Short Vacation in Bali in Nov. 2017
November 23rd in 2017 was a national holiday in Japan. I didn’t really know what I was supposed to do that day but it’s called Labor Thanksgiving Day. As I was a worker in Japan, I thought I should appreciate my work, so I flew myself to Bali. The weather wasn’t at its best, but I had a great time chilling with people I met there.
Taken from a Uber/Grab
Tokyo (HND) to Bali (DPS) via Manila
I was supposed to wake up at 7:30 but I knew it wouldn’t happen and woke up at 10:00. I was quite behind the schedule but I knew there’s not much to pack so I just ate some bananas, 2 blocks of tofu, pack my stuff and took a shower. Then I found out that I’m flying out of Haneda so it’s ok enough to leave my place at 12:00 and made it to the gate by 14:00. Everything went fine.
A short layover in Manila and got to Denpasar airport in Bali at 25:30, which was a bit later than it was planned. Also there was a long line of people waiting to go through customs and by the time I got out it was already past 26:00.
On My Way to CS Host’s…
I exchanged €50 and contacted my Couchsurfing host. Luckily she was still awake and told me she could still host me so I got on Uber. It was raining heavily but meh. I got around her place around 27:00 but the problems were:
- My host isn’t replying.
- I don’t know where exactly her place is.
- It’s raining horribly heavy.
I didn’t have a sim card and didn’t talk to her while I was on Uber. The Uber driver then gave me WiFi hotspot because he was nice and wanted to get rid of me asap. I waited for a while but there was no response from her. Well it was already 27:00 so I understood if she was already asleep.
I thought of knocking on random doors but meh it wasn’t a good idea. It’s important to know where exactly you’re meeting your host and that your host is awake if you arrive late at night.
Uber Driver Took Me to a Hostel
As it was raining heavily and my host seemed to be already asleep, I asked the driver to get me to a hostel. With Uber and the hostel, I already used 2/3 of my €50 (300,000 for the driver and 200,000 for the hotel), but I didn’t have to spend the night outside in heavy rain.
The next morning I asked a receptionist about WiFi but she said there’s no WiFi. Another receptionist I talked to the night before told me there was WiFi and she’d tell me the password later, but she was gone so I decided to walk closer to my host’s house.
On the way to my host’s place
At a Cafe Near My Host’s
I found a cafe with WiFi so I got inside, got coffee and breakfast and I told my host where I was. It seemed like she had replied to me right after I was heading to the hostel so what I needed last night was just a bit more of patience. The food at the cafe was pretty good.
Breakfast. Hmm so good.
My host came to the cafe later with her scooter. We went to her place and her another guest from the UK came back from a barber so we left her place for Ulun Danu Bratan.
The temple looked way bigger in pictures I had seen but the place was nice.
Not so big gate 
Ulun Danu Bratan 
Not as big as I thought but it was still nice
What Not to Do When Feeding Monkeys…
Then we went to the monkey mountain where I fed them bananas. Small monkeys were aggressive and ill-mannered so I didn’t really like them but the big one was quite chill.
However, I learned that I shouldn’t make a long eye contact with them. I did make a long eye contact twice and I felt the monkeys were getting a bit hostile. Oh well I’m happy nothing happened.
The big one. Quite chill but you can’t make a long eye contact.
We were also going to waterfalls but we decided not to because the weather got worse. We grabbed some beers and snacks and we drank it on the way back
Bali Hai Premium Lager
Rumor: the Bar
We came back to the host’s and drank at the rooftop until 22:00. There were 10+ people in the building and people there were pretty chill.
Then we headed to this bar called the Rumors which was nice. I tried the Irish Coffee, which is a coffee with vodka. Also we had 2 bottles of Smirnoff which seemed quite weak so we finished them and headed to a beach party where I did 2 backflips. It was fun and nice. We came back somewhere between 27:00 and 28:00.
My Last Night at a Villa
On my last day we headed to a villa that my host’s another guest booked. The villa was pretty nice and cozy. We ate, drank and just chilled with music. That was legit chilling with people just being there and enjoying each other’s company. I needed to catch my flight to Tokyo but I almost postponed it because I enjoyed it there so much… Almost.
I almost postponed my flight… Almost.
Volcano Erupted When I Was Flying
When I came back to Tokyo, I heard a volcano in Bali had erupted and the airport I flew out of had been shut down since then.
That means that if I had postponed my flight to Tokyo I could have been happily stuck there for 3-4 more days there. The area I stayed and people I hung out with didn’t get affected at all so maybe I really should have postponed my flight.
My last beer in Bali
People in Bali were quite chill and easy to hang out with. I learned how to chill with people with drink and music, and I’d love to book a villa to do just so with random people sometimes.
My trip there was quite short so I’d stay there longer next time.