Bali, Indonesia

Bali is a small island located in Indonesia

After a few days of falling in love with Kuala Lumpur, Emiliya and I headed south of the equator to Bali, Indonesia. My major bucket list item for Indonesia was the Gili Islands, which are located east of Bali, so it seemed necessary to at least take a few days to explore the much-loved island of Bali along the way. Bali got it's claim to fame after Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love hit the shelves in 2006. The book tells the true story of Elizabeth Gilbert as she travels the world in search of herself after recently ending her marriage, along the way she stops in Italy, India and ends her year of travel in Bali, Indonesia. Known for it's "soul-searching" aspect, Bali is home to yoga retreats, medicine men and is rumored to have more temples than homes. Gilbert finds true happiness and love while in Bali, and as a result there has been a huge increase in travel to this part of the world ever since her book hit the New York Time's best seller list. A typical trip to Bali usually includes yoga retreats, temple visits and general detox from the world.

Front entrance to our hostel

I, however, had different plans for my quick visit to Bali. I've never found myself to be much of a spiritual person, and personally I don't feel that I need to do any soul searching. For me, Bali was a nice vacation lounging by the pool and enjoying delicious (and cheap) food. With no real plans it was easy to just relax and talk to the other backpackers and travelers staying at our hostel. Each day we took to the streets, strolling along in search of cute boutiques, souvenirs and gelato. Our hostel itself was an awesome experience to be a part of. It reminded me much more of a resort as opposed to a hostel and the area took up a large portion of land with many different buildings. There were hammocks hung up in the shade, koi ponds filled with fish, bamboo huts for taking naps, bookshelves everywhere, and plenty of rooms for sleeping.

The pool area of our hostel

Talking with some of the other travelers at our hostel, it became evident that a trip to Bali isn't complete without a trek to the top of Mt. Batur for sunrise, so without even questioning it we quickly found ourselves handing over $23 and agreeing to a 2am pickup for the next morning. Mt. Batur is an active volcano located on the island of Bali and it has an amazing overlook to a lake and other mountains. Everyone was right when they said it's a popular thing to do in Bali, from our hostel alone we had 9 people going, and our entire hike up the mountain you could look down in the dark and see a steady stream of hikers lighting their way with flashlights. The day before our hike there were numerous people complaining about their sore muscles and sleeping away their exhaustion, so I built it up in my head as a pretty challenging endeavor. Fortunately my mind played tricks on me and the reality of the hike wasn't nearly as bad as I had feared. The two hour hike was in no way easy, but it helped that it was still the middle of the night when we started the climb, so the chilly mountain air felt refreshing as we hauled ourselves up. While waiting for the sunrise we got a filling breakfast and got time to talk with our fellow hikers and then we all watched together as the sun slowly peeked through the clouds and lit up the lake below us. It was definitely a site worth seeing and I would advise it to anyone who finds themselves in Bali!

Sunrise from the top of Mt. Batu 

On our way back to the hostel we all fell asleep within minutes of leaving the parking lot, only to be woken up 30 minutes later when we arrived at a coffee plantation. We were all exhausted, but the promise of free coffee was enough to get us out of the car. Bali is famous for their coffee plantations, and no one seems to know just how many there are, instead they just know that there are a lot. We got a quick tour of the area and saw how the coffee beans are grown, and then we got to sit down for a sample of five coffees and two teas. I'm proud to say that after 24 years on this earth I have finally found a tea that I like! Lemongrass tea! Lemongrass is an ingredient used all over Asia, especially in Thailand, and it's a scent that I quickly fell in love with, but I never thought to try the tea. I found my way to the tiny shop at the coffee plantation to buy myself some lemongrass tea to take home, and I hope I'll be able to find more once I finish my first batch.

Coffee and tea sampling at the coffee plantation

Cloudy sites as we made our way down the volcano

After our eventful morning of trekking and coffee sampling we made it back to our hostel where I took the deepest nap I've ever experienced. Three hours of sleep followed by way too much physical activity leaves me pretty useless. We spent the rest of our day swimming and eating and then settled in for our last night in Bali. Next up: Gili Islands!

________________________________________________________________________________

Logistical Info

- We stayed at In Da Lodge Hostel for $9/night. It's in a good location in Ubud and is a very popular hostel for the area.

- Ubud is located about an hour from the Bali airport and a taxi ride was around $30 one way.

- Meals and living are very cheap in Indonesia. A meal including appetizers and drinks is usually only around $5.

- Most hostels and hotels are in touch with tour companies for Mt. Batur and they'll include pick-up and drop-off at your accommodations. The tour is $23 and includes transportation, numerous guides on the hike (in case your group gets split up due to speed), breakfast, entrance and sampling at the coffee plantation.
- We booked our transportation to Gili Islands from our hostel. It was $45 for a roundtrip van (to the ferry docks) and ferry ride. The return can be to your previous residence in Bali, or somewhere else on the island.

