Hey everyone!
I'm back from Bali and decided you all deserve an update since it has been so long! I guess I should start from the beginning, which takes us back to last Saturday afternoon. I caught the greyhound bus and six hours later ended up in Cairns where we, myself and three other girls, spent the night. It was insane when we first arrived because of this giant concert in the park right across from our hostel. There were huge party buses full of extremely drunk people everywhere! Exhausted from our bus ride we grabbed a quick meal and headed to our room. The next morning we woke up early and headed to the airport where we caught our first flight to Darwin. From Darwin we flew into Bali and so the epic adventure begins.
We were picked up at the airport by a representative from our hostel, which was actually perfect because I think we would have been completely scammed by a taxi had he not been there. We were actually welcomed to Bali by porters scamming us out of $20,000 rps (which is actually quite a bit there!). When leaving the airport we had to put our bags through an X-ray machine and at the end they were quickly grabbed by men in collared shirts and dragged down the hall about 10 feet. We chased after our bags, assuming the men worked for the airport and were doing further investigation. When the men finally stopped they held out their hand for money, chanting "tips tips tips" at us. Completely bewildered I realized we had just been completely taken advantage of and had no idea it was occurring. Each of us only had very large bills, with no idea of what they transferred to in dollars and had not yet acquired thick enough skin to say no. These unfortunate circumstances lead us to completely overpay the anxious men and leave the airport feeling very dumb.
As soon as we stepped outside I was hit by sounds, sights and smells that took me right back to Honduras. It was insane that I could be half way around the world and find similarities left and right. There were yelling people everywhere, trucks full of people hanging out the windows and motorcycles weaving through the streets. When the van finally stopped we looked around, confused and not sure what to do because we had pulled up along side a busy, merchant filled street. The driver lead us down this long, very narrow alleyway and out of no where popped this gorgeous path of white stones leading to a wooden gate. Behind the gate was our hostel, which turned out to be like my own bit of paradise.
It ended up being cheaper for us to split into groups of two and share a double room rather than sleep in the dorm style rooms like most travelers. It worked out great because we had a large bed with a lounging area beneath and our own bathrooms. The hostel was the perfect size, small enough that I felt extremely comfortable after the first day. There was a gorgeous pool with deck chairs and a nice little hut. In addition there was a roof top sitting area, a bar and a relaxing lobby. We were surprised to find out a continental breakfast was included in the price and enjoyed coffee (so delicious I could drink it black!) fruit salad, toasted bread, jam and honey every morning. The hostel also served other things for breakfast including this absolutely delicious breakfast wrap made with homemade tortillas, scrambled eggs, bacon, avocado and melted cheese. After discovering the breakfast wrap I spoiled myself and spent the extra $15,000 rps each morning (equivalent to about $1.00).
Most of our stay included hanging out by the pool and venturing around the winding streets. We spent a good deal of time just exploring the area, learning quickly how to deal with the hundreds of vendors on the street constantly calling out "hey sexy" and "I love you!" Some were even confident enough to grab at our arms and shove us in the direction of whatever knock off brand they were trying to sell. At first it was extremely intimidating but after a day or two I was completely used to it and actually began joking around and having fun with them.
I quickly realized that although things are cheap in Bali (I took out about $200.00 Australian dollars and it equated to almost $2 million Rupiah) it is very easy to spend money quickly. Despite the fact trinkets were anywhere between 50 cents and a dollar things quickly added up. We also learned that the area we were in was a little more touristy and most of the places to eat charged quite a bit more for any food that was not Indonesian. I found myself eating about my weight in fried rice while there as the typical meal in Bali is a pile of fried rice (with maybe a few small pieces of chicken) and a fried egg. It was delicious at first, but six days of fried rice is a lot!
