Woche 11 - Bali (Canggu + Ubud)

Even the first taxi ride in Bali is great! For once, out of convenience, I booked it in advance so that all I have to do is fall off the plane and someone will be standing there with my name tag. Not easy with 100 signs!😂 And in between there are 50 other taxi drivers shouting after a 'Taxi Taxi'. Well, I got in and my driver immediately threw his candy wrappers out of the car window😂 The drive to the hostel was also extremely wild with the traffic here. Sometimes 3 cars in 2 lanes and the scooters happily meander around in between. Welcome back to Southeast Asia!

Getting used to prices, currency and trading is very reminiscent of the beginning in Thailand and, in my opinion, robs you of a lot of energy... I certainly paid way too much for the SIM card, let's hope that at least I was sold the right thing. You don't understand anything when you buy something. It's also a matter of getting used to the fact that every time you make a purchase, people will (pretty definitely) gossip about you in Indonesian😃

The place is full of digital nomads and everyone has been living here for what feels like forever. I haven't met any solo travelers in my hostel for now...we'll see. It's super crowded, despite the rainy season, but I also ended up in the most popular part of Bali, Canggu. Shopping and partying are the order of the day here, which isn't actually my plan... I'll stay here for three nights, enough time for further travel planning.

Because I was overwhelmed, my first breakfast was avocado toast and an iced coffee (with ice cubes, exactly what you shouldn't consume because of Bali Belly🌝🤞🏼). In the following days, the Indonesian food was actually left out because I was between All the hip air-conditioned cafes didn't know which dark (sometimes dirty-looking) warung you could now trust for authentic food. I also checked out the beaches in Canggu, which have black sand here. Unfortunately, the crowds and the general atmosphere didn't make for a particularly pleasant feeling on the beach. I'm sure there are much more beautiful places in Bali. I was already prepared for that and secretly thought that it wouldn't be quite my thing.

I was pretty happy to be able to set off from Canggu to Ubud. Once there, I met a few people in the hostel who gave me a few tips for warungs, dishes and activities. This made it much easier to settle in the new country and I extended my stay in Ubud by 2 days. Good idea! I was on a treat trip for the next few days, because Ubud is known as a relaxed yoga and spa area in Bali. Fooding, making rings, fooding, facial, fooding, browsing huge junk markets, fooding, climbing a volcano, fooding, manicure and fooding by the pool 🌞🌞 That's pretty much what the rest of my week looked like. Absolutely great, except that on my sunrise hike on Mount Batur the visibility was 2 meters and we only walked in the clouds the whole time and therefore couldn't experience a sunrise. Well, it's all about the experience! Instead, at 3 a.m. there was a fried banana that had to be eaten among 1000 buzzing flies, a boiled egg at the top as an energy snack😂 and people who were transported back down the mountain on scooters. Definitely a different hiking experience to NZ.

Great week that felt like forever for me. Very nice, in my opinion, after the weeks just flew by in NZ. So I love it🥰