Alexis, Ethan, Skye and I were continuing our adventures to Bali and Singapore thanks to some discount flights that we discovered on Air Asia's website. Our flight to Bali was early Wednesday morning and we were lucky to catch a beautiful sunrise through the clouds on the plane.
Our first stop in Bali was to the relaxing village of Ubud. We took a taxi (that was a total rip-off) from the airport to the village and found a guest house pretty quickly. The room was really clean with an awesome balcony and a beautiful view. Bali was extremely tropical and green and the air was very fresh and clean. After about 10 minutes in Ubud I knew I was going to absolutely love it there! After dropping our stuff off at our guest house, we decided to explore the village and of course our first stop was food. We stumbled upon a cheap restaurant with traditional Balinese food like peanut and coconut sauce over veggies and rice. Alexis wanted to find a yoga studio and Ethan and Skye wanted to meet up with their friend Josie so the day was spent walking around the village and getting acquainted with our surroundings. For dinner we went to a small local place suggested to us by Josie, the dish she recommended was sold out but we all enjoyed what we ordered... until Alexis got sick later that night.
We had to go to bed early that night because we had a 2 AM wake-up call to hike a volcano and watch the sunrise. When we woke up at 2, Alexis didn't feel good from her dinner so she decided to stay home and rest. Ethan, Skye and I met up with Josie and her friends to climb the volcano, and we all fell asleep on the van ride to the hike. It was SO cold and dark when we started the hike, easily the coldest I had been in six months. Our Balinese guides gave us flashlights to light the trails, but hiking on loose volcanic ash, rock, and sand was a tricky business in total darkness. It became increasingly difficult when we had to start climbing our way up! I was in the middle of the group so I followed the footsteps of the girls in front of me, but we all slipped a few times on the way up. I do have to give a special shout out to the 9 year old boy who was part of our trekking group. He was a good sport about this adventure and didn't complain once- I definitely wouldn't have had his stamina at 9 years old! Once we reached the top of the volcano, we took a seat along a natural ledge and waited for the sun to come up. The views were BEAUTIFUL. We were overlooking a lake and opposite us was another mountain peak. The area around the volcano was extremely green and the setting reminded me a lot like the setting of LOST. The craters of the volcano we had hiked were steaming which added to the natural beauty of our surroundings. When the sun started rising the colors of the sky were truly breathtaking. Neon pinks and deep oranges covered the sky and the reflections in the lake were gorgeous. It was 100% worth the 2 AM wake-up call, if you ask me. After the sun rose, our guides had breakfast prepared for us and we got to explore the craters a little bit. Skye and I were too cold to explore the craters so we stood over the area where the steam was coming out and enjoyed a "natural sauna."
After the hike, we headed back to our hostel where Alexis was feeling much better. Alexis and Ethan decided to explore our local area and figure out the rest of our day while Skye and I passed out for a much needed nap. It was only 9:45 AM and we had already hiked up and down a volcano- I was exhausted!
When we woke up, we decided to rent motorbikes and explore some of the temples and rice fields outside of the downtown village. Again, Skye was an excellent chauffeur and we had a lot of laughs on our motor bike ride. We saw some interesting sights from our bike, including groups of ducks crossing the road, naked people, and even a woman peeing on the side of the road. Other than those bizarre scenes, the ride to each temple was gorgeous. The rice paddies were amazing - so green and natural looking. Even the temples we visited were built in the jungle so we were able to see waterfalls, tropical trees, and really beautiful moss covering ancient parts of the temples.
We had had a very busy day but there was still one more activity we wanted to squeeze in. Ethan had read about a coffee plantation called "Bali Purina" that gives you a tour of the plantation and free samples of the coffee... the catch? The coffee beans are filtered through the digestive system of a Balinese Fischer Cat! Yes, that means we tried cat dung coffee. It was actually a very interesting process. Not all of their coffee is made this way, and we could definitely taste a difference of bitterness/strength in the Cat coffee than the other types we sampled. I am more of a sweet coffee drinker so the cat dung coffee wasn't my fav... but I was definitely missing Emily during this activity because she was my coffee buddy throughout Cambodia and 'Nam !
The next day was our last day in Ubud- we were moving on to a beach town later that day. Alexis did a yoga class in the morning and then we all regrouped to visit the popular tourist spot "Monkey Forest." It was absolutely terrifying. I love monkeys, but because this has turned into such a tourist trap these monkeys have associated people with food and have no shame jumping on you and taking your possessions. They were a very aggressive group of monkeys and I saw them steal people's water bottles, candy bars, and even a pair of earrings off of a woman's ear! Our guest house had given us a bag of bananas to bring to the forest, and Ethan had made some cute monkey friends as he was giving them away. It was all fun and games until this HUGE monkey came bounding at Ethan and snatched our entire bag of bananas!! Ethan was nervous he would choke on the plastic bag so when he tried to take the garbage, the monkey growled and barred his teeth so we quickly moved along. The rest of the visit was brief, I was really freaked out by the monkeys and their aggression was very nerve-wracking. After the forest, we visited some souvenir shops and got a good deal on wood carvings and bracelets.
