First bits of Bali

I sit on the plane, waiting for it to arrive at our destination. I look outside and see clear blue water and a shoreline appearing from the clouds. The view is like straight out of a travel magazine. Long beaches, beautiful mountains, so green and fertile. I keep staring at this amazing view as the plane continues its descent and touches down on the hot tarmac before I even realize it. “Welcome to Bali.”

So we finally arrived in Bali, it felt good for all of us to get out of the big city and enjoy some real relaxing time. The first night we ended up spending in Seminyak which wasn't too quiet, mainly full of bars and clubs. Luckily it was only for one night though. The beach was really trashy, never seen anything like that but apparently it was due to heavy rains that bought trash down from the city and swept it into the ocean.

Roasting some coffee

For the night we planned to see my dad and Willy (his best friend) in Sanoor, about half an hour drive from our hotel. When we arrived we felt at home. A small fish restaurant right by the beach in the open air, serving really tasty seafood. We had a really fun night just eating, talking and joking around.

Now it was really time for some peace and quiet as we headed out for Lovina, a small town in the north of Bali. We still had a three hour drive ahead of us, or at least we thought so. The small mountain roads took its toll and eventually it ended up taking us over four hours. The views on the way were incredible though. Green fertile mountains all around us, lakes, temples and amazing views of the coastline as we crossed over to the northern side. We had booked a villa for 5 nights but none of us could have imagined what kind of a villa was there waiting for us. It was huge with two guest houses and a nice pool. Sweet! All of us were really hungry from the drive so as soon as we settled down we started the hunt for food. As it turned out close to us was this really good and cheap local restaurant where we eventually ended up eating almost every day.

This old lady we got to know when her rooster scared Linnea one morning by crowing in a basket right next to where we walked. It made a good laugh for all of us. We talked and took some pictures of the lady. And every time we passed her house we kindly greeted her. Such a tough woman.

So for the first full day we decided to rent some scooters and go see what's around. It only cost us 3.5€/scooter/day. Driving in Bali is a bit different than back home. First of all they drive on the wrong side (yes right is right!) and everybody drives like a maniac. Very typical in many African and Asian countries. I had Luukas on my scooter and Linnea's parents were on one scoot which makes driving even harder. Secondly, there are a lot of holes on the road, people or animals crossing or other vehicles driving by and around - which means sudden stops, someone opening a car door in front of you or passing/turning without a warning. One more funny thing with scooters in Asia is that you_can_carry_everything on one. Everything.

My parents told me I can become anything I want. So I became a moving bush.

A Christmas coconut..

We heard about this waterfall located a few kilometers down the road so we went there to check it out. We parked our scoots along the road where a little path lead to the jungle. At that spot a local guy offered to guide us to the falls. We thought we didn't really need him, we would find our way, but he insisted to show us the way and we followed. He was walking without any flip flops and we were a little nonplussed about that at first since there typically is a lot of objects on jungle ground.

This is a pretty example of me climbing a wall...

The waterfall we came to first was apparently one out of the two and the smaller one, they guy told us asking if we would like to see the other. No doubt we did, so the hike continued. Leaving our shoes behind this time, understanding why our guide had non. We had to climb narrow steps, cross the river a few times, hop on slippery rocks and literally climb on walls to get there. One misstep and you are in the water, one careless hand movement and a wild cactus stings your fingers. But totally worth it! Amazing. We could swim under the waterfall and go under it for a “massage”. Our local guy showed us a spot for some mud bathing that smoothed our skins. After that we took a shower under the falls.

Our guy :)

Morning swim under a waterfall

Of course swimming makes you hungry so off we went to quickly see through a temple on the mountains and hunt for some food on our way back. Ended up to a place that just was one of the firsts that we found. Boring looking from the outside but after going through the gates... By accident we had found this awesome place where you could sit right on the water. There we were offered some fresh juices and different fish dishes. Yummy!

We booked some massages for the evening. Obviously you can't go to Bali without going to one. Me and Linnea went in at the same time. The massage was outside in this open air hut and the whole thing was just pure gold. Relaxing atmosphere, music, a very good massage and some tea. We both loved it! Later on during our trip we enjoyed so many more of those. I mean, 30 minutes of massage for 4 euros...

One morning we woke up very early to go dolphin watching. All of us were still kinda sleepy when we arrived at the boat but quickly recovered once we got to the open seas. It didn't take too long before we got our first glimps of the dolphins. They were beautiful! Just playfully jumping out of the water like they were giving us a show. 

On New Years eve me and Linnea decided to go snorkeling so we packed our scooter and hit the road after breakfast. It was an hour drive and on the scooter you never realize how sunny it is since the airflow eases the heat. And that makes you burn fast. We had quite nice tan lines when finally arriving to out destination on the West side of the North Bali - very quiet area. We left our scooter parked and walked to the long, yet peaceful beach. Saw some rescue sea turtles which we got to nurse; one of them really loved some attention.

From there we rented some snorkeling gear, dumped or bags to a local guy and headed out from the shore. That's one of the best qualities of this place. People are so honest and kind. No such robbery culture as in many poor countries. You don't have to hold on your belongings for your life. But anyway... Back to snorkeling... The coral underneath us spread all around. The colors and thousands of different fishes are just too hard to explain. Bright blue starfishes, little details and a whole new world under the surface are something the pictures can't tell. In that beauty we got to spent an hour. Swimming around, bumping into sea snake and getting above a coral that spreads this tickling particles. Then we just became way to hungry and headed to explore the menu on the restaurant by the beach. We ordered ourselves some lunch and made friends with some homeless cats and dogs before heading back to the sea for another 45 minutes before jumping on the scooter again.

The last hours of 2016 we enjoyed eating in our village with the whole gang and heading to the beach like all the locals. There we found a nice spot to watch the fireworks and exchange our first New Years kiss. 

More about our trip, Ubud, Borobudur and Linnea's accident coming up soon! Stay tuned.

Thanks guys,

Arno & Linnea