Bali Bali

Dear all!

I have been in Indonesia for 10 days now! The first week I spent in Bali. It was beautiful and reminded me a lot of my trip through India. There are so many small and big temples and it is very colorful!

I really like Indonesian food! Most of the time we eat at Warungs, which are simple places that sell delicious local food. My favorite food so far is chicken satay, grilled chicken with peanut sauce and sticky rice.

We started our journey in Kuta, a neighborhood near the airport. We stayed in a very trendy hostel with a pool in the courtyard, where we could make pancakes all day long.

Kuta is the ultimate tourist hotspot, everyone there wants to sell you the same thing (in a very pushy way) and the beach was pretty dirty.

Despite these aspects, I didn't really like it there. But the small streets were cute and the street food was delicious and very cheap (we paid less than one Euro per meal). In our hostel, we met an Indonesian guy who we then traveled with to Ubud. It was also very touristy there. We went on a day trip to rice terraces, a temple with holy water, a tea and coffee plantation, and a waterfall, which was probably the usual tourist tour! Nevertheless, it was worth it.

On the second day, we went to the Monkey Forest. A large jungle-like area with many monkeys who like to steal sunglasses, water bottles, and even phones. (Luckily, nothing was stolen from us!)

Afterwards, we went to Mount Batur in the north, an active volcano with a crater lake. The area was really beautiful and not touristy at all. But there is the volcano hiking mafia! The atmosphere was really weird, the prices were high, but we managed to negotiate a good deal and started our hike at 3:30 a.m. local time to reach the top just in time for the sunrise! It was an unforgettable experience.

For the past few days, we have been on Lombok, the neighboring island of Bali. In my opinion, it is much more beautiful here and there are significantly fewer tourists, which makes everything much more pleasant! We are staying in a homestay, where many locals of the same age hang out during the day, and we explore the area with them. We rented a scooter, which makes everything easier! A few days ago, we went to a stunning beach with white sand and turquoise water that was pleasantly warm! There were also shaded areas on the beach and fresh coconut! Just like in a travel catalog! For the past two evenings, we drove to a hill to watch the sunset, and I have to say that it is a magnificent display of colors in the sky and on the water when the sun sinks below the horizon!

I have 10 more days before I go back to Australia for a short while.

I'm sending you all my love from afar and I'm looking forward to seeing all of you very soon!

Your Leyla