From what you hear, Bali is one of those places that is the ultimate get-away-from-it-all holiday destination. Miles away from the UK its more the playground of Aussies or Kiwis, although it wasn’t an uncommon spot for Dubai-based folk to fly to. When our friend Michele moved there from Doha, we clocked it as an opportunity to go and find out what all the fuss was about, making sure we slotted it into our world tour.

Immediately walking out of the airport the heat hit us, wahoo we thought, it’s another place we can wear flip flops all the time! Although Molly swiftly reminded us that her only pair had broken a few weeks before – so priority was to replace those, heading to Fippers and kitting her feet out for the beach again (these lasted her another two months until one was lost on a bouncy castle in Rotorua….).

We were so lucky to have Michele’s beautiful villa to stay in. With two guest rooms and bathrooms and a lovely plunge pool it really was idyllic. It was also great to spend time catching up with her! Well located off Jalan Batur Sari in Sanur, we had a couple of lovely meals together a short walk away, the first night at Parisi for steak, burgers and delicious chocolate mousse and our last at Madu Sedana with cute stray kittens and yummy Asian dishes.

It was easy to use the ‘grab’ app to order taxis to go further afield, sadly with the kids we were not able to jump on the back of Michele’s scooter although Tom did use her pedal bike to go shopping. A short ride was lively Tamblingan street, where we ate well at Soul in a Bowl and Coconut Café. From there it was a little walk to the beach strip, which for the whole length of Sanur is pedestrianised.

It should have been a good run, although a little uneven in places so I tripped over – and was amazed at how fast I was offered aloe vera to rub into my wounds by ladies giving massages on the beach. I couldn’t resist ordering a smoothie at Genius cafe to recuperate before running back.

We had a lovely evening of sundowners with Michele and her fellow teachers at Segura and met up with them all again at the Beach House to watch matches of the Rugby World Cup. Perhaps the least said about the results the better given Michele is a rather competitive All Black!

We joked that she had decided the week a professional chef was staying to have her kitchen redone – so when we returned from Gili T it was all finished and Tom was centre stage in cooking for us all which turned out to be a great evening!

Tom went off early one morning for his first experience of fat biking, going to the volcanic Gunung Batukaru where he narrowly escaped a forest fire (we were going to see a few more of them once landing in Australia).

Tom had met Pete Collis (the owner of Kayuh Bali) on a few roadsters rides in Dubai so got in touch to see what trips they organised and managed to get a slot. The day consisted of two different types of rides, the first over volcanic lava rock and after lunch a fast-downhill sand track. Both were challenging as Tom is used to thin tyres and smooth tarmac but he had an exhilarating time.

After all this beach and rugby watching we realised we must see some more of the island, so booked a driver to show us around for a day. It was the best thing to do as we could be relaxed with timings and go from place to place at our own pace. We enjoyed a leisurely lunch at Mano on Seminyak beach and then went to Kuta beach for Tom and Molly to have their first ever surfing lesson. They both did very well getting up many times!

We went on to Ulawatu to visit the temple on the clifftop, a stunning location for sunset, the native monkeys causing much havoc stealing tourists’ handbags and sunglasses! For dinner we sampled some fish at Jimbaran on the beach, with sand between our toes and being serenaded with La Bamba and Byran Adams, although not quite Eat Pray Love, it felt like the holiday was going in the right direction.