Bali

So I was kinda treating doing solo travel as taking medicine that I had to consume but wouldn't enjoy but turns out I am dumb and Bali was a dream. Take me to hospital and hook me up to a drip of that sweet medicine stat.

Before I left someone told me that solo travel is their fave because whenever something happens and you have to decide what to do it's kinda like being in The Office and looking straight at the camera cos you have literally no one else to ask, and that's so true. It's so fun to be totally untied to anything and forced to work out when you want to eat, what you want to do, etc. I barely went on my phone even, just recharged my little brain and bopped about.

I spent a week (+2 unplanned days, long story, I guess something had to go wrong somewhere) in Canggu at a surf/yoga/vibes camp. Feel like I could have spent like 2 months there it's so chill. Leaving is good though because I am so beat up - I don't think there is a single square inch of my body that doesn't have either a fat bruise, a mozzy bite, or a gnarly tan line.

Canggu the town itself is like the insta capital of Bali. The main strip is kind of a haunting melting pot of roided up dudes and heavily plastic surgeried Russian influencers. This was pretty easy to avoid though and Canggu was filled with really cool shit when you worked out where to go.

The camp itself was such a gorgeous spot to hang so I spent a lot of time there, so much nature with varying degrees of chill - lizards, geckos (I can't tell the difference but I got corrected a lot), cows, cats, bats, spiders. In hindsight very witch's stew as a combo.

The surfing

Surfing is so fun I just want to snap my fingers and be a really cool iconic surfer but unfortunately that's hard work, ugh. Having a week to do it meant I could properly get my head into it in a way I have never managed when having a single lesson for a couple hours then giving up.

We headed out surfing at like 7am each day and spent a few hours in the waves (and sometimes a few hours in mental Bali traffic depending on the tide and conditions). Bali is like insanely gorgeous for surfing because the water is like beautiful blue soup. Warm enough that you don't flinch at all, but also so fresh compared to the beach, I could stay in all day.

I am now quite aware that the hardest part of surfing is not the surfing but the getting to the bit where you can surf. After graduating beginner I was feeling pretty legendary about my ability to stand up and I figured intermediate would be the same but more swag. It turns out it is a relentless amount of being crashed about in sea water washing machines whilst you try to get out further than the waves breaking. Truly quite an undignified vibe when you have been tipped upside down a few times. Spent a medium amount of time on my board waiting to get killed by another wave telling myself to buckle up and be a legend. It's kinda depressing to know that to improve at something you have to stop being phased by water up your nose and get better at paddling, but I think I'll try it again. Ending the lesson with a fresh coconut on the beach really sorts you out every time and makes you think it was all just fun and games.

We watched Point Break on one of the evenings and I think I am yet to channel Keanu Reaves being a very hot but entirely brainless and wooden Johnny Utah. Silly movie.

The rest of the agenda

Alongside the surfing I did a little sampling of other items, reviews below:

Yoga: I thought I liked a bit of Yoga as much as the next person, but I learnt that I truly could not yoga retreat. Fun for a few days, and then I realised that being slow and quiet that regularly for that long is too hard work for me (probably exactly why I should do it) but I opted to have more fun instead. Also not helped by one of the guests being a 60 yr old Belgian yoga teacher who could fold like a pretzel, like stop showing off dude.

Aerial yoga: Okay but when they add swings and ropes yoga is SO FUN. I did a session of this and literally died it was so cool. Favourite part was the shavasana at the end where you are fully suspended floating in the air and she gives you a swing, never been so relaxed.

Skateboarding: After deciding the yoga wasn't quite stimulating enough I found a skateboard and somewhat relentlessly practiced. Got some good wiggles going, it's not so different from surfing but falling is a lil scarier.

Massage: omg Balinese massage is mental it costs like 10 quid for an hour and you walk out literally floating. Heavenly shit, especially the head.

The silly vibes

My favourite thing about the trip was just all the gorgeous people I met and hung out with doing silly shit! Was so nice to travel solo but hang out with so many interesting people, like truly feeling warm and toasty in the heart. Some items that stand out:

The wild variety of people

The other guests So there were about 10 other people at the camp who rotated in and out during my time there. It was a really diverse mix of energy which was funny to observe and be part of. To describe a few of the characters, we had:

1. A Californian car dealership owner dad and his 18 son who was insanely good at long boarding and JACKED. Made you feel extra bad at surfing at the weekly video analysis session where everyone gathers round and watches each other's technique. He was deffo Johnny Utah energy.
2. A few 20 year old euro party girls who were having various dramas about the rooms they were sharing with people. For some reason every side of the drama was constantly explaining their perspective to me. Maybe it's the same energy that makes people sit next to me on trains when there are empty seats.
3. A 22 yr old German couple who really wanted the euro party girls to like them, but they were just so German. Asked to borrow a tiny bit of their massive pot of zinc (the really blocky sun cream that u wear for surfing) and they were so German about it and said no so I got my nose burnt. Wankers.
4. 2 60 year old Belgian friends - a very grumpy yoga teacher who hated aircon so much he denied it of everyone else, and his friend who was doing up a monastery for the past 20 years so students could live in it. They were quite legendary surfing for the first time.
5. (My favourites) a 26 yr old Flemish couple who were living in Sydney for a couple years. She was a midwife and she was such warm and fun energy. She had iconic stories about mums playing techno during birth and someone naming their baby Pikachu. They were super up for hanging out and chatting shit a lot - I think Flemish people are actually so similar to chill UK fun energy, they were just like silly legends.

The instructors I ended up spending a load of time chilling with the Indonesian surfing instructors also - they were super fun and silly (and definitely more so than some of the guests). Because the camp itself is so relaxed everyone tends to just hang out there and chat shit and it was such a nice energy to absorb. Was super lovely to learn more about them and Indonesia and Bali in contrast to the super touristy bits of Canggu. I have learnt actually quite a large number of fun Indonesian words. Bagus sekali.

They all have such wild and interesting stories of growing up in different places, making palm oil, illegally panning for gold, hunting pythons, raising cows (one of them had a cow that they named Brody which for some reason I'm obsessed with as a cow name). Other highlights include tales of police bribes where you take 5 policemen out for a nice lunch to get out of a fine.

Everyone from Indonesia is also like literally non stop chain smoking. The tobacco industry is literally insane there. Vapes only for tourists, everyone else on the real shit. I did sample my first clove flavoured cigarette which was a fun combo.

I also accrued various Indonesian nicknames across the week, highlights were Mozzy (short for mozzarella bc they thought my name sounded like that), Bintang (I thought it was after the local beer but it also means star) and Martabak (a sweet Indonesian snack).

Music

So my most favourite thing about the trip was how much they all love music and just jamming all the time. Playing music together is actually just such a magical vibe I haven't done it in such a long time. Makes me want to learn guitar again until I remember that it's difficult and you can't have fun nails.

They have a few guitars, and this drum box that you sit on and tap in different places which was actually so fun.

So mostly all my evenings involved lying on a rug on the grass, whilst bats swooped about jamming to a really funny combo of songs. We've got Country Roads to Rod Stewart to Blink 182 to Ed Sheeran to Bob Marley. But actually any song live sounds so nice that you kinda lose the Ed Sheeran ick (at least slightly).

The funny songs appear everywhere also. A lot of my days included a 40 minute drive on the back on one of the instructor's scooters due to lack of car room. This was kinda a blessing though because it meant I got the wind in my hair instead of sitting in the car with the enforced lack of aircon. All of these journeys involved the driver singing the entire way back, but specifically Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton 7x in a row, oof.

Arry Pottah

One of the funniest things about the surf instructors was how hilarious they found my British accent. They hang out with a big variety of accents, but clearly they love to practice a British one the most. But it wasn't like a shit posh impression like when American's do it, it was literally just my voice.

They literally constantly say Arry Pottah, reeeeallaaayy, actchalleeey, litralleeyy, that's so funneehhyyyy and giggle about it. It was so jokes I simply love to be roasted.

Sambal era

So the final agenda item is the food.

I ate a lottttt of fresh juicy fruit, specifically the dragon fruit, pineapple and mango is crazy good out there. Fruit is actually one of my fave things about travelling it's just so GOOD when it's actually ripe and fresh and in a country where it grows normally, fuck.

I also tried a lot of fun Indonesian food by realising the best technique was to copy whatever the instructors ordered (Bali belly risked but I did not succumb). Everything was a really tasty combo of salty and crunchy and savoury, a lot of fun pastry or fried snack vibes, and a lot of fun sauces.

I literally cannot stress enough how mentally spicy people like their food there though. Whatever you order comes with sambal on the side, which is this kinda sour garlicky chilli sauce. It's hotter than the hottest hot sauce Max has at ours, which are hot enough that I'd just do some little dabs of those on a meal. Half the euro people can't touch it, I'm eating like a couple 50p piece sizes throughout the entire meal, and then the Indonesian dudes are having like 2 bags of it, they are built different. They all say that they are small but spicy, kinda like what they say about Sichuan girls.

Also funny shoutout to their rule that you have to finish your rice because if you don't it cries because its friends are already in your belly. Lmao.

Over and out

Bali completed - has been a super fun leg and for sure made me realise that I wanna do some more solo travelling, and maybe a little more surfing if I somehow lock in and become more legendary.

It's been sooo nice, feeling very grateful to have hung out with such fun and lovely people and mega brain recharged after more hectic travel for the first month.

Next up is Korea with my mum, will see ya there.