I MADE IT TO BALI

After a year of working and saving and waiting and planning I am here in BALI and I'm so excited I need to just remember to R-E-L-A-X and enjoy it. Decided to do the whole 30 days here (which is as much as they will allow on a tourist visa) as there's so much that I want to see and do - as well as take my time doing it so that I don't have to rush around so much.

First of all, I actually want to start with the food here which is just a dream. It's so fresh, so healthy, so cheap, and there's a huge western influence here with lots of brunch places, eggs, avocado, etc. I know that when you're in another country it's more cultural to try all the local dishes, but after 4 months backpacking SE Asia I ate enough local cuisine and it got to the point where a mini packet of lurpak butter excited me. Plus, I'm in serious HOLIDAY mode at the moment, so I'm happy to just be a bit of a tourist right now and ease myself into trying new things as the weeks go on. My favourite place for food was Canggu and I had to stop myself taking pictures before every meal because it was all so instagrammable:

Duan Cafe - Canggu

Crate - Canggu

Shady Shack - Canggu

Coco Poke - Uluwatu

In fact, me and John both loved Canggu so much we're going to swing back there at the end of our trip when we finish up in Lombok. It's really chilled out, laid back, surfer town and it's easy enough to get around, especially if you have a scooter. The roads aren't too hectic either so there's no stress with traffic. After Canggu we headed to Uluwatu which was a lot quieter and had some of the most stunning beaches I've ever seen in my life! All we did here was explore the beaches, eat great food and go to see the sunset at Uluwatu temple one evening. I also tried to go for a run one evening - big mistake. Too hot, too hilly, too tiring. My legs feel like lead running in intense heat. I never learn.

From Uluwatu we went to Ubud. I was majorly excited for Ubud. In my head it was this jungle paradise surrounded by temples, rice paddies and little huts and guesthouses. In reality the centre is really busy with crazy traffic that's a nightmare to navigate through. It's also really touristy, even up in the rice paddies at Tegalalang (there may be more rice paddies that are not so well known, I'm not sure.) Most people come to Ubud to do yoga and chill out by infinity pools. It's also meant to be extremely spiritual but I didn't get that vibe at all, probably because I was staying in the centre. A lot of people also do the sunrise trek up Mt. Batur, which is well worth the hype. It's an incredible experience despite the early start. You get picked up at 2AM and drive a couple of hours out of Ubud centre to a small village where they give you some breakfast and introduce you to your tour guides before you start the hike. The trek up isn't too difficult and only takes a couple of hours, and once you arrive at the top the view is unreal.

After the sun comes up there are LOADS of monkeys about. I like to stay well clear of these little horrors. They will scope you our for food and snatch anything remotely shiny off you and any bags that are left unattended, but some people think they're cute (?!?!) and some people even feed them although they can get vicious at the slightest wrong movement.

Bali is a pretty big island and there's so much to do, you could easily spend the full 30 days here. We decided to try and see a little more of Indonesia and got a fast boat to Gili Trawangan for 6 nights and then on to Lombok, but we head back tomorrow to spend the rest of our time in Canggu <3 So much has happened since I started writing this post and I haven't been able to keep up to speed thanks to erratic WiFi connections so I'm going to be blogging like mad to squeeze it all in as I only have 5 weeks left of my travels!