RTW TP Run in Jan 2026: Day 11 – Afternoon and Evening in Denpasar, Bali

By Nige on January 28, 2026 at 7:06 pm
Type: Post
Story: Round the World Tier Point Run in Jan 2026 Category: Travel
Tags: Denpasar | Hilton

I briefly considered delaying the start of my sightseeing in the hope that traffic might ease later in the morning. The counter-argument was obvious, though: leave it too late and I’d risk drifting off to sleep instead.

Tourist advice was consistent — head out early to beat both the crowds and the heat — so the decision was made.

I ordered my second Grab taxi of the day from the hotel just before 10am.

My first stop was Big Garden Corner Park, billed as “the perfect one-stop destination in Denpasar”, with “hundreds of spots within the vast park, stone sculptures, and greenery.”

It was around 17km away and took roughly forty minutes to reach. Traffic was predictably awful — exactly the kind of frenetic, anything-goes driving you associate with parts of Asia.

It can look terrifying at first, but the key seems to be confidence: be assertive, go when there’s a reasonable gap, and trust that other drivers will adapt. Worst case, they stop. We Brits are far too polite by comparison.

There were scooters everywhere, yet despite the apparent chaos, I didn’t witness a single accident. Having said that, I had my eyes closed most of the time!

My driver, Krishnan, spoke very little English, but we managed to communicate the basics. He’d only been driving for Grab for a month and was doing it because he didn’t currently have other work.

When he realised how little of Bali I was actually seeing, he offered to take me on a proper tour next time I visited — an impressively generous suggestion given the language barrier, or at least that’s how I interpreted it.

When we arrived at Big Garden Corner Park, it didn’t look quite as official as I’d expected. There was no prominent signage, and I was dropped a short distance from the entrance.

After paying the £6.75 entry fee, it felt as though I had the entire place to myself — save for one other visitor and his daughter.

The park had a distinctly traditional Indonesian feel and very little Western polish. That gave it a certain quaint charm, but it didn’t really grab me. There were a few interesting artefacts and some decent photo opportunities, but beyond that, it didn’t quite hit the mark.

After about fifteen minutes, I was already ordering my next Grab — this time to the Bajra Sandhi Monument.

The drive took only around fifteen minutes, and once again, the air-conditioning was very welcome. I wandered around the monument, which was genuinely impressive.

A handful of people were milling about — some practising yoga or similar routines, others seemingly rehearsing for a performance.

I could have paid to enter the monument itself, but by then I was starting to feel both hungry and tired, so I decided against it and ordered another Grab to my next stop: Level 21 Mall.

The mall wasn’t far, and by this point the heat and humidity were ramping up nicely. An air-conditioned shopping centre was exactly what I needed.

Level 21 turned out to be a fairly typical Western-style mall, mixing local and global brands. It wasn’t particularly high-end, and there wasn’t much to get excited about.

Until I spotted Burger King.

A quick pit stop was organised, and this time it was the mighty chicken burger’s turn. It went down very well — so well, in fact, that it made me sleepy.

That was my cue to order the final Grab of the day and head back to the hotel, where a very welcome snooze followed in the comfort of the air-conditioned room.

After waking, I attempted to check in for my next flight back to Hong Kong via the Cathay Pacific app. That’s when I discovered I’d been assigned an older A330 with recliner seats — not ideal for a five-hour flight.

The app itself didn’t help matters. It insisted I needed a visa for Japan, despite UK passport holders not requiring one — and even if I had, I wouldn’t have been entering Japan anyway, as I was connecting straight on to a Japan Airlines flight later that same day.

In the early evening, I opted for a couple of beers and dinner in the hotel restaurant — a decision that worked out very nicely.

I was given a table right by the pool, which looked particularly attractive as the lights came on and the day drew to a close.

The menu struck a good balance between Western options and classic Indonesian dishes.

I chose chicken satay to start, followed by a Nasi Goreng, washed down with two Coronas.

The food was excellent without being overly heavy, and I resisted the temptation to ask for the dessert menu.

When I requested the bill, the young lady serving me quietly knocked 25% off. I wasn’t entirely sure why — but I wasn’t about to argue.

Next up: A gallery of photos from Day 11 of my Round The World trip of a lifetime.

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Round the World Tier Point Run in Jan 2026