Bali Indonesia

I had high expectations of Bali as recently two friends have chosen to have their honeymoons on the island. Although it was a beautiful place for me unless you are in one of the fancy resorts as you would be on your honeymoon, it's no different than the rest of South East Asia.

We got stupidly lucky with accommodation I managed to find a hostel for 17 nights for just £90 the hotel was basic but the rooms were huge with ensuite bathrooms, and there was a swimming pool. It was a short walk to the beach and surrounded by several shops restaurants and bars. I highly recommend the place as the staff are possibly the friendliest and most helpful staff I have come across anywhere not just in South East Asia. Beneyasa Beach Inn 2 is where I would stay again upon my return to Bali.

With our next adventure being Austrailia where we have friends we knew we would have a hectic, fun-filled month in Oz so used Bali to relax and top up our tans. With us only being a short walk from the beach and having a swimming pool we knew there would be plenty of time to soak up the sun. We spent the first night in the airport as I'd made a mistake and not booked the hotel for the night we arrived as we arrived at 1 am, we couldn't check in until 2 pm so had a night in the airport drinking beer and watching movies. The airport was rather uncomfortable but surprisingly not the worst place we have stayed the night while on this trip. That title will always be the hostel in Shanghai China it was horrific.

We headed to the hotel around 10 am to chance an early check in, We had been hassled all night by taxi drivers asking us for business but when we wanted one, could we find one??? could we F*%$.... We eventually found one and was surprised at his price 50,000 Rupiah around about £3 for a journey that with traffic took almost an hour.

The second day in Bali got let's say interesting; I decided around 7 am to head to Starbucks for some AC and WiFi to do a little writing. I stumbled across a murder reenactment happening on the beach front. Obviously, I was a little taken back by this and decided to do some research. A couple of weeks before we arrived a Bali police officer was beaten to death by a bloke from the UK and a Woman from Austrailia. I don't want this blog to be about their case but if you are interested in reading more about it if you don't know the case already then just search Bali Police Death on Google.

The main reason why I have mentioned this is that it walloped me. Being on the road since February means we have been detached from reality, we don't hear about or know about breaking news or events from around the world. It's a strange feeling to be hit with a big dose of reality when you're living your dream, and it brought into perspective for me that we never know when life is going to change for us, we never know whats round the corner. I got caught up in the whole story reading page after page of reports and news updates, for a few days, I felt unnerved that something like that had happened so close to where we had decided to stay a place we envisioned as paradise. I was engrossed in the case and couldn't stop researching it; I can't tell you why I just was. I snapped out of it when I got a message off a lass on the backpackr app as she was from the north and in Bali on her own so wondered if we wanted to me meet up.

After a day or two exploring Kuta with our new mate Boon, we decided to head over to Gili T for a few days; we found a vendor that offered an open return ticket for 65,000 but luckily before we booked our hotel advised us of their mate who ran the tourist stand over the road. He did us a deal of a return boat ticket for 400,000 around £23, which for an open return ticket with hotel pick up and drop off was damn cheap. I am going to dedicate a separate blog to Gili T, so after a few days on the island, we returned to Bali for eight more days in the sun before we headed to Austrailia.

We spent most of our evenings eating at Pacman. Honestly, if you are ever in Kuta, you have to eat here. The food is possibly the best I have had in South East Asia, the owner is super friendly, the food is cheap I mean very cheap and the portions would not be out of place in America. Again I am working on a separate food and drink blog so I will write more about this amazing place there. 

All in all, Bali was alright; I am not sure if I had my expectations too high or I was just tired of South East Asia, after five months or so every country begins to blend into one. I know I was ready to get to Perth and Austrailia maybe a week before we left. I am a big city boy at heart, I always will be I love the concrete jungle, it's where I was brought up and although  Asia has its big cities they are not the same in my opinion. It's crazy how tired you feel after being on the move and on the road for such an extended period. I am writing this at my best mates house in Brisbane, and I am happy knowing we only have 21 days left of travelling before I can put my bag down and start the next chapter of my life in New Zealand. 

I have loved every minute of this trip, but I am ready to step back into reality for a while and just stop and relax.

Thanks for reading guys, I have sent my figures in and hope I place in the Top 50 Travel Blogs, I will keep everyone posted for sure.

Take care

Richard :)