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12d (edited) • BEDFORD TO BALI
LAST FULL DAY AND I WENT ALL IN – FEAR, WATERFALLS, TEMPLES AND A DEAD ARSE FROM A MOTORBIKE
FEELING THE FEAR AND DOING IT ANYWAY
Today started off quite early actually. I slept amazing last night and it’s my last full day in Bali so I wanted to make the most of it and boy did I make the most of it.
I got up and went for breakfast in this beautiful little warung and they knew what I couldn’t eat already because I’d been there the day before, so it’s lovely and they’re so accommodating out here with dietary requirements and needs. They’ve been really amazing making sure that the food is both vegan and gluten-free with no potatoes because they’re my dietary needs, so it’s been really good having that knowing that I can go somewhere to eat and not feel like I’m having to really stress about the food or how it’s gonna affect me.
So anyway, back to it.
I had my breakfast, walked back to my accommodation and done a little bit of work, just checked in with a few things and mooched about because it was still really early.
Then my driver Wayan was picking me up at 9:30 to go on a bit of a sightseeing tour, so he asked if I wanted to go in the car or on the bike and I said bike, let’s just do it. I’m feeling the fear and doing it anyway. That’s been my motto while being here in Bali.
He turned up on his bike and off we went.
Initially I was a little bit shaky again because I’ve not been on a bike that much and he could tell that while I was on the back of the bike, so he said to me just take a deep breath and try and relax into it.
RICEFIELDS, RITUALS AND REMINDERS FROM THE EARTH
We drove out of Ubud and headed off to the rice fields. We went up to the terraces to start with. I didn’t do the swing and that because I know that Lily is gonna want to do it when we both come out, so I thought I’d leave that and just actually enjoy the view of where I was and take everything in.
Wayan was teaching me all about how the rice is harvested and the crops are done. He was also talking me through all the different plants and the different agriculture and showing me the people that were working on the rice fields and really telling me about the beautiful different parts of what the earth has given us, what nature has given us.
After spending some time at the rice fields and doing a little bit of the touristy thing and taking some pictures, which was more like I want to show Lily how absolutely astronomically beautiful this is, we came out of the rice fields and Wayan bought some Balinese cakes for me to try. Again, I will find the name of them and put them in.
They’re really surreal because they’re made with rice flour, so they’re different to the cakes that we use in the UK, but they were both really nice. One had palm sugar in it, so like coconut sugar, and the other one had banana in it. They were both lovely, absolutely beautiful.
COFFEE PLANTATIONS, LUWAK BEANS AND SAYING NO TO CAFFEINE
After that we headed off to the coffee plantation to go and have a look at how the coffee is made literally from start to finish, which was really cool.
We walked around there and learnt about the process and the luwak coffee which is made from basically there’s an animal called a luwak and it eats the berry of the coffee bean and then poops out the coffee bean itself, but it’s got a shell on it and then it gets cleaned and dried and it’s meant to taste amazing.
I’ve stopped drinking coffee so I didn’t actually taste it, but the smell of it, you could tell that it was so much stronger to normal coffee without it going through the digestive system of the luwak.
We sat on a terrace sampling the different teas, talking and enjoying the view again. We were overlooking rice fields and jungle and the size of some of the trees is just absolutely crazy. I don’t think I’ve ever seen trees that big. It’s mind-boggling but beautiful at the same time.
A TEMPLE THAT FELT LIKE PURE LOVE
We then left the coffee plantation and headed to a temple.
This was a very quiet temple. It was only me and Wayan there and it’s not a very touristy place, which I love. He knew that I didn’t want to go to the tourist traps and he taught me all about this temple and what it means. Again, I will have the details of the guy that created the temple and everything that kind of went with him.
But it felt like such a special place.
I could feel it when I was there. I could feel the calmness. I could feel the energy, but it was not chaotic energy. It was very much, I don’t even know how to describe it, but it was a very deep feeling energy of calmness and just pure love. I think that’s probably the only way that I can describe it.
