Oh Bali

It's October, which means my first week long vacation has arrived. I was expecting friends from Austin and had planned to go to the Thailand beaches, but they were not able to make it so I quickly rerouted to a destination I had always wanted to see: Bali. My expectations were high (a little too high it seemed) for this "magical" place and I was really excited. One of my Austin friends had been living in Asia so he met me for the adventure. Unfortunately the trip got off to a bad start when I was shorted 100 bucks by the illegal money changers at the airport. I mean it's bad when you can't even trust people at the airport. This is not the Bali I had imagined. Unfortunately, as the trip continued, it was a mix of good and bad, beautiful and ugly, fulfilling expectations and disappointment. I guess you could say I have a love hate relationship with Bali. The beaches at Kuta and Seminyak were nothing to be desired and I could have been in Myrtle Beach for the looks of them. We did have a nice dinner at a beachside restaurant while listening to American cover songs. Ulawatu redeemed those beaches by being a beautiful surfers paradise with massive cliffs and amazing sunsets.

We took a surfing lesson at Padang beach and I was able to stand up and ride waves so that was definitely a highlight of the trip!

 Unfortunately, I started feeling not so great around Tuesday, but powered through it thinking it was just a cold. The best way (and really the only way) to get around in Ulawatu is via motorbike so my friend and I (against better judgement) rented one for the day and off we went. I nearly missed getting hit by a van and only ran into one tree but abandoned ship before hitting it so I'd call that a success!

absolute petrol!

We met with some other friends from my school Thursday morning to do a sunrise volcano hike outside of Ubud! I was still not feeling so great, but decided to climb the volcano anyway because I didn’t want to miss out on my vacation because of a "silly cold". I felt stupid climbing as I fell way behind the group having to stop and cough and take my inhaler numerous times. Turns out that silly cold was actually the flu and climbing the volcano gave me a mean case of pneumonia, as I woke up Thursday afternoon with a 103 fever. Well, I guess that makes me a badass istead of a wuss =) Nevertheless, the view from the top was breath taking.

Had I not been feeling so sick, Ubud would have redeemed Bali for me as it is a beautiful and peaceful place. But instead of doing yoga and getting massages, I headed to the clinic, got a shot in the rear for the fever, and slept for 24 hours straight.  Not knowing at this time I had the flu or pneumonia and thinking I was better, I got up Friday and we watched an impressive dance at the palace and walked through the monkey forest. I was a big fan of the monkeys.

We came across a man who seemed pretty genuine as he offered me an herbal remedy for my sore throat and cough. We decided to arrange a tour of the temples with him for Saturday. I was 50/50 on the temple tour as we did get to see the rice fields and the main tourist temples and an off the beaten path temple, which was my favorite.

I was a little skeptical when he opened a "secret passageway" and told us there were underground tunnels leading under the temple. He asked if we had a "torch" but we kindly declined not wanting to make the news as American tourists bones found years later under a hidden temple.

As much as I enjoyed Bali, I couldn’t get past the feeling that people there were not very genuine. It felt like everyone was trying to screw you over and take your money. Our driver took us to one temple where his friend would be our “guide”. The friend asked us for 15 dollars to see some “newly found rice temple” which I doubt was even a real story. We told him we would give him 5 bucks each (which was still too much, but we wanted to walk through the rice fields). Flying back to Bangkok, I had to admit, I kinda missed you Thailand. I sighed with relief as I got into the cab to be back where I felt I could believe in the good of people! I took a nap fully expecting to feel better upon awaking, but unfortunately my fever was back. That is when I checked myself into the hospital and was told that I had the flu and pneumonia. I had to stay 3 nights in the hospital due to my condition and was then sent home on bed rest.  Apparently pneumonia is no joke as I have been out for over a week. I have mixed feelings about you Bali: You were the best of times, you were the worst of times!