So, left alone in Bali with over a week to kill…

The raving parties and testosterone filled areas of Kuta and Seminyak where not my cup of tea… although the easy access to western fast food was a joy! I think I ate 6 pizzas in 3 days, on top of that burgers and fried chicken. I even found a place that sells fried chicken skin… I was in deep fried and covered in cheese heaven.

But…My guilt of spending my days in one of the most coveted islands paradises of the world eating pizza and playing video games by the pool finally got to me and I set of for an adventure.

I learned how to strap my luggage to a scooter, rented it for a week and set off to tour the island, driving for a phew hours in the day and stopping at the various dotted sights that my guide screamed at me I should see. By night I would have found a nice place to stay and settled in to rest to repeat the same the next day.

The roads where crazy here but I got used to the fast pace and at first glance what seemed chaotic formations the hordes of scooters took. By day 2 I was buzzing along as head of the pack and by this point I had broken free of the condensed tourist areas and was in the more open countryside that Bali had to offer.

The beaches where plentiful as where the temples and rice fields, driving for hours at a time, other than making my ass feel like minced meat gave me a lot of time to think. To reflect on the trip and to centre my self again.

The most dramatic section would be the drive up the volcano, extinct I should add…. or hope, where the crater now hosts a huge lake with even a island temple inside. The drive up these hills and around the rim was spectacular and dotted along the road were the most breathtaking views and these little shambled half tables on stilts that afford a cheap meal but a valuable view. It was breathtaking and the temperature drop at the higher altitudes where welcomed.

As with most of the trip so far I rediscovered that the places I read about that sound great and I will love fall short i build them up in my imagination too much I think, but the places I had no idea existed or seemed like footnotes became the stars of my show.

Before coming to Bali I had my doubts about the place, the popularity of it made me sceptical… my inner hipster cried foulplay! But once you escape the tourist cesspool and get off the beaten path you can see what made it so popular to begin with.