I’d seen so many pictures and had heard so much about Bali, I couldn’t wait to check it out for myself and see what all the hype is about. Also, we were lucky our friends Patri and Luis were joining us for the adventure. Traveling for so long it’s really nice to meet old friends along the way.

 

We spent the first days in Ubud, the capital of rice fields and yoga pants. Although it rained quite a bit on us we enjoyed strolling around visiting temples, rice fields and embracing the vibe in this town in the middle of the island. The special hindu culture of this place is quite singular, with incense, flowers and food offerings all over the streets. Each house has its very own tiny temple and local devotees dress up for evening ceremonies carrying trays of offerings.

 

Traveling south we checked out the Uluwatu area. Sea cliffs with majestic views, temples and surf breaks. You can see the Uluwatu point from the main temple which has daily performances of the typical Balinese dances. The chak chak dance was quite a show with 40 monkey-men singing a cappella and performing a part of the hindu Ramayana book. I enjoyed seeing their interpretation of the god Hanuman.

 

Last stop with our friends was Nusa Lembongan, a small island in the south with beautiful beaches and nice cafes. We found an awesome surf break with a cliff view in the neighboring island of Nusa Ceningan which you can access with a motorbike crossing a narrow yellow bridge.

 

A boat took us towards the Gili Islands as we passed by the volcano eruption of Mt. Agnung in Bali. It was quite a show to see the thick clouds of ash blowing up high into the air—a good reminder of the power of mother nature. Many flights got cancelled but our friends were lucky to make it out. For us, being stranded along these islands was not really a problem.

 

Gili Air was our pick out of the 3 Gilis. We loved this little island, with no cars and way less people than usual due to the volcano situation. Cycling around the island, stopping for dips and seeing the sunset from beach bean bags is the thing to do. Some of the food options were also delicious. We did some diving in a couple spots and saw so many turtles that would swim all around us. The corals, many types of fish and even baby reef sharks made our visit worth it.

 

But if you ask me what was my favorite place, I will say definitely Lombok. This muslim island east of Bali is much less touristy and the surf breaks near Kuta, in the south of the island attract mainly the young surfer/yoga crew. The beaches are beautiful and the scenery is so green with tall palm trees everywhere. Bali must have been really similar twenty years ago. We stayed here longer so we got to meet really nice people and surfed daily in some of the reef breaks where local fishermen take you out on their boats. Surfing with the local kids is really a life lesson to just have fun, laugh and enjoy the waves—joy was the most valuable surfing skill they taught me.

 

Diving has been a new hobby/obsession we are very fond of and love exploring the underwater world. So we embarked in yet another adventure in the neighbor island of Flores and took a live-aboard boat out to the Komodo Islands for a 3-day diving experience. We would basically wake up around 6am start the day with a dive. Two or three more dives would follow per day—even did our first night dive which I personally loved. We’d previously heard Komodo was a pretty advanced dive location and I now understand why: anchoring to the bottom in strong drift dives while 4 meter long manta rays fly over you is one of the craziest things I’ve done in my life. Manta rays are like Star Wars spaceships, literally reminding you of how real life is better than fiction if you’re willing to go see it for yourself. The fluorescent colors of squids at night are also incredible, no need to get high with trips like these.

 

Komodo is an incredible place, with beautiful hikes and home to the famous Komodo dragons, the largest lizards on this planet.

 

Island hopping is the thing to do in this country with over 18,000 different ones. Even though we spent a month here, we wish we would have had much more time to explore so many other places that this incredible country has to offer. We’ll be back Indonesia, eres demasiado lindo!