Around week two or three of classes people already begin asking around at university if you have any plans for the mid-semester break, which coincides with Easter. I was beyond lost for the longest time about where I wanted to go during the break because the options seemed endless. When it came down to it, I knew that I definitely wanted to go somewhere and not spend too much money. Looking at flight prices around Australia, it actually ended up being cheaper to go to Indonesia than to places I was interested in going to in this country. I bought my tickets around week six and finally had an answer to the question “what are you doing for the mid-semester break?”
I embarked on my week-long trip and took a flight to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and finally reached my destination, Bali, late at night. In the morning, I officially began my trip exploring Indonesia for the first time.
The Route and Activities
On the first day, a few friends and I made our way to Ubud, which is about an hour away from Denpasar, where the international airport is located. We took the first day to settle in, visit some amazing temples, rice fields, and watch a traditional Balinese dance/theater performance. The next day, or more like that night, we woke up at 2 am to hike Mount Batur to watch the sunset with the view to a volcano. It was truly one of the best sunrises of my entire life and it was magical to hike with flashlights in pitch black darkness and slowly see the breathtaking view appear. That same day we took a boat to a nearby island called Nusa Penida.
In Nusa Penida, we visited extremely popular tourist points such as Kelingking Beach, Broken Beach, Angel’s Billabong, Diamond Beach, Atuh Beach, and so on. While the island is not very big, the roads there are very narrow, windy, and often unpaved, making the journey from one stop to the next very time-consuming. While at the island we took a morning to go scuba diving. It was my first time and I absolutely loved the experience. The corals are out of this world and I loved the experience.
For the last two days, we decided to go to Canggu to relax and take things more slowly since we had had quite long and packed days prior. It was nice to finish off the trip at a slower pace just relaxing at the beach, although the beaches in Canggu is not very beautiful in my opinion. For those who surf, apparently the beaches are a great spot for that.
Food
The food in Indonesia is incredibly tasty and it was super fun to try out new dishes. Since Bali is a very touristic place, it is easy to find any type of cuisine that you can imagine, but I tried to eat mostly the local food. It is certainly a place where you can have the picturesque food plates often seen on Instagram. We went mostly to Warungs, which are typically smaller, more local, family-owned restaurants. I absolutely loved everything that I tried, banana juice being my favorite, something I never thought I would enjoy. Due to the currency exchange working extremely favorably for the U.S., food was very cheap in Indonesia. A full plate with a drink can cost you as little as US$2. The only thing to keep in mind is to not drink the tap water and avoid uncooked fruits and vegetables that need to be washed. Many people talk about getting “Bali Belly,” and two of my friends did end up feeling quite sick after eating a meal there on our last day.
Getting Around
It is fairly easy to travel around Bali. I would say that the most common options are renting scooters and driving yourself around, hiring a driver (either on a scooter or in a car), or services like Uber. Scooters are extremely convenient and the cheapest option, but can be dangerous with the roads there if you do not have a lot of experience riding one. Hiring a driver is easy as well but will be more expensive. The added bonus of driving around with a local is that they will have insider knowledge to share and, from my experience, Indonesian people are extremely friendly and kind. Lastly, you can download apps such as Grab and Bojek which work pretty much just like Uber but are much more affordable. Often the rides we would take would end up being less than US$1. The only problem with the apps is that it is not always the most reliable and there are some areas in which the drivers cannot pick you up from because they are “taxi only” areas.
The trip flew by and I enjoyed every part of it. At first, I was hesitant to go to another country during the break because there is so much of Australia that I have not explored yet, but while enjoying the warm weather, now that it is getting a bit colder here in Melbourne, I knew that I had made the right decision.
