Bali highlights and lowlights #BaliDisey

After the end of every trip I do summary of sorts of my experiences—what I loved, what I didn’t, what I’d do differently. That sort of thing. Here are my Bali highlights and lowlights:

Bali Highlights

• Meeting Made on Day 1. In the three(ish) weeks we spent in each other’s company, he gave me access to a Bali I would not have otherwise experienced and for that I will be forever grateful.
• The sunset at Tanah Lot on my second day in Ubud. It made me glad to be alive.
• Riding around on the back of Made’s motorbike. It was travel at its most liberating.
• The band at Bamboo in Ubud, also on my second day. They were spectacularly talented musicians.
• Receiving personal advice about my novel from Graeme Simsion (author of The Rosie Project) at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival.
• My Write a Bestseller Retreat at Sharing Bali. It was absolutely wonderful, and now I feel like a real writer.
• Meeting Jacq Burns (Write A Bestseller) and Karen Willis (Sharing Bali). What wonderful, generous, inspirational women who I am now proud to call my friends.
• The accommodation. The Sens Hotel in Ubud, Sharing Bali, and the two guest houses (Jukung Guest House and Putri Homestay) I stayed at in Sanur were all very different, but equally wonderful.
• The food. I ate some wonderful food, and not at all expensive. I particularly liked eating in the warungs, with babi guling (anywhere) and Sambal Mak Beng (in Sanur) being perpetual favourites.
• The three weeks I spent in Bali felt like three months. I came home relaxed and with a tan. I never tan.

Bali Lowlights

• I had a bout of diarrhoea a few days after I arrived in Sanur that I couldn’t quite shake until I got home. I don’t know what caused it, but it was inconvenient and the first time I’d ever experienced anything like that travelling.
• Virgin Australia Airlines. Trying to get home after two cancelled flights was an absolute nightmare. Fuck you, Virgin!

I had no idea that I would like (love) Bali as much as I did. It’s a very easy place to get around. Everyone speaks English (of varying degrees). It’s cheap. It’s interesting. It’s accessible. This is one place that I not only say I’ll go back to, but actually will.

I’m doing the retreat again in 2016!

[coffee]