Our first stop in Bali was the beaches of Seminyak and Canggu. We spent the first couple days exploring the area and taking advantage of the short walk to the sea. We bargained for lounge chairs and an umbrella to escape the hot sun and I was able to relax and dive into my new book. I had been carrying around this paperback the entire trip with all intentions of sitting down and reading it, especially during travel days. But travel days turned into sleeping time, and everything just became so non-stop. It was nice to know I was finally at my last destination and could just unwind and begin to reflect.

A few days prior I had texted my friend Kiki, who had been to Bali last year on her honeymoon, and asked her for some suggestions on places to go around the island. She excitedly gave me her list of recommendations but also told me how she had been praying for me on my trip; which meant more to me than she realized. It served as a little reminder that I had not been at this alone. Being so on the go lately, I hadn’t stopped to think about all the love and support of everyone back home who had been keeping me in their prayers and wishing me a safe journey. For those of you that have kept me in your thoughts, I thank you and I am so grateful!

Those first few days in Bali we began to ease our way into the island lifestyle we would be living for the next couple weeks. It became a daily rotation of fresh fruit and smoothies in the morning and delicious Indonesian food in the evening. My favorite quickly became the chicken sate with this special peanut sauce… It was so good! I had forgotten how much I missed anything that tasted like peanut butter. We also spent some time checking out a yoga class at the Prana studio and hopped on a scooter and headed up the coast to Canggu. Here I was able to finally jump in the water and get a surf in at Batu Bolong beach. The waves on this side of the island were a little blown out this time of year but if you got there early enough it was still fun! It was nice to just paddle out after 5 months and just be in the water. We even got Kayley up her first time out! The road to Canggu was almost more fun than the destination. Passing temples and rice paddies while feeling every bump in the stone paved road. We even stumbled on little roadside buffet style lunch spot called Warung Heboh (Warung we learned meant little shop or restaurant. Every shop or place to eat seemed to start with the word warung) This became our go to after surf spot. You could fill yourself up and get a fresh juice or tea for about $2USD! Daily life in Bali was cheap, so long as you stayed away from all the Australian shops and restaurant with more Western prices.

Another rad part of the Seminyak/ Canggu area was all the street art. Everywhere you looked there was some type of beautiful graffitti, a free art show in a way. My favorite that I began to notice everywhere were stencils of young women, created by the street artist known as Quint. They had a natural, strong yet rebellious look to them, and it was cool seeing all the places they were randomly painted on the streets.

So overall it was a great start to the trip. A time to detox, get our bodies and minds back in shape, and get the creative juices flowing.

From Seminyak we headed down to the town of Uluawatu about an hours cab ride south. I lucked out and found a gorgeous place called Uluwatu Cottages for a pretty reasonable price. It had an infinity pool and lounge chairs with a view. Amazing! We spent the next couple of days just reading and relaxing. We didnt even need to go down to the beach with a view like this! One day we literally didnt even leave the hotel haha. The evening that we did decide to go out was on Sunday at Single Fin bar. This is a very popular spot because it overlooks one of the best surf breaks in Uluwatu. Kayley and I enjoyed pizza and beers while we watched the sunset, the first of many “romantic” island evenings haha. After dark, the place turned into a dance party with a couple of DJ’s and a whole lot of Aussies. We ended up spotting these local tiny Balinese guys from the balcony above who would randomly put their sunglasses on in the middle of the dance floor. Naturally we loved these guys and befriended them by joining their mini dance party without a care in the world.

Our last day in Uluwatu we rented a scooter and took the windy roads to the south side of the island and checked out the Uluwatu Temple. The views over the cliff were breath taking and there were monkeys everywhere. They tell you to take off your hats and watch your water bottles and sunglasses. If they see them, they will try and grab them! Shiesty little buggas! That day on the way home, after grabbing some tasty Warung Heboh, we dodged monkeys, stray dogs, cows and chickens. We would laugh as we came around each turn, not knowing which animal we would see next. Riding these back roads as the sun was setting was just bliss.