The Zala Villa Bali was my home for two weeks back in August 2014, when I was visiting Bali with my family and friends. It was the first luxury accomodation I stayed at, and what can I say, it set the bar very high.

Located away from the hustle and bustle of Kuta, Legian and Seminyak, in the middle of rice fields in Canggu, it's the perfect place to relax without being too secluded. Echo beach - my favourite - is just a 10 minute drive away, while a trip to the 'tourist central' will take you about half an hour.

The owner Andrej, a fellow Slovenian, built the property up from scratch, and I don't think he could have done a better job. There are four villas in total, each offering complete privacy, having their own entrances and living areas. They're all decorated in a modern style with traditional Balinese touches and have a private pool, two bedrooms, two semi-outdoor bathrooms, and a spacious open living space with a lounge, a kitchen and a dining area.

The place was kept spotless throughout our stay, and we always had the most delicious fresh juices waiting for us in the fridge. I still can't get them out of my head! The meals were great too. We usually started our day with breakfast and then planned the rest of our meals around activities on the actual day, which was very handy.

Andrej and his wife Ida are definitely not your average hotel owners. They made sure we experienced the best of what Bali has on offer and made us feel like we were staying with old friends. Andrej was our personal driver (along with Andi) and a tour guide with the best tips and local secrets. He organized all activities for us, so that we didn't have to worry about a single thing, and tweaked the itinerary for us on the go, based on our preferences. 

I would recommend the place to families, couples and friends alike. I really don't have a single complaint. The only thing I was missing was a fully functioning wi-fi, but that's Bali and I've seen worse to be honest. Most of you probably don't depend on the internet as much as I do, so you're good. If you're a fellow YouTuber, though, make sure you have those videos scheduled and uploaded before you land on the island, haha.

Bali was one of the best places I've ever visited and I would love to explore more of Indonesia in the future. After having such an amazing experience at The Zala Villa Bali in particular, one of the first places on my to-visit list is definitely Andrej's new venture, Coconut Garden Beach Resort in Flores. Who's coming with me?!

I've been writing about food so much lately The Puzzle of Sandra's Life is unintentionally starting to resemble a food blog, haha. Today I don't have a recipe or a restaurant review per se for you guys, but I do have one amazing tip that you'll be glad I told you about when you visit Bali. It's called The Cafe.

You can find it inside The Mulia, a luxury five-star resort in Nusa Dua. Essentially, it's a buffet restaurant, but a very fancy and rather affordable one! I know, that's two words you don't see in the same sentence very often, which is a reason enough to give it a go if you fancy experiencing luxury on a budget.

You can go there for either breakfast, lunch or dinner, and enjoy top-notch meals from all around the globe for about €30 per person. Being a buffet, you can try whatever you want and go fill up your plate as many times as you like. I would recommend starving yourself beforehand, because everything looks and tastes so good there, you will want to eat all of the things. I went there for lunch, and indian, korean, italian and thai were only some of the cousines I tried. That's before I made it to the famous dessert bar. Insert blushing emoji.

Even though I said the place is a buffet-style restaurant, it's not exactly your typical buffet. It looks luxurious, the food is prepared by some of the best chefs in the world, and everything is cooked fresh, sometimes even in front of your eyes. Ten out of ten! If I ever repeat my visit to Bali, we'll definitely meet again. Would you give it a go too?

To finish off my Bali series, I have a haul for you! No trip abroad is complete without a little bit of shopping, am I right ladies? You won't be seeing any makeup items in this video for a change, but I have tons of other things to show you. From bags and shoes to surf wear and even undies. Oh, so scandalous! :D

Love it or hate it, this is my last travel post until my next adventure, which I hope will happen sooner rather than later. Let me know whether or not you enjoyed these posts, so that I know how to go about it in the future. Same goes for vlogs. 

Today, I have the last three days of my Bali trip to cover, so let's start. After a relaxing day at the villas, which basically consisted of me trying to connect to wi-fi and not succeeding, we went for a late lunch to the nearby restaurant. The tables were inside little huts located on water, and the atmosphere was delightfully relaxing. But the best part was definitely the strawberry juice that I ordered. OMG! So good!

Once we were done eating, us girls made an early escape and were taken back to the villas to get ready, because it was time for some partying! We went to a gay club and had a blast! The music was totally up my alley and the people there were ridiculously nice. Have I mentioned before how much I love gay people?! They're seriously the best. If you want to be showered with compliments and not being harrased, go to a gay club. You won't regret it, haha. While we were there, we also saw quite a few ladyboys working the stage.  One word: fierce. Their performances were very entertaining, and their makeup was on point. 

Next day, we first visited the Reptile & Bird Park, where my sister was called on stage and taken away. A few minutes later, she came back dressed as a little farmer girl and was trying to feed a flock of ducks that were running after her and pecking her feet. Hilarious!

After the parks, it was time for a little break. We first went to check out some famous and photogenic rice fields, and then had lunch in Ubud, which seemed like a lovely place. I really wish we had some time to explor it on foot. Somewhen in between, we also visited The Monkey Forest. It was exactly what the name suggests. A little forest full of monkeys. By the way, did you know that monkeys swim under water? I didn't and almost had a heart attack when I saw one snorkeling! it was under the water for quite a while, too! I managed to catch the moment on film, so you can watch it below in my vlog. 

