My mate Heather once told me this and she was probably right. The Aussies love Bali, and so did i.
This holiday back to Asia came a little unexpectedly at the end of my orange packing days. Things happened, my life plan changed for the 2,452nd time, and I decided to sack off my $90 flight to the Philippines and head to the island of Bali with my 7 orange packing girls instead. On reflection, the Filipino typhoon season at that time also made it a wiser choice!
It's fair to say I was a little sceptical. For one, I'd heard Bali was a little like Ayia Napa. And although I had a great time there back in 2010 when I was 18, I didn't want a repeat of those teenage years. Travelling with 7 other girls (especially with such a mixed bag of personalities) when I'm used to travelling solo made me think it could be a little difficult too.
But over those 17 days, I was proved so so wrong because I had a bloody great time!
Our first stop was Sanur, Bali and to be fair our night out there was exactly like Ayia Napa. However, after 3 and a half months of the Waikerie social club juke box this was exactly what we needed.
The place we stayed was so glam, and this soon became a pro to travelling as a group. Splitting the costs and living like queens was something I could definitely get used to. We all had these first couple of days to chill out after our 13 hour factory shifts, which was so needed.
All my money was spent on massages and cocktails. This woman was well worth the money! Thanks hun.
Ubud was our next stop, and was probably my favourite place out of everywhere. The whole place was so vibrant! The rice terraces were beautiful, the markets were packed and the town had so much character.
It was full of "yogis" on retreats and full of vegan cafes, which served clean food and no booze.
We soon sorted that issue out:
Just doing our thing in Ubud looking like crystal meth addicts.
I also fell in love in Ubud. I don't want to jump to anything too soon, but I think he could be the one. Meet Jonny the orangutan:
I'm going to be honest, before I arrived in Bali I really just didn't know what it was. Was it a city? Nope. A state? Nah. Was it a country? I finally discovered Bali was actually an island, and it was time to leave this island and head to the next.
It was a traumatic boat ride, after still feeling the effects of the home-brewed shots two days before. But it's safe to say we had arrived in Paradise! Gili Air was a very quiet island, mainly filled with people doing their dive courses.
Some of us spent a lot of time at the H2O Yoga and Meditation Centre. I hadn't really done much yoga since Vietnam, so it was a delight to find somewhere so cheap and great to do it for the week.
Nicole, Sam and I also decided to stay on Gili Air whilst the rest of the girls climbed Mount Rinjani in Lombok. The plan was to spend these three days detoxing and doing yoga. Nicole, who shares my passion for shots made it evident this was not going to happen. Which it didn't.
Anywayyyy we then met the rest of our pack on the next island, Gili Trawangan, where we found them absolutely broken. We were so proud of them for completing it, but by looking at Jess' post-Rinjani cripple/jesus look going on, I'm kinda glad I didn't. Love ya Jess!
This was our final Indonesian stop, and it's fair to say we were all fucked. If one of the group wasn't crippled from the volcano trek, then they'd been caught out by the Bali Belly. No guesses to what this coeliac gal had.
We were determined to have a nice few days as it was quickly coming to an end. The days were spent by the pool and having delicious dinners in the evening.
However, the final night Kristina and I were the only ones that could power through for one last Asian night out.
Although we actually lost each other within the first 10 minutes of the night, we then reunited back at the house at 5am when I found Kristina making some kind of dying cat sounds downstairs in the reception. I asked her where she had been, to which she didn't really know.
A couple of weeks later, a friend I had made in the Gilis told me that he'd actually bumped into her that night. He was able to fill in a few blanks:
(I think he meant massaging, but who knows)
The final night came around way too quick! With 4 English, 1 Aussie, 1 Welsh, 1 Irish and a Norwegian it was inevitable that we'd have to go our separate ways.
I think I can say this on behalf of all of us, we were a complete mixed bag of girls. But I wouldn't have wanted to spend those 17 days with anyone else! I miss you all so much but am happy in knowing that we will all reunite one day.
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