Thoughts on Bali

May 3rd to May 6th, 2018

Photo by resa cahya on Unsplash

This note is part of my travel series, Giant Leaps: a collection of my experiences from across the globe. You can view all of my trips on here.

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Things I Did

• Four friends and I flew to Bali from Hong Kong, which is about a 5 hour flight! It is a lot further than you would think as Indonesia is pretty far South. Bali is also really big — there are dozens of interesting cities/towns, but my friends and I (given the short time constraint) only explored one: Kuta. In hindsight, I definitely wish I had more time to visit Ubud and some of the other less touristy beaches, but nonetheless Kuta was awesome. We were pretty bad tourists in that we really stuck to touristy things and did not try to immerse ourselves much in Indonesian culture. It was an adventure of relaxation, partying, and nature.
• The Bali airport is super overwhelming so make sure that no one tries to steal your bag on your way in. There is also terrible traffic in Bali as the roads are horrible so be careful renting scooters or hopping in a random cab. Since Bali has so many tourist activities, it is also a hotbed for scamming.
• We rented a massive villa (for not that much money) and had a really good time celebrating my friend’s birthday. We had our own pool and he staff at the hotel were super nice. Bali has really good Western food — we ate amazing steaks, burgers, and pizza during the trip.

• We spent a lot of time at Potato Head Beach Club, which reminded me a bit of Mykonos and was an awesome time. We actually spent two full days there, just relaxing and swimming. The views are incredible and they play fun music. We also went out to Sky Garden nightclub one night which was pretty fun.

• For me, the highlight of the trip was hiking Mount Batur, an active volcano. You start the hike very early in the morning (I think like 2am) and make it atop before the sun comes up. In my mind this is an absolute must do if you are in Bali…at the top, you see the most beautiful sunrise in the world (better than Angkor Wat!).

Takeaways

• Bali is like a more adventurous Hawaii. I really liked it (even though it is quite far out of the way) but definitely somewhere I would go back if I had the time (and money).
• We rushed home after Bali to Hong Kong before heading to Japan!

Fun Photos