Back to nature and culture, spiritual life on Bali

Back in English again!
hmmm let me think! Ah yea! Walked out of the airplan, pfieuu sooo hot! Forgot that Asia is so humid…
Got my stamp, walked through the crowd of taxi drivers, looking around if I could see Phil, when somebody is standing in front of me with a camera in his one hand and a Bintang (beer) in his other: Welcome to Bali! Good seeing him again! At the back of his bike.. Pfoe, an hour with a big backpack on your back, quite heavy ghehe, but soo good being back in Asia again! Was a bit hard to accept it for some reason! Being back in the heat, with asian people, crazy traffic, dogs and other animals on the streets, rice fields, so many scooters, welcome to Asia again! But felt so happy!
First day.. what did we do? Ah yea, went to his place (got his own room with a pool, so nice to get some sleep and chill for a bit) , and went straight to the beach, enjoying the sunset with a coconut! Crazy how underrated sunsets actually are.. At home I would never watch it, but out here it’s soo good! Amazing, all the different colours, and how quickly it all disappears as well! I’m defo gonna watch it more often when I get back.
Which, btw, is in 1.5 month! Whuuut?!! Crazy to think that I’ve been away for 9 months now.. Almost over! But to be fair, after the next 2 weeks of bali and then another month, I think I’m ready to go home. Jup, you heard it. I love it here, I really do, traveling, exploring, meeting people, experiencing the different cultures, but I’m soo tired! Everytime you have to be social, having the travelchat (where are you from, what have you done so far, etc.) sleeping in hostels, so yea..
Early night, next day toured around Canggu! I’m driving, Phil at the back, going to a restaurant that looked like a gipsy place with lots of crazy caravan thingys, fun place to test out my new camera!
Afterwards we drove to Tanah Lot, one of the biggest temples in Bali, that is placed in the sea! So the only time you can go to the temple is when the tie is low! Just chillin there for a bit, taking pictures, looking at people, laying in the grass, untill the sun was setting, and then off to Canggu again! At night we were sitting in a bar, if somebody walks up to me! Matt from Pai!! I knew he was in Canggu and I was gonna have breakfast with him the next day, but didn’t expect him there! So good to see him! Hasn’t changed at all, but crazy tot hink that we first met in Thailand, 6 months ago!

Next few days Phil had to work, so I just did my own stuff, driving around, relaxing, catching up on some sleep. Eating Asian food again, sooo good! Nasi or Mi Goreng, or 8000 Rp, (50 cents), fruit shake or ice coffee voor 7000 Rp, good life!
And….. I’m just gonna say it once for special occasians (sorry sweared too much in my last blog) but: Fuck yeaaa the boys are coming!! Tim and Sam booked their flight tot he Philippines on the 9th of july, and I booked my flight from Bali to Singapore and Singapore to Philippines on the 9th as well, so I can pick them up! A full month together to explore this beautiful country, can’t wait!

After these relaxing days with Phil I decided to go to Lombok, an Island next to Bali, to get back to nature and local life!
I went here on my own, wth the expectations that I wouldn’t meet a lot of people, which I found okay, but first day I met 2 nice guys, Italian and French, who went biking, so asked them to join, and that’s how we hang out fort he next couple of days! First day went to a beautiful beach, but it started raining and thunder was coming, so time to get out of the water and find shelter with some local people! That night, while having dinner, a local guys who the guys met earlier, joined us and hang out with us for the rest of the night. He invited us to come to his house the next day, sweet as a nut!
So that’s what we did! 2 hours of hiking on a mountain, but then we arrived at his house. Crazy… In the middle of nowhere, a tiny bed above the sleeping place of the chickens, an old cement bag to make sure his bed would stay dry when it was raining.. So small, so poor. Went to walk a bit further to go to his parents house. Cause it was Ramadan, they couldn’t eat or drink, but they offered us a coconut to eat and drink, so good after that walk! His father was 90 and within 5 seconds he made some sort of cage out of leaves for their rooster.. Skills!
Walked back, had dinner with him and just relaxed at night!

Days after we decided to go to Gili Nanggu, a small island south west of Lombok, to snorkel there for a bit, but as usual, we got stuck in the rain again.. So couldn’t leave the island for a couple of hours. But yet again, so beautiful! Crazy how many different types of coral and fish! White sand, blue water, swimming in the rain!
At 5 hurried back to mainland and drove further to Kuta Lombok. On the way had to stop again for the rain, and then finally made it there, to find out that we could stay in our own little palace (2 floor little house for 6 euro each..)
Kuta seemed nice, a little beach place, so that’s what we did the next day, sunbathing and getting burned in a beautiful place. Lombok itself is soo beautiful! Much more green, nice people, less tourists, and that’s exactly what I wanted, get away from everybody!
Easy driving there as well!
The guys were gonna climb the Rinjani (big ass volcano) but I decided to stay in Senggigi. Pretty much rained all day, so couldn’t do much these days, but one day I went to like 4 different waterfalls with 2 English girls. Really nice! Good to do something as well ghehe
After three days the guys came back, had our last night together (watching Portugal-Iceland, cause the French guy was half portugese) and then next day left beautiful Lombok again. WE went to the harbour, waiting for the boat, when a lady tells me that the boat broke down and that I had to pay another ticket for another boat.. Say what? Asia aye! All part of the journey! But when I was about to pay, somebody told me that he called the company and that the boat didn’t break down, so that is was just a way to get more money. So dodgy, so dodgy!

Back in Bali, back to Canggu again for one day, see Phil, and then next day to Ubud, where I’m now! Gonna meet up with Joyce, who I travelled with in Lao, and Kieran, who I met in Lao as well, but at a different place. So that’s nice. Bali is like the place to meet people again, so I feel so many people who I met while traveling are here now! Literally, my whole fb page is getting spammed by pictures of Bali!
But it’s nice tho, cause you already know them, so you don’t necessarily have to be social if you don’t want to.. And I’m super tired, so good having to know a couple of people here!
Ubud… Well.. I used to like it, but went out to do some shopping, and I immediately ran back to the hostel, cause it was too crazy… too much traffic, too many people, too many shops.. Maybe it is because I’m tired, but couldn’t handle it today ghehe

So yea, that’s Bali so far! At the moment laying in bed, writing this blog , while listening to ‘Si tu Veux’ by Mumford and Sons. Everybody, such a good song! Defo listen to it! Their whole new album is good btw;)
Meet up with Joyce later to have a (hopefully) delicious broodje kroket. They discovered a place, so can’t wait!
X