Beautiful Bali

Bintang beer, daily massages and new friends best describe my first few days in Bali.


After checking into my amazing “hostel” on Sunday morning I immediately met Alison a Barrister from London. It was her last full day in Bali after being here 3 weeks. She introduced me to her friend Al an aircraft engineer from Belgium. Here I was thinking I was going to spend my whole week in Bali as the oldie in a group of 21 gap year English kids. After enjoying beautiful Sumatran coffee at a shop near the beach we strolled down to see the sunset over the Indian ocean. To my disappointment it began to rain with all the fury a tropical storm could muster.


We headed back to the hostel for Bintang beers (19,000 Rp or 25c) and met new people, Nick and Kevin IT professionals from Germany that have been living in Vancouver for a few months. Next was another Nick an IT PM from Birmingham. Quite the professional crew we had, we joked we could start-up a consulting firm from Bali.

Since then the Nicks, Kevin, Al and I have been glued together exploring Bali. Yesterday after our daily massage we hired a driver for the day (400,000 Rp or $12.50 each) and drove to southern Bali we stopped at Incredible Beach and then went on to see a Balinese fire and dance show at sunset amid temples. You know you’re in Asia when part of the show is kicking burning hay into the crowd. Hello health and safety.

So far I’m loving Bali. Favourite moment so far would be when the police car, with lights and sirens, slowed down so they could stop at smile at me before speeding away. Scariest is when we told our driver to stop at a good place to eat and he took us down this dirt road in the middle of nowhere to a café that should have been condemned as chickens and cow casually wander past. Fortunately it was closed. Tonight Ku Di Ta for my friends Lily and Eion’s birthday, stay tuned.