It was finally time for my sister to arrive in Dubai before we headed away on holiday to Bali. She landed into Dubai at 8am on Wednesday morning and we spent a couple of days together in Dubai before I did a quick turn around to Iran and it was off away.

Collecting her from the airport, we jumped in a taxi back to my apartment to get ready for an action packed day ahead of us.

We decided to spend the day at Wild Wadi waterpark next to Jumeriah Beach Hotel. Out of the two waterparks in Dubai, this was one I hadn’t yet visited and we spent a day in the incredibly hot 40 degree sunshine here.

Entrance to the park was 175 dirhams per person with my crew discount, which is quite pricey in comparison to Aquaventure at The Atlantis and is also much smaller. However they do have a really good selection of slides and also great views of the Burj Al Arab so it does have a little edge I guess.

We stopped for lunch here too to have a little break from the sunshine. Food is pretty average, your standard burger, chicken, chips etc and again over priced. If you’re wanting to spend the day here prepare to spend quite a bit of money!

After a long day of hurtling down slides, lounging around in rubber rings down lazy rivers and enjoy the wave pool we decided to call it a day with our fingers wrinkled from all that water. Heading back home, we changed and got ready to go out for dinner at our favourite restaurant in Dubai. Asia Asia.

Ordering duck and pancakes, edamame, rainbow sushi and dynamite shrimp we ate till we could eat no more and we finished our evening taking a leisurely stroll around the marina before walking on home.

The next day we had a bit of a lazy day before I went to work, and then finally it was time for a vacation!! Using my discounted standby tickets, we were trying for the 8:35am flight out of Dubai and over to Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali. Impatiently waiting to see if we were accepted or not, we snook the last two spare seats on the flight and made the mad rush through the airport for our departure.

It was 9 hours over to Bali and I slept the majority of the way with the exception of when we were eating and we landed just before 10pm local time. Taking a taxi over to the first stop of our trip, it was around 30 minutes to Seminyak. We stayed at the Amadea Resort which was on the central strip of Seminyak and we quickly changed and went out for some cocktails and food!

The next morning we woke early and went for breakfast in the hotel. We had made plans to go to Potato Head Beach Club and as we wanted a sun bed, we wanted to be there for when it opened at 10am. With a little delay, we arrived there at just 10 minutes past 10 and all beds were already gone! With just a couple of lounge areas left on the grass we took one of those and placed our name on the waitlist for a bed.

Potato Head has a beautiful pool looking out onto the beach front, however I would say that I enjoy cooling off in a pool yet this was like an arctic bath and you were soon shivering after spending more than 5 minutes in there. Especially if the sun hid behind a cloud!

The day spent here was great, just a little uncomfortable on the grassy lounge areas as it was just a mat on the floor, not a padded bed. Finally at about 5pm, I was told that a sun bed had become free and would we like to move? It seemed a little pointless with the sun setting at 6:13pm but we moved on over for a little more comfort to watch the sun go down.

After the sun went down, we packed up our things and got ready to go out for some dinner that evening. Walking up and down the strip, scouring the menus along the road side, we stumbled upon a restaurant called Chandi. And what an absolute gem it was. We ordered two dragon fruit mojitos and the skewer platter to share. The 20 skewers came partially cooked on a sizzling hot stone with an accompaniment of rice, salad and a wide selection of dipping sauces and a huge bowl of peanut satay. The food was outstanding as were the drinks and we polished everything off with nothing left to spare. I would honestly recommend this restaurant to anyone as the menu here is great, it’s a little pricer than other restaurants around the area but for the quality of food and the beautiful restaurant it is completely worth it. I will most definitely be visiting again on a Bali layover.

As the evening drew to a close, we stopped for some frozen yoghurt and went back to the room. We had an early start the next day as we headed onto the next leg of our journey, Ubud! Stay posted for what I got up to there!

As always, feel free to follow me on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook for more daily updates:
http://www.twitter.com/Jessicaaahhh
http://www.instagram.com/Jessicaaahhh
http://www.facebook.com/JessicasJourneyWithEK