After 5 nights in Ubud, we spent the remainder of our break in Seminyak, which although only a short distance from Kuta is nonetheless a much nicer area with some amazing restaurants. I did not take the camera out with me every night, instead relying on the Canon Ixus 125HS as my pocket camera. Unfortunately I am really beginning to notice the limitations of this little camera and fear it may be time to upgrade. I do like it’s portability, but being able to shoot only JPEG’s is a big problem for me, particularly as many images featuring skin tones tend to be very heavily orange biased.

One night I did take the 5D 3 out was when we spent the afternoon and evening at the W Retreat and Spa. If you are planning on heading down here, it is imperative to book as this bar is very popular and a great place to watch the sun set while enjoying the beach party atmosphere. Service was as usual impeccable and I would very much recommend the W for a pre-dinner drink. When hunger got the better of us we headed to the on site restaurant ‘Fire’, which again served wonderful food. The following images were taken with either the 17mm TS-E or the 50mm f1.2L…

In Seminyak we chose to stay at the One Boutique Villa, which although it was certainly nice, did not for me quite live up to the hype on Tripadvisor; in fact I preferred the service and accommodation at Kayumanis in Ubud. The accommodations were lovely, as the following images will attest; I think it was just that the staff were perhaps a little too intrusive, and having our air-conditioner break down three nights in a row at 2 and 3am was more than a little tiring. It was by no means bad, but honestly I felt it could have been better…

Certainly one of the most enjoyable aspects of Bali is, as I have already alluded to, the quality of the restaurants which are quite superb. Every meal was excellent, and with so many restaurants  to choose from I would heartily recommend Sarong, Sardine, Metis, The Bistrot, Gado Gado, Fire at the W retreat and Mamasan (the sister restaurant to Sarong). Unfortunately there is a massive 600% tax on imported alcohol, so wine with each meal does make the expense of dining out about the same as one would pay in Melbourne.