Koh Tao

Koh Samui and Koh Tao are located in the souther
region of Thailand, in the Gulf of Thailand

While my sister and her friends were visiting we set aside a week to relax on some of the islands in the south of Thailand. We started off on the larger island of Koh Samui and after relaxing there for a few days we decided to mix it up a little and head north to the smaller island of Koh Tao.
Because Koh Tao is so much smaller we felt it was easier to see and do all of the popular things. There's one main footpath that stretches along the west coast of the island, making the whole area easily accessible. On this route we were able to find a new restaurant for every meal, plenty of coffee shops, good bars, souvenir shops and taxi boats to smaller islands and beaches nearby.
As always, our plans for our islands adventures were very minimal: get massages, eat good food, get some sun. All of those were easy to accomplish during our time in Koh Tao.
Although we basically had the same goals on Koh Samui I enjoyed our time on Koh Tao much better. It's a smaller island with many more backpackers, as opposed to the families that Koh Samui attracts.

On a longtail boat with my sister and her friends, and some
fellow English teachers

During our first full day on Koh Tao we hired a longtail boat to Sai Nuan beach, which is still on the island of Koh Tao but is kind of difficult to get to by land. We had a full boat headed to the beach and we each paid around $6 for roundtrip transportation. We chose to go to this beach because we figured it would be more secluded and quieter than going to the main strip of beach, and we were right! It was just our group and about ten other people who had the whole bay to ourselves. There was a resort located relatively close to where we camped out, so we were able to rent snorkels from them for around $3.

Relaxing on Sai Nuan beach

View from the overlook on Koh Nang Yuan 

The next day was our big expedition of the trip, we hired a longtail boat to take us to the small neighboring island of Koh Nang Yuan. It's technically three small islands joined together by a sandbar and it's most known for it's awesome overlook, which is exactly why we came. As soon as we set foot onto the island we figured out which way the overlook was and began the strenuous climb to the top. In decent weather and hangover-free it would be an average uphill climb, however, it was pushing 100 degrees and a bar crawl the evening before left us feeling far from athletic, so it was definitely a struggle for us to reach the top. The view from the top was worth it, but I don't think it's anything I'd be jumping to do again soon. Koh Nang Yuan is a small island with limited beach space, so we went in for a dip to cool off after our hike, but then took our boat back to Koh Tao to enjoy shade,

air conditioning and more spacious beaches. 

Thais excel at drag shows

The rest of our time on Koh Tao was uneventful but as blissful as an island vacation can be. We drank out of coconuts, indulged in endless cups of coffee, ate Thai food, snorkeled and participated in the previously mentioned bar crawl. We mainly wanted to do the bar crawl for the free tank top but ended up having a lot of fun while participating. The highlight of the evening was our stop at a ladyboy bar where we enjoyed one of Thailand's infamous drag shows.

Koh Tao pub crawl with Lexi and Sam, two fellow
English teachers, and Sam's friend, Lauren, visiting
from the States 

Getting fish pedicures! These little guys eat off all of
the dead skin on your feet (if you can sit still long enough!) 

Overall I would say that the Thai islands live up to their hype, and we didn't even visit some of the most popular ones! On my next trip to Thailand I would love to explore some of the islands on the west coast of Thailand. After our week of ocean and sun we flew back north to Bangkok for a few days of city life before my sister and her friends flew back to wintery Ohio.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Logistical Info

- Koh Nang Yuan is privately owned and therefore has a few more rules than a typical island. We paid 200 baht each for our longtail boat ($6) and then had to pay a 100 baht ($3) entry fee onto the island. All plastic water bottles are confiscated upon arrival, so if you don't want to overpay for water at the restaurant then you should bring a reusable water, which they'll let you enter the island with.
The island and beaches are slowly eroding away and because of that they're very protective of the sand there. As a result, you're not allowed to lay on the beach with your towel, because towels collect the sand and too many people end up taking sand away with them. Your options are to rent a chair for the day (but they fill up fast) or lay on the sand bare. Because of the limited laying options and limited shade we didn't stay on the island for too long, we mainly just did the hike, had some snacks and then went back to Koh Tao.
- We stayed at AC 2 Resort which was around $45/night. It was nice to get out of the hostels for a couple of nights but I wasn't blown away by the quality of our stay. I think there are cheaper or better options when it comes to bungalows or resorts on the island.
- To get to Koh Tao from Samui we booked a taxi and ferry through our hostel on Samui. It was 750 baht ($22) and we still had to pay for a taxi once we got to Koh Tao to get to our hotel, which was another $4.
- From Koh Tao we took a ferry to the mainland to Chumphom, and flew from there to Bangkok. That ferry was 600 baht ($17). That included our ferry and bus to the airport.- There are numerous overnight buses and even ferries that go from Bangkok to the islands. These are much cheaper than flying.