arriving at 5pm, just in time for dinner.

Kayumanis restaurant is a 5 minute walk from our hotel, and is within a much fancier 5 star resort. The menu is traditional Balinese food and I can't wait to try it all. 

Purple sweet potato crisps and the rice crackers are phenomenal. The sweet potato crisps are unlike any that I've eaten before and our whole table can't stop either. The dips that come with it are equally as good.

We order a lot of everything for the whole table to share and my gosh did we feast! Everything was delicious and I'd say we got a great intro into Balinese cuisine.

My most anticipated dish was the bebek betutu duck, which I'd read lots on whilst researching food and it was exceptional. The texture was the most interesting, being super succulent like it had been boiled but with crispy yet tender skin and just full of flavour. Google tells me the duck is coated in a spice paste, wrapped in banana leaves and steam-roasted. We tried this dish several times during our trip and none came close to this superior one from Kayumanis. This was travel food gold! 

This meal started a week long love affair with this intensely pink dragon fruit juice, it was so good wherever I had it.

We forgot about our desserts which came with one of the sets, but the staff were very kind to remind us and then boxed it up so we could take it back with us. Purple sweet potato glutinous balls filled with coconut sugar and rolled in shredded coconut. They were so damn good, and I only wished I could have eaten a ton more of these.

Happy times with this bunch. The meal cost around £100, we couldn't believe how cheap it was. This was the start of getting used to incredibly cheap local prices and by the end of the holiday we realised £20 per person for a meal in Bali is considered expensive, ha.

Our first day in Bali was well and truly fantastic.