No place we’ve heard about has received the universal praise and love that we’d heard about Bali. I have to admit that I’d thought it was a small island, the sort you could walk across, not realising that it is really a nation in itself, with towns and cities, beaches and mountains. I certainly underestimated it, and we were curious as to whether such high praise could possibly be justified.

Our first taste of Bali was a scary one, the bus ride from the ferry terminal with a doddery old gentleman driving started off incredibly slowly, and we breathed a sigh of relief feeling that at least we’d be safe, until he had filled up the bus and decided that he was Lewis Hamilton on 8 wheels. His ability to overtake around blind bends in a tinpot bus was impressive yet petrifying. We quickly pulled out seatbelts from our bag and strapped ourselves in.

The exhilarating ride over we thought it would be simple to grab a taxi, as it generally was in Asia, yet we then encountered the Balinese taxi mafiosi.

Through Indonesia we were relieved by the lack of hassle from people trying to sell things to you or get you in their car / tuk-tuk. Unfortunately the one exception to this was the Bali driving industry. Drivers clearly organise themselves in a very exclusive way, and force out anyone they don’t like, most notably ride hailing companies like Uber and Grab, often with violence. They can then set prices vastly higher than elsewhere in Asia. Thankfully we arrived at the terminal and went to find a taxi when we were one customer to many drivers, so at least had some bargaining power. Faff over we arrived in the town of Ubud and life changed dramatically.

We settled into a beautiful hotel room, the nicest we’d stayed in all trip, with a gorgeous balcony where our extensive breakfast would be served. We set out for dinner and dived into the first pizza place we found. After weeks of eating nothing but fried rice we were over the moon, and enjoyed a beer since we were now in a Hindu nation rather than a Muslim one.

We set out to properly explore Ubud. The cultural capital of Bali, history and beauty here aren’t landmarks but are an integrated part of daily life. Beautiful temples on every street corner, some of which now serve as hotels, cafes and homes… And many older homes feature small temples in front of the house.

The town is nestled amongst beautiful hills and valleys, rivers cascade through around temples and under bridges. Bali is the Asian capital of healthy living, and walking through Ubud you see not only stylish coffee shops but health spas, vegan restaurants and yoga classes everywhere, all merged into the context of a rich history.

We had considered skipping Ubud in favour of beaches, but we quickly fell under its spell. It was just a wonderful place to relax and unwind.

One evening we went to a traditional fire / dance show. The plotline was a challenge to follow, but it was very cool to watch. After the main show, much of which was spent liaising with the German girls next to us trying to understand the plot, we were expecting a fantastic fire show. Instead we were slightly confused to watch a big man kick some flaming coconuts around the pavement. A bit odd but all good fun!

We also tried some yoga, we had both done taster sessions before but found this a lot more enjoyable, and a good little workout as we were trying to get back on top of our fitness after an unsettled period.

Best of all, we hired a scooter one day to go and explore the wider area. The highlight for us was chasing waterfalls amongst the beautiful hills. There are some spectacular waterfalls, which I’m sure will be better to see rather than read about.

We were sad when it came time to leave Ubud, but excited for our next stop. After a couple of hours on a bus, we hopped on a boat to Gili Trawangan. The Gili Islands are 3 tiny islands off the coast of neighbouring Lombok (not actually a part of Bali so excuse me slipping it into the Bali post). With no cars and being small enough to easily walk around, we were excited to visit this little bit of paradise. We were going to the largest of the 3 Islands, known as Gili T.

We bounced across the choppy sea under the sun with a beer in hand, landing on the beach at Gili T. We waded through the crystal clear water then walked to our hotel. This was going to be a little ‘holiday’ for us after a few months of being less comfortable and moving a lot through Indonesia and Nepal, so we had booked ourselves into a nice hotel (£22 a night). We figured that since the sea wasn’t really for swimming in (too many coral reefs) then a pool was important!! After 3 nights we then upgraded to an even nicer place, a resort for £35 a night, right on the waterfront where we could watch the sunset.

Our stay in Gili T was wonderful. It is a beautiful place, beautiful for lazing and beautiful for runs around the beach. We went for a dive where we saw countless sea turtles gliding elegantly through the water. Some of them were huge, the biggest was still sleeping on the bottom…. When I pointed it out to Ness she looked straight at it but never saw it – it was so big that she thought it was a rock. Ness wasn’t such a fan of the sharks!

Learning to surf was good fun. We had two lessons, enough to be confident standing up on waves we’d caught ourselves. This was enjoyable, but we suffered the first time without anything covering our knees… We had friction burns for days…. So when we returned we wore leggings / thermals and accepted looking really silly and uncool.

As we sat on the beach watching sunset on our last night on Gili T, we were gutted to be leaving. We have learned to take this as a good thing, we are always sad to leave our favourite places, and have to remind ourselves that this just highlights those places we love the most and hope to return to one day.

Our final stop in this area would be back on Bali, in the town of Canggu (pronounced Changu). This was known as a haven for young people wanting to live forever in a travellers paradise. We continued to practice our skills of hanging around in coffee shops and on beaches, doing literally nothing other than surfing.

This was not without incident though, as we walked from the bus to our hotel on our dark first night, Ness tripped over thin air while carrying her big bag, and went for a dive. She saved her phone but at the cost of her skin, much of which was left on the road. She spent the rest of our time in Canggu oozing pus and nursing her injuries which have thankfully recovered as I write this 3 weeks later.

Canggu wasn’t our favourite place, it was better suited to people wanting to do less than us with a bit more money than us, but it was nonetheless a really cool place to hang out.

Leaving Bali was a big moment for us, as it signified the end of a phase of our trip, and we approach the half way point of our travels (which we will have passed by the time this is published). We have spent 5 months in Asia, exploring diverse cultures so different to our own, learning new languages everywhere we went, tasting new foods, and living in relative luxury with hotels and restaurants for a total budget of £50 a day.

We now transition to travelling through ‘Western’ countries, beginning in Australia. We will continue in countries where English is the first language, culture and food is similar to our home, and where we will be eating the cheapest food we can buy in our hostel rooms. All this while spending far more money.

We won’t miss some of the downsides of Asia… Stomach bugs, mosquitoes and monsoons, children vomiting in our face, and sharing terrifying busses with livestock; but that has all been a part of the adventure!

We are wonderfully excited for what is to come in the next phase of our trip, but for now we are reflecting on how fantastic Asia has been and how we will miss it, with it’s incredible highs and lows.

Bali was an incredible way to wrap up those five months, we discovered that it is one of the few places which meets it’s hype, and somewhere to which we shall return.

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