#24: 2nd week of Honeymoon
Wrapping up the vacation
Hey friends,
I’m trying my best not to fall asleep while writing this. After almost 24 hours of flights and airports, we are back in Romania, but I wanted to finish writing it before I go to bed as I know I won’t have time tomorrow (I’ll probably need to go through 100s of emails).
Later edit: I didn’t get to finish it on time; that’s why you got it on Monday.
As in last week’s edition, this will be focused on our honeymoon trip, more like a journal with a few photos.
So, I’ll get right at it. Our second week in Bali was a more relaxed one. After a few days traveling around the island from Ubud, we started our last weekend with some relaxing time in the cafe (where I wrote the previous edition of this letter), followed by a massage session and some reading by the pool.
On our last day in Ubud, we found the nicest street, a semi-pedestrian alley (there were some motorbikes from time to time) with lots of different bars and restaurants. We first had dinner at a Thai place that looked very promising, and then we drank some chardonnay at a wine bar down the street.
My Pad Kra Pao was delicious, but Miki’s curry was super spicy. It was strange, as she asked for it to be just a bit spicy, so I think they made a mistake. I’m saying this because I eat quite spicy food, and that thing was too much even for me.
The atmosphere was nice, and we ordered some more stuff, so don’t worry, we didn’t starve.
The two glasses of wine we had after dinner cost more than our previous meal.
While Indonesia is a cheap country, being a Muslim country, alcohol is not as cheap as
other things. Wine, for example, is more expensive than in Europe, and the quality is pretty bad. Of course, they probably need to import most of it, and that’s why the prices are quite high.
Even though Australia and New Zealand are big wine producers and pretty close, I guess the government taxes are quite high; I didn’t check.
All in all, if you’re a wine lover, maybe this is not the ideal place.
The next day we went to Padang Bai to get a boat to Gili Trawangan, also known as Gili T.
All temples in Bali have a big celebration every six months.
For one temple on the way to the harbor, that celebration was that day, which meant we were stuck in traffic 2 hours more than we were supposed to, so we didn’t catch the boat we wanted to catch.
Traffic is crazy in Bali; I only saw one functional traffic light in the whole Ubud area, and sometimes you can get stuck in a sea of bikes and cars coming left and right. But there is order in this chaos, and because no one drives at more than 50–60 km/h, there are very few accidents on the island. For example, I was sure I was going to see a few on my first day but hadn’t seen any crashes at all during my trip.
More on their attitude towards driving and life a bit further.
Anyway, we went by boat to Gili for almost 3 hours. A lot of people on the boat got seasick, and I almost got seasick.
It was not the best trip of my life, but we got there.
Gili T is one of the three smaller islands closer to Lombok than to Bali. There are no cars or scooters on any of them. Gili T is the largest of the group, and people walk or bike on the island. If you have luggage, you can get a taxi, which is a carriage pulled by a horse.
Very rustic.
We spent three nights on the island, mostly chilling. We went snorkeling one day and read, got massages, and went for walks on the beach the rest of the time.
Our accommodation was a typical Balinese house, and we loved the fact that both the shower and the toilet were outside, in the back of the house.
It helps when the average temperature across the year is 28 degrees C.
As I told you, the island is quite small—a circle with a length of a bit more than 6 km. That’s a bit more than the route I run every week in one of the parks in Bucharest.
So I ran this circle two days in a row, and I thought I would die. There are many areas with no shade, and with a humidity level of around 80%, I struggled a lot to finish the run.
On Wednesday, we boarded the ship back to Padang Bai for our last destination, Canggu. Now, as I was not “very” involved in the planning of the trip, I was a bit concerned, after talking to people, that Canggu is a party destination.
Fortunately, our accommodation was very remote and far away from any party areas, so I could relax even more 🙂 (You can see a recurring theme here; I honestly find more joy in a walk on the beach and reading a book by the pool than in a night out in the club.) It must be the age. Or let’s say, the acquired wisdom 😀
This resort is magnificent; our room had a beautiful porch with a direct ocean view. It was so close to the ocean that I would wake up during the night thinking I was on the beach. The beach was filled with soft, black sand, and the sunsets were amazing.
