Going into this I was curious to see if Bali was going to live up to the hype surrounding it. I knew it as the Aussie Cancun, which is not necessarily a good thing. This was a super shitty attitude going into it now in retrospect. Bali is such a unique place with its own culture and customs that are unlike any in the world. But at the time I didn’t know that.

We left Vietnam and flew to Kuala Lumpur. I upgraded our flights to business class from KL to Bali because it was so cheap. I recommend always doing this when the opportunity presents itself. We were the only people up front, and we quickly built a rapport with the attendant, who was supper friendly and pouring copious amounts of bubbly.

Here’s why you always upgrade. Because when weird things happen you really get your money’s worth. Due to the airport being way too busy, we had to circle for over an extra hour before we could land. When I say our server poured up tow and half bottles of brut, I’m not exaggerating.

We finally land in a sea of tank top clad tourists at the airport in Denpasar. After waiting for a fairly long time for my bag (the carousel had stop moving) I go to the baggage desk and discover my bag went to Singapore. Maybe this is a fuck you for drinking all their sparkling wine? Could be worse with Air Malaysia. At least we didn’t disappear over the India Ocean. Too soon?

We soldiered on to Canggu (fortunately Ally’s bags arrived) to check in. Our hotel was a nice little villa/room thingy which cost $30/night. It was in the centre of Canggu, which is a town known for it’s world class surfing, avocado toast, yoga studios, and white people with dreadlocks.

It’s a great little spot with volcanic black sand beaches, cool cafes, and nice little weekend market where I replenished my clothing supply.

I enjoyed our time here, and just as we decided to move to our next Airbnb my bag showed up! Delivered right to the hotel. I had written it off after several days of being MIA.

Our next stay was really I really started to see the beauty of Balinese culture. We moved outside the tourist area and into a small fishing village where an architect from Jakarta had built his dream home. It may seem kind of fucked up for me to say “this is where I saw culture” since it cost $150/night, roughly three months rent for the average local, but it’s true. There were no foreigners around. People in the village would leave gifts for their god outside their front doors every morning, which would include everything from a beautiful bouquet of flours to a slaughtered rooster. The villa was built backing on to protected rice fields, so they will never be developed. You could walked through the fields and stare at the volcano in the distance that had given the soil its fertility. No offence Cancun but this was much better.

Speaking of the villa, it was mind blowing. Private plunge pool, outdoor kitchen/lounge area, indoor bedroom, outdoor bathroom (the last bit is definitely a novelty). There were no grocery stores in the village but the Villa staffed cooked all meals for a reasonable price and brought them to your dining area. It was rainy season so we would sit and watch the lightning as we ate supper in the evening. Magical.

The villa also arranged a driver for us one day to take us to Ubud. Next time in Bali I think I’d like to stay in this small jungle town. It has a completely different vibe from the coast which was refreshing. Just watch the monkey before they steal your iPhone.

While it seems like a super pretentious thing to stay at an expensive villa, I recommend getting out of the centre of Bali and doing just that. This villa supports the entire village and really goes a long way because they don’t see as many tourists as Denpasar and Canggu. I made sure to tip a lot because I know it really makes a difference.

Bali is actually charming and I’d love to come back and explore more of the island sometime.