I’ve got a little bit of time to write before I get on my ferry to Nusa Penida so here’s to my first blog posts in a few years!
I took my first flight to Bali on Thursday night, and after a very uncomfortable 5 or so hours (lots of turbulence and no in-flight entertainment) I arrived at 10pm for my driver to take me to a local hotel in Kuta. It was a pretty easy first night, getting dinner after I arrived and then quickly heading to bed. After a buffet breakfast and a quick walk to Kuta beach in the morning, I headed to Sanur for my stay at the Blind Dog Inn.
Blind Dog Inn is about a 15 minute walk from the Sanur main strip, and is owned by an American and Indonesian family who live out the back of the property. A group of boys from California were staying there, one of them being the nephew of the owner.
The hostel is named after their dog, Spot, who lost his vision and now guards the perimeter by smell and sound alone (and he does a pretty good job at it)
The hostel was lovely, with some really genuine people from all around the world who were welcoming and all hung out together. So far I’ve met people from Australia, America, Canada, Switzerland, Denmark, New Zealand and France.
On Saturday morning I decided to rent a moped for a few days to 1) learn and 2) get around a little bit easier. On my first try I ran straight into a tree and kept holding on to the accelerator which was pretty tragic but kind of funny (sorry mum) but I’ve gotten a lot better since and have been cruising pretty confidently for the remainder of my stay.
Friday
On Friday, I arrived around 1pm and walked around to find lunch, hung around the pool and then a group of us went to a local warung where I spent about $2 for a pretty generous meal.
Saturday
I’ve been sleeping in pretty late most days so far (ironic because Australia is 2 hours ahead) but on Saturday morning I went for breakfast with a few girls from the hostel, then read by the pool followed by lunch with some of the Californian guys at a local Warung. It was Jenika’s birthday on Saturday, so we went down to Uluwatu for sushi and then Hatch to play some pool and video games.
Sunday
Sunday was a lot quieter - I went to yoga at Power of Now in the morning for a free yoga class as the teacher was in training. Definitely an interesting experience, followed by a smoothie bowl, coconut and iced coffee at the Genius Bar.
While I was eating my smoothie bowl, I noticed that the yoga teacher from the class was sitting across another lounge at the cafe, so we chatted for a little bit and exchanged some stories. She was from the north of UK and had been in Indonesia since May, working remotely in real estate finance and taking her yoga certification course.
When I got back to the hostel after the morning, it was quiet with a lot of the girls sleeping and the boys spearfishing out in Nusa Penida. I read my book for a little bit, and then decided to take the moped out to the rice fields to see something a little different. The rice fields were actually quite phenomenal as I haven’t really seen something like this in Bali so close to the beach before - it really was subsistence farming, with families harvesting rice and growing a whole array of edible food.
There were some people out in the fields whose whole job seemed to be trying to frighten the flocks of sparrows from settling into the rice fields to eat. They were waving flags around, pulling on strings attached to cans that made noises and just yelling in general. Despite the scarecrows and the actual humans, the sparrows seemed unfazed.
When the boys came back from their fishing trip displaying their catches, we went back to the beach where a local warung had cooked up the fish and shared it with a table of people from the hostel as well as others from the trip. Being the vegetarian, I just got a mango juice and a nasi goreng.
When we got home we just sat around trying to solve riddles which was pretty random, but knowing I had to get up early the next day I went to bed at around 11pm.
Monday
I woke up at 6am today to get ready for my ferry. I packed all my stuff up (sad that I lost my head bandana 😭) and got coffee and breakfast with a French guy who was up at the same time to go diving. I left at around 7:30, got to the harbour and went through the motions of getting my ticket and finding the boat. I ate my takeaway warung food from breakfast while I waited, accompanied by a cute stray dog who actually didn’t seem to even want my food.
I’m on the boat currently to Nusa Penida, and will write once my time there has finished!
Sampai ketemu!
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