On the second day, we didn’t leave the resort; after spending almost two full days on boats and cars, I just sat by the pool, drank Bintang, and read “My Brilliant Friend”.
On the third day, we went for coffee near Canggu Beach and decided to come back to our resort by walking on the beach. Two hours later, we were there, just in time to see another spectacular sunset.
The beach was full of people, both locals and tourists. Some were walking, some were taking pictures, playing volleyball, and running around with their dogs (we met a lady who had around 8). Some people were surfing, while others were kite surfing.
There were also a lot of bars, but not close to the water, so you could enjoy the view from there without disturbing people who wanted to walk or do sports.
On the last day, I went for a 5K run on the beach, and even if it was not my fastest ever, for sure it’s one I’ll always remember.
This was our overall journal from the trip. I am writing these lines with joy and even a bit of melancholy.
Here’s why:
the scenery is fabulous, I haven’t been to many tropical islands but I was amazed at how you can go from golden sand beaches to the jungle and then to black sand ones
Bali is cheap; if it’s cheap for us Romanians, it’s probably a steal for other countries
the resorts we had were not the cheapest but for sure they weren’t the most expensive; they were all very clean and the services were great
the people are amazing, and even if I said this in the last newsletter too, the second week came to reinforce this feeling. From the taxi driver to the hotel clerk or the old lady who sells coconuts, they are all so kind, cheerful, and willing to help.
I know and have seen people who are visibly offended by how pushy some locals are (usually around markets and other busy areas), and maybe I would have been the same some years ago. Now, I have a different perspective, one in which I know I have the luxury of having a vacation across the globe, I know that when I come back I have a nice place to live, and I don’t worry about me or my family having enough to eat. For some of the people there, this is an actual worry.
Some of the Grab drivers (a service similar to Uber that operates in Asia) were around 20 years old. One of them was from Java, which is another island in Indonesia, not as popular as Bali, and he came to Bali to drive and earn money so he could start a business back home. He was a bartender in Java and couldn’t make a proper living.
One couple whom we met at the cooking class was coming from Java and they said you could eat a huge meal for 10,000 rupees there (that’s around 60 cents). So you can imagine how poor the region is.
So, I think it’s presumptuous of me or people who are living in the same or greater standards than I am to judge the Balinese or any other people from lower-income countries. Life is not the same for everyone.
And most of the time, it’s just sheer luck to have been born into a good family in a higher-income country.
In conclusion, Bali is a beautiful region with some of the kindest people I’ve ever met, and I fully recommend it for your next destination.
Regarding driving, even if the traffic is crazy and you get stuck or people park wherever they want, sometimes in the middle of the road, I did not see one driver angry, honking, or swearing. If I had been in Bucharest in similar driving scenarios, for sure some people would have gone out of the car and started a fight. But the people there are just relaxed; they understand they won’t change anything by getting angry.
Ketut, our driver from last week, told us almost no one has insurance because it’s very expensive. At some point, another driver hit him from behind. Of course, the other driver didn’t have insurance, so Ketut asked him for money for the repair. He responded that he didn’t have any money, as he was poor. So I asked Ketut, What did you do?
“What could I have done? I went to my associate and told him the story, and he fixed the car. If he didn’t have the money too, we would just borrow it or wait until we had it. If I had caused the accident, it would have been the same for the other driver.”
I’m not saying it’s an ideal situation or the right thing to do, but maybe it’s healthier in the long term.
P.S.: I can’t say I am a big fan of their cuisine, and Balinese coffee is terrible. I had to say it.
Next week, I’ll be back to my regular newsletter, though I might make some changes and experiment with the format. Stay tuned!
Thank you for reading, and let me know if you liked something in particular in this newsletter.
Until next time,
Leo
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