Bali, Bali, Bali!!! I like this place very much! Probably because it was everything I was waiting for… I’d been waiting to be on this holiday and on the road again ever since I set foot in Australia. I was missing the exotic element of travel for so many months and as soon as we arrived in Bali I guess there was a huge smile on my face! It’s such a weird but nice feeling. When the first thing is to adapt to the heat and humidity, when all you see around is totally new. Then, you can’t get your eyes off everything that is around because it’s like you are trying to capture everything in your mind and don’t want to miss any little bit, just like eating but with your eyes until your more than full!
In Bali, we first headed to Balangan beach, we chose an accommodation that was quite luxurious but not too expensive and it was a small paradise for our first two nights. We went to the beach which was beautiful, the waves were huge, so we kind of preferred swimming in the pool at our guesthouse. The village around didn’t have much so we decided pretty quickly that however beautiful this place was we had to move on and skip the beach for the rest of our week in order to discover a bit further. So we headed to Ubud, a quite touristic city in the ‘mountainy’ countryside. We stayed in a guesthouse a bit further away in a village and we were treated extremely well as we seemed to be the first guests to try the accommodation. We paid a very little price for it and it was really beautiful! The house was in the middle of rice fields and during the last two nights we could hear traditional music coming from celebrations happening at the nearby meditation centre. The owner of the house was taking us for free into town when we needed and we got to chat a little bit and learn a bit more about what we were seeing around and about Balinese culture. Everything is s different and I know so little that I appreciated very much his explanations, specifically in regards to the temples and meanings of some statues or pieces of clothes on the statues and so on… I’m so hungry for information and discoveries now! And talking hunger, the food here is delicious!!! The only thing I find a bit of a shame is that I really cannot understand anything of the language, don’t even know a single word… I guess I could learn a few if I was staying longer. People speak very good English here due to the heavy tourism, but I like a lot when I understand a few words in a language or sometimes if I get the hang of the structure for sentences or just a word or two. T feels so rewarding!
As I said, Bali is very, extremely touristic. But for my first week being back on the road, it actually felt good to be in a place that is so developed for foreigners. It means one side that almost everywhere we’ve been we were considered by locals for our money and the haggling at the market was pretty easy but exhausting at the end of the day. On the other side being in such a touristic place means that you get treated more or less fairly because locals also want to retain tourism. And it means that services are developed enough to find pretty much all you need around.
The most overwhelming thing in Bali is the traffic… it’s another jungle. Roads are narrow and curvy but it doesn’t stop two way traffic from happening, many people ride scooters and it’s a total mess!! So it was quite an experience to go from place to place by car. We actually used taxis most of the time because it seemed the only way to get around when we needed. I hope that in the next countries I’ll be able to get around by bus because it’s another way of observing the scenery, sometimes meet locals… anyway the adventure is on!!
Today was a bit weird as I said goodbye to Valentina. She had a flight back to Australia before she actually flies back to Italy later in May. With her goes my last contact of Australia, my last travel friend. I’m back being by myself. I’m very grateful she came with me to Bali as she gave me the opportunity of having a smooth transition between living within a group and getting back on the road alone. Well I also have to say she’s a great person to hang out with, always positive and happy and enjoying life simply. So I feel very lucky to have met such a character. I’ll take all this positive mood with me for my next steps in South East Asia! Next country, next episode… ;)
