Bali: Kuta! Surfing and Sunsets No.5

I arrived in Bali and was overjoyed. The feeling was great until I got scammed by a fake taxi driver... Many people warned me about these stupid fake taxi drivers, and in my defense I have to say that I asked to see his taxi license, which of course was also fake :D When we went to his personal car instead of the blue taxi he had told me about (the blue ones are the real taxis), I thought, whatever, the price is already agreed upon, I just want to get to my accommodation so let's go! But as we were driving out of the airport, he suddenly wanted me to pay his parking fees. However, that was not part of the deal and I didn't want to get ripped off even more, so I refused to give him the money. He became increasingly unfriendly and started complaining to himself, probably in Indonesian... Suddenly, we stopped in a dark side street and he told me to walk the rest of the way, because I always had Maps.me open, I knew that the destination was not far away. And since I was feeling more and more uncomfortable, I got out of the taxi, took my backpack and tried to count the money in the dark. When he also got out of the taxi, I sensed that something was not right. He snatched the money out of my hand and drove off at full speed. In that moment, I was so shocked that I just stood there and didn't even realize what had happened. It was a honking scooter driver who called me for a ride that woke me up. I was 35€ poorer, but all I wanted to do was get to the hostel, which was hidden in a dark alley. On the way there, I encountered growling dogs and some strange figures. I didn't feel safe at all here, and even though the hostel was nice in general, the next day I moved to a hotel near my surf school and the beach. I left the taxi driver behind and didn't waste any more time being upset about it, because it wouldn't have changed anything anyway.

This time it was a hotel and not a hostel, and it was super nice <3 The people here are really lovely and all the staff, whether it's the receptionist, the chefs, or the cleaning staff, always greet me with a smile and "Hey Stephie Darling". Here and in the surrounding area, I felt instantly comfortable, whether it was day or night, everything was bright and the people were very nice. I finally feel like I have truly arrived in Bali :) Since Bali is very Buddhist, small flower arrangements are placed on the streets every morning and small flower altars are set up, which looks very beautiful.

The next morning, I had my first surfing lessons with the Rip Curl surfers. It was sooo much fun and my surf instructors were really nice. I fell off the board twice, but the other times I managed to surf all the way to the beach :) I guess you could call it beginner's luck :) The following days at the surf school were also great and it became more and more fun... My body hated me for it, though, with muscle aches, scraped knees, elbows, and hips :( Everything hurt, but I still wanted to get on the surfboard. On the last of the 3 days, I wasn't paying attention and missed a huge wave that tossed me and my surfboard through the water and the surfboard hit my shin with full force. In that moment, I thought I had broken my foot because I couldn't stand on it anymore... There was a lot of bleeding and my instructor had to bring me to the beach for the second time that day to treat the wound (the first time was for the scraped knees). Fortunately, my foot wasn't broken, but there is now a piece of skin missing and there will probably be a scar... My body hates me even more now :(

In the evenings, I always went to the beach for dinner. There are many bars and small restaurants here, everything is colorful, there's live music, and you have the best view of Bali's beautiful sunset. One evening, there was an Indonesian wedding and the bride and groom went into the sea in their long white wedding dress for wedding photos :D On another evening, I sat cross-legged in my bean bag on the beach, trying to decide what to have for dinner, when a huge wave flooded half of the beach and I was swept into the sea with my bean bag, table, and flip-flops :D The waiter quickly ran after the flip-flops, and thanks to my dry bag, my phone and camera were spared :D

The next morning, I had to say goodbye to Kuta and I booked an Uber driver to take me to Ubud.