Hey guys,
I am finally able to tell you a little bit about my first
week in Bali. (After four long weeks of barely any internet!!)
Once I arrived at the Denpasar Airport I was able to
identify a few more Grandtour students which then travelled with me to the Puri
Saron Hotel in Denpasar. This should be our home for the next 11 weeks.
There is lots I would love to tell you about the first week
but instead of going to deep into detail I will just go over the main
activities in the first week. Let me tell ya about my first few hours and the
time I was lost in the streets of Denpasar:
A student and I decided to get some
beers in a supermarket “nearby” as everyone said, and we head out to walk our
main streets. Funny enough, we never found such a supermarket which left us
confused, without any internet connection on the lookout for a supermarket that
had a liquor license (it is not common to sell alcohol in every supermarket).
We went through several streets, asked several people which send us even farer
away from the hotel. At some point it started pouring rain and there we were
lost, wet and on the look out for beer. At some point we had to laugh so hard
about our dumb self’s that we decided to grab a taxi somewhere and get back
home, as we already walked over an hour. Luckily, we could grab a taxi which
brought us first to a supermarket, right on the other way of the streets and
then dropped us off at the hotel. This was basically one of my first
experiences in Bali, and I was just shocked about the amount of rain and the
conditions of the streets, but it was also funny for us to get into this
situation.
Event though my first experience in Bali was a disaster, the
second we arrived in the hotel I met one of my closest friends here. We decided
to go the night out at the Potatohead beach club, one of the most gorgeous
places I have seen in Grandtour .
Next to having lots of Pool parties and playing drinking
games, we decided to explore the Island a bit more. We started off with occasional
beach days and explored the beaches and beach clubs in Kuta, Canggu and Eco. Something
I have noticed straight away: Bali is a dirty paradise. The beaches are full of
plastic and trash, which is why we signed up for the big beach cleaning this
Saturday, since I have never seen beaches in this stage before. (Plus I do care
for the environment)
On Friday we had our first University field trip which
brought us to a real Balinese traditional village. Even though it was humid and
extremely hot, we enjoyed and learned so much about the Balinese culture and
traditions. After learning all about the Balinese way of living, how to harvest
the local fruits and vegetables, the sustainable offerings, we tried our first
authentic Balinese Cuisine.
Our first weekend should consist of more exploring, we got a
local number of a driver which would bring us to different destinations in one
day. We went with a huge group of people, it almost felt like a class trip and
our first aim was the Ubud area in Bali.
After driving about an hour from Denpasar to Ubud, we
arrived at the Monkey Forrest. This was the first thing on my bucket list! I
loved that we could feed the monkeys and have them jump around us, but at the
same time it was a bit scary since a lot of these monkeys are bigger than
expected (and mean!).
It is worth to experience, though I have expected a little
bit more of the forest. It was small, and we have been done with the tour quickly.
Our next stop was the famous Elephant Cave temple, which was
a lot more to explore with! After we tried to get rid of our sins with the holy
water of the temple (see pictures below haha), we continued our sight seeing
throughout the temple and refreshed ourselves with some good ol’ Coconut water.
Once we finished off our tour through the elephant cave
temple, we continued to the Tukad Cepung Waterfalls in Ubud, which was a tough
hike down and even tougher to get back up.
Next to seeing the Niagara Falls years ago in 2014, I was so
impressed by the beauty of Bali. The water was freezing cold, but it was so
much fun! After we returned completely wet to our cars and buses, one of our
buses was stuck in the mud, which meant we had to get all the manpower
possible to push that thing out. It was hilarious and scary, because as soon as
it would start to rain the bus would be driving backwards down the hill and we
would have had no chance to help.
After the messy action, we finally had some lunch at a Japanese/Balinese
restaurant. It was right before our last stop and one of the most exciting
things for me to explore: The Cat Poo Coffee Plantage!
I have seen this plantage on many many vlogs and blogs and
people talked about the most expensive coffee in the world. They basically feed
the beans to the civet cats, which then poop out the coffee beans. These beans
are then used to make the coffee. It sounds gross for some people, but I was very
eager to try it! We had a whole plate of different coffee and tea that we could
try, and I have to say I was in love with their coconut coffee. Once we
finished the tasting, I decided to order the famous coffee. It was only 50K Rupiah,
which is basically only 5 Dollars per mug (3 Euros) which is in my opinion not
so expensive. The coffee had a weird sourly taste in the beginning, but you get
used to it quickly. You can get more information here.
This basically sums up all my adventures from the first week
in Bali. We did a ton of more stuff throughout the other weeks that I will try
to upload asap.
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