Legian, Bali

Well that wraps up my little 2-month tour of Bali! I chose to come back to the Seminyak/Legian area, even though I started here two months ago, as it has a good mix of everything, and it's a bit of a wind-down before I shake things up a bit - and head to Vietnam, through Singapore!

So much for dry season.. half the days I was in Uluwatu, and probably half the days in Canggu delivered a reasonable amount of rain! That said, it's easy to make the most of it anyway. It's still warm enough to swim, and a morning walk involves getting a bit wet!. oh and on the hot days, I doubled-down on time in the sun, to maintain my tan ha ha. Fortunately the last 8 days straight have been brilliant!

So I spent plenty of time at the beach on this round. I loooove the deluxe lounge-chairs that can be hired for $50k (about $5.50 NZD) for a few hours. Another $25k will get you an icy cold young coconut - which has about 1 litre of juice in it!

All the people paying for surf lessons on a promise of being able to stand up and surf within the hour make for great entertainment. From what I saw, many of the adults only just make it before the deadline - while kids as young as 4 or 5 can nail it in the first two minutes 😆 I think that speaks to the mindset of a child, and their general lack of fear.

I went to the beach every night to watch the sunset for these last 10 days. The vibe down there at night is eclectic. So many people enjoying the warm evenings. Night swimming, night fishing, dining at beachfront restos under twinkling lights, watching the nightly firework display that lasts about a minute, or just basking in the changing light as the sunsets set the sky on fire.

The lights of the night market stalls right on the beach draw people close and the amazing smells from the cheap local cuisine (like the charred corn-on-the-cob!) - is hard to resist.

I split my last 10 days between 2 places - 5 days at Grandmas Plus Hotel Seminyak - Compact and Chic Style Hotel in Seminyak (grandmashotel.com) then Kubu De Uma, Seminyak – Updated 2023 Prices (booking.com) Grandmas won't be seeing me again. It was the noisiest hotel I've ever stayed in, and although on the face of it, it looked nice enough, on closer inspection it is in dire need of a spruce-up. The saving grace also turned out to be the worst feature.. they host live music in the downstairs bar every night of the week. There's no mention of it on the website, but I was immediately concerned when I checked in and was told "the live music plays until 11pm - please just ring reception if you would like earplugs" 😬 Night #1 - I decided if I couldn't beat it, I'd join it. Turns out the muso's that play Tuesdays were awesome and played banger after banger. I struck up a conversation with the singer and it was a good night. Nights 2 through 5 I bypassed the hotel airplugs and went straight for my Sony noise-cancelling headphones. Between the music and the constant sounds of the whistle-blowers directing the scooters and cars in the entrance directly below my room, the zero soundproofing meant no sleep until about midnight each night. Grandmas - it's a 'no' from me 🙅‍♀️Fortunately Kubu De Umu was quite the opposite. Tucked away off the road, it was a cosy homestay that I would highly recommend, and had me all rested up to take to the skies again!

I'm stoked with my decision to start my travel in Bali - and 2 months was the perfect amount of time for me. I achieved what I came here for. I've seen so many very different parts of this beautiful place, and I've settled into the solo-travel life easily, while hitting a few little personal health goals along the way. I'm ready to move on now and experience some other parts of the world - and feeling very grateful that I'm getting the opportunity to do all of this 🙏

Dining in Legian ...

Sunsets and sandy shores...