On our way to the taxi stand in Ubud, we had a very interesting encounter with a fellow American at an art gallery. Alexis was walking behind Ethan, Skye, and I and was taking a while to catch up. I assumed she was sampling dried fruit or something until she came running to us saying "Did anyone else notice that was Tyra Banks back there?!?" So Ethan, Skye, and I followed Alexis quickly down the street and there she was!! Tyra Banks just casually buying art in Ubud, Bali. She was wearing a long orange maxi dress with gold strappy sandals and her hair was in a cool braided up-do. Alexis walked right up to and said "We thought that was you!" and proceeded to tell her about our teachings in Thailand. The only words I could muster was to tell her I was from Massachusetts and I maybe squeaked out a "bye!" at the end. I was totally star struck! We all left Ubud in total shock that we had just met Tyra Banks! She was nice enough, and we didn't want to bother her for a photo, but I swear it happened!
Our next stop in Bali was Padang Bai, which at first glance is a total dump. It is used as a ferry port to visit the smaller islands off of Bali, and the main harbor is filled with boats and no beach to sit and relax. I wasn't super impressed with the location until we did some research and learned that the beaches are a walk away from the main harbor. We also learned that its an awesome spot for scuba diving, which Skye and Ethan were really interested in, so we decided to visit the local companies and inquire about a diving package. The first place we visited didn't seem interested in our business so we went back to the cafe we first sat down in when we arrived in Padang Bai to use their wifi. The woman Elaina was really nice and had a very relaxed mind set about diving. I never thought I would be interested in an activity that puts me so close to the creatures I fear in the ocean, but something about her friendliness and the way she wanted to help Skye and I with our hesitations had me hooked. There was also a chance of seeing sea turtles!! The next thing I know, I was signed up for 2 dives the next day!
The diving experience was awesome! We started off in a pool, just the 4 of us with Elaina and 2 teachers in training. I felt really safe the whole time because we were able to have a one on one relationship with our instructors. In the pool, we learned the basic techniques of diving, how to put the equipment on and off, where everything was located on our vests, how to inflate and deflate our vests, and most importantly: how to breathe. It was definitely a weird feeling breathing under water, and I felt like I was breathing really rapidly and using up a lot of my air to quickly, but it was all in my head and I just had to get used to it. The next stop was the ocean!! We were headed to Blue Lagoon first for our 10 meter dive. We jumped right into it and did backflips into the water from the boat. I was nervous about equalizing my ears, but it turned out to not be as difficult as I expected. I got a dizzy one or two times but using the techniques that Elaina taught us, I was able to overcome it on my own. We were under water for almost 40 minutes for the first dive and we got to see a TON of fish! There was a pretty strong wave current that day so we had to continuously change our air pressure in our vests so we weren't taken by the waves. Another thing that was tricky to get used to was not using your arms. Because of the vest and the flippers, you really don't need to use your arms to swim that deep under water- so I was wasting a lot of my energy by using my arms.
In between dives we were given cookies and tea and had some laughs with the other teachers on our boat. The second dive was a little bit longer, just over 50 minutes and we saw even more cool fish! No turtles which was kind of a bummer, but we saw a school of barracudas, a lion fish, some trumpet fish, calamari, and tons of others that I can't remember their names. I found scuba diving to be oddly relaxing and if I lived in a warmer climate with better dive spots, I definitely would have considered becoming certified. Skye and Ethan decided to stay in Padang Bai and extra day and become certified which was really cool to hear about. Alexis and I decided to opt out of the certification primarily because of its cost, so while Skye and Ethan dove, we relaxed on the White Sand Beach. It was a beautiful area with huge waves and cool rock formations on either side of the sand.
It was a pretty small spot so for our last day in Bali, Alexis and I decided to take a bus to Kuta, the extremely popular tourist spot located right near the airport. It was definitely a completely different atmosphere than Ubud or Padang Bai but Alexis and I had fun admiring the resorts, western restaurants, and outdoor shopping plazas. We spent the day on surfer's paradise beach and waited for Skye and Ethan to arrive after their dive. Alexis wasn't feeling too great so instead of our original plan, which was sleeping in the airport, the four of us split a really cheap and really disgusting room at a guesthouse and slept for 5 hours before heading to the airport. If Alexis wasn't sick, I would NOT have stayed in that guesthouse. The ceiling was moldy and I woke up to the largest cockroach I have ever seen hanging out in our bathroom, but it was the cheapest place we could find and it was better than sleeping on a bench at the airport!
We sleepily found a cab at 3:30 AM to take us to the airport as we prepared for the last leg of our journey: SINGAPORE! This adventure was going by way too fast and I was very sad to say goodbye to the peaceful beauty that we experienced in Bali. I was however, extremely excited to visit Universal Studios in Singapore!!
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