We spent two relaxing nights at Alila Manggis on the east coast of Bali and had the chance to try our hands at a Balinese cookery lesson.

It felt a little strange to not have to brace yourself for leaving an airport, with all the hassles of trying to figure out the local transport system after a long gruelling flight. Instead we strolled out of arrivals at Denpasar airport looking around for a large sign with “Alila” written on it.

With our bags loaded in the car we hopped in as our driver opened two chilled bottles of water and offered us a cool hand towel. After a long flight and battling your way through baggage and being hit by a wall of humidity, it’s small touches like this that make all the difference.

It was also a weird feeling to be able to switch on data roaming soon after landing, we were in Bali testing out Three’s “Feel At Home” tariff that lets you use your data package just like you would back home in a growing list of countries. Usually it’s the first thing that you check on your phone to make sure you don’t return home to receive a huge daunting and unexpected bill. After receiving a reassuring text from Three I was ready to tweet, instagram, facebook and Google my way through Bali without a worrying!

We sped out of town heading up the east coast to Alila Manggis resort, a luxury secluded resort on the coast. I was looking forward to taking it easy for a few days and recovering from our flight.

ALILA MANGGIS RESORT

Alila Manggis is just south of Candidasa, a seaside town in east Bali. The resorts offers a handy free shuttle bus to the town and back. The resort itself (to its advantage) is relatively small, has a beautiful swimming pool and spa area.

On arrival we were welcomed to the resort by the manager and shown to our ground floor room that looked out onto the pool that’s surrounded by towering palm trees. The outdoor area had a pleasant little set of table and chairs with cushions which proved an ideal place to sit an relax as the sun crept down behind the palm trees. We were pretty shattered from the journey over and our time spent dashing around in Kula Lumpur the night before, so we decided to get an early night ahead of our market tour and cooking class the next day.

THE DREADED JETLAG

We woke to the sound of knocking on the door, as I suddenly realised that we had forgotten to set our alarm. This only ever happens to me when I have jetlag and sure enough it had happened on our first morning in Bali, making us a tad late for our morning market tour. Thankfully the staff at Alila Manggis managed to delay our tour so we had time for a lightening fast shower before hopping into one of their cars to make our way to Pasar Galiran Klungkung market.

PASAR GALIRAN KLUNGKUNG MARKET

The piglets awaiting sale at Pasar Galiran Klungkung market.  Geese and ducks huddle together nervously whilst waddling from one side of their pen to the other.

Wandering the market stalls, locals stared inquisitively as our guide explained the different areas of the market and the produce on offer. There was a dim buzz around the market as we wound our way around vibrant and colourful fruit and juice stalls. The market is divided up into sections for certain types of produce such as the fruit and vegetables, meat, materials and live stock.

MEAT MARKET

We made our way through the meat section with fresh cuts of what looked like pork and chicken being cut agressively by a women with a large butchers knife.

Walking into the bright sunshine and across a road we found the live stock area… or rather, it found us first! The stench from the geese, ducks and pigs radiated in the heat far beyond their cages and the concrete pens that were keeping them in. Ducks and geese were kept in wooden cages as well as tiny little piglets, further along we found larger pigs lazing in the more spaciuous concrete pens.

The market was an interesting experience that you don’t get often back at home, so often it’s easy to forget the process that’s involved in getting meat on the table or on the supermarket shelves that it’s important to see a real traditional workings of a meat market up close.

BALINESE COOKERY CLASS

Alila Manggis hosted a fun, insightful and useful cookery course where we attempted to create satay chicken, nasi goreng and curry.

Once back at Alila Manggis we were shown all the different herbs, spices, rice and beans that are prevalent in Indonesian cooking. It was interesting to learn about these ingredients in their raw form before adding to a recipe, chopping or crushing as well as finding out just what they smell like. It gives you a good idea of what each of these ingredients adds to the final dish.

We moved into the restaurant where all our equipment was set up and really to go along with a sheet of recipes we’d be attempting to create. The chef showed us how to make peanut satay sauce by crushing peanuts on a large stone pestle, we pounded the peanuts until they turned into a mush.

The Balinese favourite nasi goreng was the next dish, followed by a coconut based curry. The class was a really well run, insightful but also light hearted and fun, where we learnt quite a bit of technique. Who knew peanut satay sauce was made that way?

The prize for our hard work in the kitchen was that we got the chance to eat everything we cooked for lunch, needless to say there was an awful lot a of food.

We sat in the restaurant taking our time over lunch whilst looking out to the ocean and palm trees surrounding the resort. Alila Manggis is a place where you have to go at a much slower pace, relax, take your time and just enjoy getting away for the pace of everyday life in a city like our home, London. Even when you’re having lunch!

You can see a 360 photosphere of Alila Manggis below.

POOL & PALM TREES

After eating far too much food we decided to make the most of our down time at Alila Manggis by relaxing by the pool. The resort is a peaceful place but there is also plenty to do if you are looking for something more active, there is world class diving just off the coast as well as the opportunity to trek up the slopes of Mount Agung with Alila Manggis’s experiences. As we were only staying for a couple of days, after our in-depth cookery class we thought we’d make the most of the sunshine.

Afternoon tea was served from a beautiful tiny wooden cart offering tea, coffee and biscuits. Round the pool we were offered chilled water with lemon. Our room itself had a view out onto the pool, palm trees and the ocean, it would be hard to find a more relaxing view.

DEEP SEA FISHING

You can go deep sea fishing or snorkeling just off the coast at Alila Manggis.

Somewhat hidden towards the coast is Alila’s Spa, you can get a massage whilst listening to the sound of the waves crashing onto rocks beneath. Alila also offers fishing trips out on their boat with an experienced local fisherman, but be warned you will have to get up and be ready to go by 7:30am.

If that’s not your cup of tea you could go snorkeling in the clear blue waters off the coast. For us, we only had two days to experience the resort before making our way further up the coast to Candidasa.

I was really impressed with the detail, passion and humour delivered by our chef with Alila’s cookery class and it made our stay feel much more of an experience than simply staying at an annoymous resort. I left having caught up with my jetlag (well a little!) and with a head full of Balinese cookery tips to try my hand at back home.

This post was brought to you in partnership with Three and Alila Manggis. TravMonkey.com maintains full editorial control of the content published on this site.