A Solo Travellers Mind

22 hours is the sky went off without a hitch, with me sleeping a good 60% of the journey and Carley struggling in silence. The last 2 hours of our connecting flight were by far the worst, the sickness had set in and I’m genuinely surprised the plane didn’t fall out of the sky. A slow but painless visa pick up and we were on our way.

The excitement of our arrival to our first villa was quickly squashed for myself as an email was recieved from Australia stating my documents weren’t correct, subsequently meaning I needed to take a trip to the embassy and my dad unfortunately also needed to do this for me on the other side of the world… Not letting this dampen the mood we took ourselves off to explore. Our first evening involved a lovely Indian, while watching a Hindu blessing at the restaurant, before an early night. Beating jet lag was PRIORITY.

Day two meant an early rise to get to the embassy, unfortunately they were almost useless and I was told to return the following day. Now having the full day to ourselves we booked a tour with Putu and his uncle. A trip to the famous “Bali Swing” was first up, pretty photos but an over rated and over priced experience in my opinion, however its all in the name of travel. Trekking the rice terraces while drinking from a fresh coconut followed by a visit to the holy spring temple was my highlight. Both of us opted to par-take in the ritual, including a prayer, and a cleanse in 10 of the 13 water fountains. Carley being an avid coffee drinker was thrilled when we stopped at the local coffee farm, known as catpoochino (you’ve guessed it, they make coffee out of cat poo…) Luckily for myself a variety of herbal teas and hot choccy was on offer. Our evening meal of authentic Indonesian food went down without a hitch for myself, a duck, rice and veg meal, however Carley was less an impressed with her rather rubbery ribs. Tropical storms hit as we took our last bite which lead us into the local bar, subsequently meaning I was awoken to the sound of Carleys vomit hitting the toilet pan the following morning. Luckily for me, this was right in time for my alarm, as I needed to once again head back to the embassy to try and sort things on my side. 2 hours later, I am sorted and on my way back to the villa. My taxi driver took a detour to the local silver merchant on the way home, meaning I got to witness how jewellery is hand made in Bali and purchase a cute ring. On the way back we spoke about life in Bali, finding out he earned a base rate of 150,000 IDR daily, with translates to approximately £9 a day before tourism income… Nurses earn 10 million IDR here, around £650 a month, which in comparison seems like alot, but in relation to the cost of things, although Bali is cheap I still don’t believe it’s enough to live a comfortable life here… With Carleys hangover being half way cured we took to Putu and his uncle for yet another day of exploring, this time we hit 3 waterfalls, and the monkey forest… Tibumana Fall hit it off, definitely a 9/10, maybe a 9.5 as it was topped by playing ultimate Frisbee with 3 rather handsome American boys. Kanto Lampo was second, this rated in at 6/10, a big waterfall but unfortunately not as scenic as the last. Tegentegenan comes in mid place scoring a 7/10, dropping marks due to no swimming (waterfall was dropping at about 60mph though). Next up, the monkey forest, where Carley fell victim to media marketing and purchased a photo with a monkey, where as I stood next to a naughty boy who then attacked my bag and sat on my head twice. Both thrilled with the outcome of our monkey experience we left the forest with 25 more mosquito bites than when we started. Our final evening ended with 3 pound noodles (potentially the best meal we’d had) and drinks at a bar. Coincidently the cover band from the previous nights bar were I’m this place. Carley made the choice that a hungover boat trip wasn’t the one and left early leaving me to my own devices. 3 Dutch men, some karaoke and a drunken bike ride later, it’s soon 8am and time to catch this boat.