The Kiosk, Floreat

Just as I felt the holiday blues setting in leaving Bali a lightbulb went off in my brain, Lux is in Perth.  

I finally met Catherine Lux* at her birthday last year, after a lifetime of tweets and blog comments about our mutual loves; food, cocktails and australia. A London birthday night out sealed our friendship and I've teased her with photos of Perth since I arrived. 

Catherine suggested we grab brunch at one of her favourite spots, The Kiosk at Floreat beach. After getting a bit lost, singing my way through a whole McFLY album and necking both a coffee and an energy drink, I arrived bright eyed and bushy tailed.

After a quick glance at the menu I decided on pancakes and Lux went for eggs benny, a reasonable $15 and $19, washed down with an iced chocolate and a pot of tea for C.

The pancakes were incredible, big thick fluffy and drowned in maple and my iced chocolate was pretty damn good too. Lux seemed pretty happy with her eggs benny, even referring to it as egg porn.

A 'quick catch up' soon turned to hours gossiping about what we've been up to, our favourite bloggers and trying to break youtube. After our food had gone down we took a 30 second stroll down onto Floreat beach to paddle.

How can you not love Perth with beaches like that!

x

*real surname, and she is a super lux lady.

Mount Batur, Bali

On our last day, just before we head to the airport the host at our villa offered to take us to look at Mount Batur, an active volcano (it last erupted in 2000 ) in the centre of two calderas. I've always had a weird fascination with volcanos so was super excited when I found out we had time for a quick visit before the end of the adventure.

Mount Batur is in the North East of Bali, it's best seen on foot as part of a sunrise hike, but if you're short for time / don't fancy getting up at 3am there's an incredible view from the town of Kintamani. Driving into Kintamani there's a fee of 10,000RP for tourists to pay, and the roadsides are lined with stalls selling the usual tourist rubbish, and much to much dismay puppies...loads of cute, fluffy, puppies for $50 each, I could've bought them all.

From there we started the drive back towards the airport, but just as we thought our holiday was over our host pulled the car over at some beautiful rice terraces.

These were just in a small town we drove through, if you're in Bali and have the chance head to Jatiluwih, where you'll be blown away by the rice terraces which have now been names a UNESCO cultural landscape. 

From there it was off to Ngurah Rai airport for our flight home, a short visit but filled with adventure.

Till next time Bali!

xo

Goa Gajah and Tirta Empul, Bali

From Ubud it's a short journey to both Goa Gajah, the elephant cave, and Tirta Empul, the holy water temple. We were lucky enough to hire a driver for the morning, but you can also do the trip with your own transport or as part of a tour group. 

Goa Gajah, otherwise known as the elephant cave is an 11th century temple around 6km from Ubud. Entry to Goa Gajah is 15,000 RP per person ($1.50) and car parking is 5,000RP (50c). After a short walk from the carpark you find yourself at the top of some steps down to the main site, the cave itself is incredible and there's long walks to take around the tropical gardens also, beware there's a lot of steps though. Despite the name elephant cave, there's no elephants and no one can agree on where the name came from either.

Our next stop was Tirta Empul, the holy water temple, which is in the town of Tampaksiring around 15km from Ubud. Tirta Empul is another Hindu temple, where locals head to be cleansed by the holy spring waters which rise in the temple grounds. The temple is dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu. Entry is 15,000 RP per person and full temple dress should be worn, spare sarongs and sash's are available. If you wish to bathe in the holy water this must be done clothed and a donation should be offered. 

If you've got more than a morning a trip to Gunung Kawi is also a great way to spend some time, sadly we had to give it a miss due to the 300 or so steps to and from the temple complex. 

xo