We took some pictures and Wayan was messing around with the phones to try and make some really cool shots and he did, which I will share.
WATERFALLS, A MILLION STEPS AND SAYING NO TO THE INSTA CIRCUS
Then we jumped on the bike and headed off to one of the waterfalls.
He wanted to take me to the non-touristy one first, the one that’s less known, because he knew that I didn’t want to do the whole overcrowded thing with too many people.
There were so many fucking steps. Oh my God. The steps were absolutely crazy. I’ll have to check my tracker to see how much I walked because I walked a lot today.
We got to the waterfall and it was beautiful. Then the bit where I really wanted to go was absolutely ram packed with people, so Wayan and I looked at each other and I was like no, that’s not it.
So he took me to a different waterfall which was literally just five minutes up the road from where we were, which is like the Insta famous one where you see everybody doing amazing poses and stuff.
I went in the water, done a bit of a swim, stood in the waterfall and actually had a photo but not in the bit where everyone does the Insta shit. I done it in a very different bit which was cool.
The water was really refreshing and nice.
By the time we came out of there we’d been going for like seven hours.
NUMB ARSE, GOJEK DRAMA AND BALI BOHEMIA NIGHTS
We headed back on the bike. It took about 35 minutes to get back and by the time we got back my arse was dead. I had an absolute numb arse. I had to really shake it out when I got off the bike and Wayan was laughing his head off at me but he was doing the same thing because we’d literally been on and off the bike all day with a lot of steps in between.
I had plans to go out this evening to Bali Bohemia’s live music night so I needed to get back, get showered and sorted out, drop my stuff at Mimi’s and then get up to Bali Bohemia.
Gojek is becoming a bit of a theme. You’ll book something and somebody will confirm it and then decline it if they can’t be bothered or traffic’s too bad. I had four bikes confirm then decline and I was getting a little bit annoyed because we were up against time, but then my final bike came and I headed over to Mimi’s.
We met properly, I saw a bit of her place which is absolutely beautiful, sat and had a beer with her and then we walked up to Bali Bohemia.
Now this was, what a night.
It started off really slow and low vibe. Nobody was really getting up. The music was okay but it was very chilled.
Then it picked up. It picked up and it picked up.
There were a couple of intense really spiritual woo-woo songs in the mix, but that was cool. It was nice to listen to and probably a good thing to have in between the crazy jumping around dancing stuff.
I had a chickpea salad, was drinking beer, talking to everyone, getting to know people, listening to music and just having the best time.
It finished about 11:30-ish and I ordered a bike to go back to my villa and one of the guys that I’d met during the evening came over and was like cancel your bike, I’ll drop you off. I was like are you sure? I don’t wanna go out anywhere, I just want to go straight back to my villa. I’ve got a long day travelling tomorrow. He was like no it’s fine, honestly, I just want to make sure you get back safe.
That’s not something I’m doing in the UK. I wouldn’t just get on the back of a random stranger’s bike, but he wasn’t a random stranger. He knows my friend. He was introduced properly and I felt safe.
On the drive back we were just chatting away and he’s really excited that me and Lily are gonna come out and live in Bali. He works at a wellness place and wants us to go down and try it when we come back and wants to keep in touch.
And that’s actually how they are out here.
Everybody just wants to be your friend.
There’s so much love and gratitude for everybody and there’s just such a free feeling of everybody being connected. There isn’t any animosity or stress or aggression out here. It’s just so chilled out. It’s beautiful in every way.
I’m really sad to be going home tomorrow.
I’m looking forward to seeing the kids like I’ve said one million times, but the closer it comes the more
I’m feeling that I’m gonna be leaving a big part of me in Bali.
But I will be coming back to get it very soon. 💗
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LAST FULL DAY AND I WENT ALL IN – FEAR, WATERFALLS, TEMPLES AND A DEAD ARSE FROM A MOTORBIKE
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Documenting my journey: real, raw life as a neurodiverse mum. First solo trip to Bali 🏝️
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