Tukad Miyah

Day 1
Today was a day filled with travel, my first flight from Queenstown to Auckland was at 9:30am and arrived at 11:20am. After a 3 hour layover, I boarded my flight to Bali which was an 8 hour and 45 minute flight. Due to the time difference I landed in Bali at 6pm and was exhausted. I read online that you really have to haggle over the cost of everything, including taxis, so right when I got out of the airport I was bombarded with drivers asking if I needed a taxi. I took the first one I found and when I told him I was going to Canggu (which was a 45 minute drive from the airport), he pulled out a piece of paper that said the price on it. At the time I thought it seemed high but I was so tired I didn’t care (a taxi should have been $25 and I ended up paying $50, so was definitely taken advantage of). After about 15 minutes into the drive I realized that I hadn’t taken out enough money to cover the taxi fare (Bali uses the Indonesian Rupiah, which has a lot of zeros on it and is kind of confusing), so I tried to tell the driver that I needed to stop at an ATM to take more out and that’s when I discovered the only english words he knew was taxi, cheap, yes and no. Thankfully, he took out his phone and we used google translate to communicate and he stopped at a local market so I could take out money. This was one of the scariest cab rides I have ever been on. A lot of people in Bali, both locals and tourists, get around by scooters and there were hundreds on the road weaving in and out of cars. When I finally dropped off the driver dropped me on the side of the road and I had to carry all my bags down a dirt alley. Based on the pictures of the hostel (Kos One Hostel) that were online, I was surprised it was down a sketchy alley but when I arrived it was exactly what I was expecting. I checked in and was shown to my room and just spent some time hanging out before calling it a night.

Day 2
I woke up and headed to the outdoor restaurant at the hostel to get some breakfast, the food here was surprisingly very good. After breakfast I got dressed and took a walk into town checking out the stores and walking down to the beach. I was surprised when I got to the beach because there were only cement stairs going down and there wasn’t really a lot of beach and it was pretty dirty. I walked back to the hostel to eat lunch and get in a workout at the gym that they had onsite. After a great workout I went and hung by the pool because there was supposed to be a pool party with a DJ (this was a party that I had read was a must do while in Canggu along with going to Finns) and unfortunately it really wasn’t much of a party. I am not sure if the hostel was quieter than usual due to the coronavirus happening but there really weren't many people there. I talked to a couple of people who said the pool party a couple of days before was really fun so it sounded like it was a hit or miss. I laid out to tan and ordered a couple of drinks. I started talking to the girl next of me, Victoria (she is from Northern Ireland) who was only at Kos One for a day before starting a tour group the next day. We hung out for a bit before showering and walking to Finns bar for drinks and dinner. The walk was about 45 minutes give or take from our hostel and was pretty sketchy walking down dirt allies and near rice fields. I was hoping that we would stumble across the part of town that had all the cafes that I had read so much about but didn’t really see any. Once we got there we each got drinks and then decided to grab pizzas at their restaurant. Finns was really nice; it had day beds, multiple bars and pools and was right on the beach. It would have been a great place to go for the day to drink, dance and hang out. Instead of walking back home in the dark we decided to take a taxi back which was a little expensive since it was a private service through Finns but definitely better than walking. I was really tired so once we got back I headed to bed.

Day 3
I woke up early to get breakfast at the cafe at the hostel (I got a very good smoothie bowl) and then headed to the free yoga in the gym onsite. Bali is known for its yoga, people come from all over the world to do yoga retreats throughout Bali. This of course wasn’t a world class yoga class but it was great for a beginner like me. It was very relaxing and really helped me to stretch out my back from sleeping in hostel beds. Once yoga was over I got my bikini on and went to the pool to enjoy the sunshine. After a couple hours in the sun, I went back to my room to get dressed and grabbed lunch at the cafe before taking a walk in town. I walked away from the beach this time and as I was walking I stumbled upon a flee market which I went into to take a look around. There was jewelry, clothing, purses, dreamcatchers and much more. I only stayed there for about 10 minutes because every time I went to look at something I would hear “cheap, cheap price for you” which was getting really annoying. As I continued walking I came across some clothing and jewelry boutiques (I bought a cute ring at one of them) but didn’t see as many cafes as I would have thought and some of the buildings seemed to be falling apart. There were stray dogs everywhere, some were aggressive and I even saw a couple dog fights. It was a little difficult to cross the street between the dogs, scooters and cars all over the road; it’s like every man for himself. It was late afternoon and the sun was beating down so I decided to go back to the hostel to take a shower and try and cool down. It is very humid in Bali and the sun is strong, so it is hard to stay in the sun moving around all day without overheating. We I got back to my room there was a knock on the door and it was one of the staff members letting me know that I had forgotten to pay for my lunch (they don’t have the same table service that we are used to in the states and after sitting at the table texting family and catching up for awhile I had completely forgot to pay my bill). After I showered, I did some packing and watched some Netflix before going to bed.Baca selengkapnya