Off to Bali – jungle, ricefields and volcanoes

For a while I wasn’t sure whether I should call this post ‘Off to Indonesia’ or ‘Off to Bali’ because most likely I will not spend my whole trip on Bali. However I stayed with Bali as that is the place I’ll be landing in a few days time and will start my journey.
 
The past couple of days have been quite hectic. Last Friday I came home from Portugal and from Saturday onwards my agenda was filled with all kinds of things. From fun stuff with friends to a few doctor appointments (leaving me with a few stitching plasters, #fail) and some business meetings. By now it’s Wednesday and tomorrow I’m finally boarding my plane to Bali. Am I ready? No. Does it matter? No, it doesn’t.
 
Every time I said goodbye to someone over the past couple of days it felt kind of bizarre, just as if I’m leaving for months. Of course this was originally the plan, but more recently I decided to not stick with my plans and do things differently. So I’ll only be gone for a month but yet it feels like a new beginning in my life. Because after Bali/Indonesia there will be Nepal and after Nepal … oh well some of you know, but in case you don’t, you’ll find out soon. I won’t be in Holland the next months and it feels great but a little frightening at the same time.
 
For most people Bali is all about sunshine and beaches, yet I will follow another path. I’m choosing green and rough, so jungle, ricefields and volcanoes. I’ve become inspired by fellow blogger Karlijn about cycling near Ubud en Jenny wrote about volcano trekkings to Bromo and Ijen on Java, which can also be arranged from Bali. Both blogs are in Dutch but you can use Google Translate and their pics are well worth checking out! Since Mt. Agung is not a very good idea at the moment, I’d like to climb Mt. Batur and of course I still want to climb Mt. Rinjani in Lombok. So I will definitely not just visit Bali.
 
I’m really looking forward to walking through the rice paddies and the jungle. The beach I will most likely not see a whole lot, maybe I’ll stop by at the Gilli’s for a while as well as the Nusa Islands. But I know myself and will miss nature eventually so I’ll probably head back to that whenever I can. What I’m looking for the most though is peace of mind. Just to read a good book, lay by the pool, watch series on Netflix and dream of the things to come.
 

Live from Bali

I planned to publish this post before leaving but I was way too busy. So now I’m writing from Bali, where I’m on the veranda of my deluxe suite in a nice Ubud hotel. It sounds very luxurious which it’s not, but the room and the hotel are very nice and comfortable. I cannot believe how much I’ve slept over the past 24 hours. First I slept on the flight from Amsterdam to Doha (after watching Eat, Pray, Love, which I had never seen before but was the only film on the entertainment system I felt like watching) and then almost the entire flight from Doha to Bali, which was some 10 hours. Last night I slept almost around the clock and I just took another nap. During this nap, I dreamed that my father was here with me. Of course he is not, but I know he’ll be traveling with me from above.
 
And now I’ll shut down my laptop. Or well, I may not, as I intend to check out what to do around here, other than sitting on my veranda and doing nothing. Last night I drove through Ubud and all I thought was ‘wow, it’s busy here’. So I’m leaving the crowds for what they are and will start my journey tomorrow. At least when it’s not raining, because it has been pouring all day long so far. Do you know the feeling that you have to push yourself to exploring a new place after arrival? Right now I feel like ‘nah, I’ll just hang out here for the rest of my trip’, yet ofcourse I shouldn’t. I’ve read a lot about Bali travel as a solo female and found this guide from The Blonde Abroad very useful by the way.
 
For now, I’ll end with some things that I noticed over the past 24 hours. Just some small things that made me smile and/or think:
– Everyone here is smiling. Even the cleaners and the bellboy. They all smile, from ear to ear. It makes me smile, too.
– My shower doesn’t have a shower. It does have a bath and a shower rope, but not a shower. I guess there will be a lot of bathing coming up the next week.
– The gecko’s. Reptiles and me, we don’t really like each other. I know they’ll be all over, but I still don’t like them.
– Being lazy is OK. I almost finished a whole book during the past 24 hours. I love it!
 
And nope, the picture above wasn’t made in Bali, it was made during my last trip in Portugal. I haven’t had Coke Zero here yet as my minibar is not that well equipped. I’ll go on the hunt for that tomorrow.
 
See you later, love from Bali!
 
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