Bali

For our mid-semester break from Uni, a group of us decided to go to Bali to forget all about essays, exams, and school! Laura, Sari, and I arrived on Tuesday night and checked into our hotel, the Taman Sari Cottages. The rest of our friends were staying at the Bounty Hotel so we went over there to meet up with them. It was only a 3-minute walk, but the streets were chaotic. People were walking everywhere, car horns were blaring, scooters were weaving in and out, and all the shop owners constantly tried to get us into their stores. But we got to their hotel, found our friends, and had a great first night in Bali! There seemed to be many other Australians also spending their holiday in Bali. We met Michael and Travis, two guys from Perth, Australia. They had been to Bali a few times before so they gave us all their tips about where and where not to go and hung out with us for most of the week.  The next day it was extremely hot and humid, and we all went to the beach. The sand burnt our feet to walk on so we had to stay on our towels or in the water. Going in the ocean was very refreshing and the waves were huge and so much fun to play in. We all got worn out from the ocean so we went back and relaxed by the pool at the hotel before going to the Foam Party later that night. Thursday morning we walked to the Waterbom Waterpark. It wasn’t anything like Noah’s Ark but they still had a lot of fun rides, especially one in particular. One of the rides was similar to The Point of No Return, but instead of starting off the slide by lying on your back, you step onto a platform and are enclosed in some sort of “coffin.”  All of a sudden the floor drops from underneath your feet and you get launched straight downward and through a huge loop. I think this is the fastest and best water slide I have ever been on. Friday, we woke up early and got picked up for our elephant rides! Laura and I rode our elephant, Sim Sim, through the jungle and saw a monkey that could chug beer, and all the elephants could play the harmonica too! Afterwards, we had lunch and then were able to feed the bear! We got back to the hotel and got ready for the party that was happening there that night. It was very exciting, they had live performances on stage and by the end of the night everybody was getting pushed in the pool.

Massages in Bali are very cheap, so Saturday I woke up and got a 90-minute massage and body scrub, all for around $20…not too bad! Then it was a day of shopping along the streets and lounging by the pool until dinner, where we went to a seafood restaurant right on the beach! It was gorgeous to see the sunset on the ocean and enjoy delicious food. The next day we had a full-day tour. We got picked up at the hotel and were driven around to see Indonesian dance performances, waterfalls, sacred temples, Monkey Island, and had lunch looking over a volcano and dinner on the beach again. Sadly, it was our last night so we spent it hanging out by the pool one last time. The next morning I got one last massage by the pool before our 6-hour flight back home. The week went by extremely fast and we had awesome, hot weather so we were all sad to have to leave, but we all had an amazing time!