It’s approximately 16 degrees outside and I’m on my couch with a second cup of coffee FINALLY diving in to the thousands of photos we took on our trip to Bali!

We decided to spend our time in Indonesia bopping around to several different parts of the country, all with drastically different feels, each amazing in their own way.

Today, I’ll be taking you away on the first part of our trip – our experience with Qatar Airlines and our first Bali stop – Kuta!

After months of tracking flights on several different flight trackers, a great deal came up on justfly.com with Qatar Airlines.  We knew that the travel would be long, so choosing an airline with great reviews was extremely important to us.  Our flight would leave from JFK, fly to Doha, and then into Denpasar (Bali).

Travel Tip : Airlines typically reserve the front row in economy class for passengers with infants/lap children.  Don’t sit near here in the event that a baby screams for 12+ hours without sleeping.

Flying with Qatar was a perfect way to start our trip.  We were aboard the 787 Dreamliner Aircraft, which felt more like a cruise ship than an airplane.  Our budget allowed for us to travel in economy class, which came with more frills than I expected.  Upon arrival to our seats, we found blankets, pillows, headphones, earplugs, toothbrushes, socks, chapstick and our menu for the multiple inflight meals.  With our individual TV’s, I was able to watch all the movies I wanted with no shame/guilt/different opinion from my husband. (Bring it on, Sound of Music and Meet Me In St. Louis!)

After a short layover in Doha, we boarded our second flight (in the blinding heat of Qatar!) to Denpasar.  A few more meals, several movies, and a short nap later we were arriving at Denpasar Airport around midnight.
I had read a bit about the arrival process at Denpasar and knew that we a) needed to get to an ATM, b) needed to get a SIM card for our phones and c) needed to find a Bluebird taxi to get us to our hotel.  Sounds easy right?
Well, add in 24+ hours of travel fatigue, 1000 taxi drivers straight up stalking you to give you a ride, a bit of a language barrier, and not knowing what things should cost and that leads to a smallll moment of panic.  A few deep breaths later, we had cash, a SIM card, and a taxi and were on our way to Kuta.

We stayed at The ONE Legian.  Honest reasons we stayed at this hotel 1) found a great deal on agoda, 2) starbucks nearby, 3) looked like a perfect spot to adjust to a new culture.  We were mainly here to sleep, but the location was perfect for a morning of exploring Kuta before heading on to our next stop.  The room was a decent size, with a nice balcony and great shower (really any shower would’ve felt amazing at that point!).

Kuta is the primary resort town of Bali and has a bit of a reputation (i.e. the worst place in Bali, a spring break-ers paradise, etc) on the internet.  So why would we stay here?  We wanted something close to the airport so we could get to sleep after arriving around midnight.  We also wanted an area that wouldn’t feel unsafe at night (again, because of our arrival time).  Kuta was still up and partying when we arrived, and although we didn’t participate, it would have been a great cure for jetlag if we had any issues sleeping.  The next morning, we wandered through the town and, honestly, it seems like it might be getting a bad rap.  The worst place in Bali really wasn’t that bad – but definitely not worth spending more than a day.

We had breakfast at an adorable cafe that we stumbled upon called Crumb and Coaster and from there wandered into a couple of shops – purchasing famous, or infamous, Bintang T-shirts, and then eventually indulging in our first beachside Bintang.  Before we knew it, it was time to head back to the hotel and hire transport to Bingin Beach for the next stop of our trip.

Stay tuned for more xx,
b&b