Perhaps the favorite part of my trip was spending time in the hostel and getting to know the other people staying there. I had yet to have a complete "hostel experience" and didn't realize what an unique experience it is. As mentioned before the hostel was small so everyone knew everyone very quickly. As the days passed people came and went, mostly traveling alone and in the middle of epic adventures around the world. I found the people I met to be some of the most fascinating and friendly people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. I fell in love with the openness and carefree attitude of the other travelers. I listened to stories about riding camels in India, skiing in New Zealand and running from the cops in Singapore. Every time I met a new person the introduction always included "where are you coming from and where are you going next?". I knew people by where they called home or an adventure they experienced, rather than their given name. Every person had a story to share, something I could learn from and I did my best to absorb everything I could - I can't even describe what an amazing experience it was. I met people ranging in ages twenty to sixty and enjoyed long conversations with all of them, typically during a meal, at the pool or long after the sun went down. It was absolutely fantastic.
Another thing I wanted to mention quickly was this cute little place I found down the alley leading to our hostel. Within the first couple of days in Bali I quickly realized I was going to get a lot more out of the trip if I kind of did things on my own. As my friends went off and traveled in a pack, I stayed behind, doing whatever I felt like at the moment and picking up companions along the way. One of the first days I ventured out by myself I came across Mama's. Mama's is what you would call a complete hole in the wall of a place, in fact unless you literally ran into it (as I did) you would never find it. It's a place where the locals go to hang out and Mama takes good care of them. There is a menu but it doesn't really matter because Mama makes you whatever she wants to make. She has the coldest beer in all of Bali and the cheapest prices. I quickly found myself spending a great deal of time at Mama's, sipping on diet cokes and shoveling in fried rice. It was the place I learned the most about Bali, listening to the stories of the locals and enjoying the company of some friends from the hostel.
I wish I could give you more detail about what I did during my six days in Bali, but I suppose on the surface it doesn't seem like I did much. I talked and I wrote and I read. I walked around and laid by the pool.. I even got a little bit of a tan! The most adventurous event that occurred was when one of my traveling companions did not come home one night and I about had a heart attack until she wandered in the next afternoon, completely unaware of how worried the rest of us were. The return home was also quite a bit of an adventure. We had to check out of the hostel around 12:00 on Saturday and didn't leave for the airport until 7:00pm for a flight at 11:00pm. We hoped on our flight from Bali to Darwin and landed around 3:30am in Darwin, a two hour flight (due to the time change) that I did not get any sleep on. We had a lay over in Darwin until 6:30am when we got on a flight to Cairns, arriving around 9:30am still without having slept. We then waited around in Cairns until our greyhound at 1:00pm - I spent most of the time at this little coffee shop reading and sipping on a smoothie. Our greyhound bus got us into Townsville at 7:00pm on Sunday night and I was lucky enough to sit next to a chatty elderly women who literally showed me pictures of every one of her grandchildren - needless to say I didn't sleep on the bus ride either.
That brings me to right now - hunched over my computer, eyes half closed and about ready to fall back asleep. It's 1:14 in the afternoon and I'm ready for bed - actually I think I'll head there right now. Below I uploaded a few pictures so that you could take a look at the hostel as well as the streets of Bali. I plan on writing again soon, between the epic amounts of work I have to get done before Melissa and Dad get here a week from tomorrow! I'm so unbelievably excited, but I can't start thinking/writing about it just yet because I wont be able to concentrate on anything else!
Love and miss you all,
xoxo Sara
My room at the hostel! The top is a huge bed and the bottom is more like a couch, sitting area.
This is the little hut and pool that I spent a ton of time at. The pool was amazing and I personally liked to lay on the black border area, sunbathing like a lizard! :) Under the hut there are a bunch of chairs and pillows where a bunch of us would gather at night and talk for hours.
That seat all the way on the right is where I spent a great deal of my time, writing, reading and enjoying conversation with the other people at the hostel - it's in the main lobby where breakfast is served.
These are the offers put out every morning but pretty much everyone in Bali. They are meant to bless buildings, businesses and families. It's the woman's job to put them together each morning - they are filled with flowers, rice and crackers.
I'm a Balinese millionaire!!
Coca-Cola can be found everywhere - they even had delivery McDonalds! On the side you can see all the motorcycles lined up - people constantly tried to rent them to us but I was sure I'd kill myself or someone else if I actually tried to drive one (on the other side of the road in a country with zero traffic laws!)
This is an example of one of the nicer stores on the road. It was full of beads and bracelets. Typically the owners would sit on the side of the road and call out - trying to get you to enter their store. Most of the stores were make shift and were covered in fabric.