And then came the moment I was really looking forward to! We went to hang out with some elephants! Elephants are one of my favourite animals - next to dogs, koalas, dolphins and wallabies, in case you were wondering - and feeding a baby elephant was definitely the best part of the day for me! So cute! We also got to ride some bigger elephants, which was...well...bumpy! But really fun. 

My last day in Bali didn't start on a good note. I had to wake up SUPER early to go visit a healer. Now, visiting a healer was not something I wanted to sign up for, but I eventually gave in to avoid further arguments. Also, since my knees are rubbish and our western medicine failed to help me, I thought I would try my luck there. Big mistake! It was like the massage story all over again. When we arrived to the healer (extremely early in the morning), there was already a ridiculous amount of people waiting for his help. People come from other remote islands all the way to Bali, because they believe this man can cure all illnesses just by touching them. The majority of them never even visit a real doctor. When I got locked in a room with about twenty caughing people who haven't seen a single doctor in their life all around me, I started freaking out. If I could, I would run away. I was really considering doing it, and if it didn't seem rude, I would definitely do it. But, of course, I stayed and suffered in silence. Little did I know that the real suffering would come a few minutes later, when the healer called me up to him, told me to lay on my back, lifted up my T-shirt in front of all those people and started touching my boobs! And my stomach. Actually, it was not touching. I don't know how I would describe it, but it was VERY PAINFUL. And no, I am not overreacting one bit. Trust me, if you saw my stomach area a day later, you would believe me. It was all differend shades of yellow, blue, green and purple! Basically, my whole belly was covered in one giant colourful rainbow. But it wasn't a rainbow, it was a humongous and freakin' painful bruise. Yay! Oh, and by the way, he didn't even mention my knees! Instead, he said I have problems with my colon. Umm... no, I don't?! Lol. So, yeah, that happened. 

Thankfully, the afternoon was a lot more enjoyable. Three of us went to the town called Seminyak to do some last-minute shopping. There, I finally saw a supermarket for the first time in two weeks, but failed to find any make-up. I wouldn't be able to survive there. There's literally no makeup. Anywhere. I saw TWO stores while I was there. Two. Tiny. Little. Stores. One had a few European and American drugstore and high-end brands, but really just a few, and there was one Etude House store. That was it. Those were the only two stores I saw. Even when I went to the drugstore that had a large 'makeup' sign above the doors, I only managed to find two eyeliners of the same kind and some bad looking nail polish. Really weird. Anyway, when we were done with shopping, we went to wait for our driver to pick us up, but instead, there came the villa owner and the gardener on vespas. They told us that the driver couldn't come, because he was waiting for some people at the airport who got their luggage lost, so they came to pick us up instead. We first thought that they were joking, but no. 10 minutes later, we were driving home on vespas. I don't know who was more in shock. Me in the back of the gardener's vespa, trying not to fall off while he was driving through red traffic lights, on  and off pavements, in between cars and REALLY close to trucks (at that point, I was praying for my Marc Jacobs to stay on me and not on one of the wing mirrors we were passing by), or my sister and my firend who were being taken back on the same vespa. Fun times! But, no, it actually wasn't all that bad. After a few minutes, I somehow started enjoying the craziness that is Bali traffic. Maybe there is a drop - but only a little drop - of an adrenaline junkie hiding in my blood after all, haha. 

I don't even know which exact day is the topic of today's post, because it's been almost a month since I came back home from my Bali vacation. How did this happen?! Time really does fly! All I can say is, thank god for the photos that remind me of what exactly we've been doing that day. So, what have we been doing? We first went to the village, where people still live very much traditionally. They even get married amongst each other, which sounds a little if not a lot creepy to me, as there's only 200 of them.

Next stop: snorkeling. It's safe to say that snorkeling is not for me. When I put on flippers it was like somebody cemented my feet into the ground. I couldn't move! I don't know if the flippers I got were just too big or too heavy for me, but the point is, there was no snorkeling on my part going on. I had to crawl out of the water and wait for the others to be done. I was really angry that I didn't have my swimming shoes me, because if I had them, I could go totally go with the rest of the group. The ocean was really calm and since I'm a good swimmer, I'm sure I wouldn't have any problems. I mean, I was a mermaid in one of my previous lives after all! My flippers are built-in! But as I didn't have any 'protective' footwear and wasn't too keen on the possibility of getting my feet cut on pointy rocks and corals, I decided to skip on the experience. It later turned out that I didn't miss out on anything special anyway, so no biggie. 

Tirta Gangga, the former royal palace, is the last place we visited that day. There's a lot of fountains, gardens, pools and sculpures in there, but the main attraction is definitely the stepping stones. I've been jumping from one to another and believe it or not, made the whole way through the pond without falling in! 

When we came back to the villas, there was dinner waiting for us. We had lobster! I've never eaten it before and was really curious how it tastes like as so many people are loving it. Or do they? I didn't find it anything special to be honest, in fact, I don't feel the need to eat it ever again, so I'm starting to think people eat it just because it's considered 'fancy'. Lol. I don't know. Have you eaten it before? Have you liked it?