Bali

Fulbright created a spectacular contract for their ETAs. In Korea, students have a winter vacation from school during the months of January and February. The new school year starts in March. The ETA contract states that despite the school’s vacation schedule, all ETAs must be free from their teaching duties from December 22nd until March 2nd. Our contract also states that we can travel outside of Korea for a maximum of twenty-eight days during our grant year. After traveling home, I had plans to travel with my friend Kelly to some spots in Southeast Asia. When I returned to Korea from America, I had just enough time to unpack, catch up on sleep and do my laundry before leaving again.

Kelly and I planned portions of our trip before we left, but allowed for flexibility in our travels. Our trip started with an early morning flight from Incheon, so we slept at the airport spa the night before we left. Kelly was a seasoned veteran at sleeping at the airport spa, but it was my first time. For about $25 dollars we were led into a private room with two massage tables. In typical Korean spa fashion, we were given a set of pajamas to wear and provided with a towel and pillow. It was sort of silly sleeping on the tables trying to keep our heads out of the holes designed for the massage, but it was super convenient to be at the check-in desk within fifteen minutes of waking up.



Check-in was a breeze and after grabbing spaghetti for breakfast (there are not many traditional breakfast options in Korea) we were on our way to Singapore. Our first stop for the trip was the island of Bali in Indonesia. From Singapore we had another two hour flight to Bali. At the Changi International airport in Singapore I called our hotel in Bali to see where we would be meeting the van we set up for airport pick-up. The hotel not so kindly informed me that they were overbooked and cancelled our reservation. I have still yet to receive the e-mail that they claim they sent to inform me of this cancellation. Oh Crap. Kelly and I were heading to Bali, due to arrive after 11pm and had no place to stay. This was exactly the situation that I was trying to avoid by booking an airport pick-up at an overpriced hotel for the first night. Things only got worse when I asked the overbooked hotel for a recommendation of another place to stay for the night and the customs agent in Bali laughed when we mentioned the new hotel. Shortly after that while I was admiring my new shiny Indonesian visa, Kelly saw a sign that said that Indonesia enforces the death penalty for anyone carrying illegal drugs. Now, to a girl that has never done a drug in her life, this sign should not have bothered Kelly. I was wrong assuming that and she was immediately concerned about someone planting drugs in our bags without us knowing. I’m not going to lie, she even had me worked up over it.

So there we were, two young Caucasian girls with one huge suitcase headed to a taxi stand without a destination. I picked one of the towns from our travel book that said there are many hotels where you can walk up book a room, found a taxi and prepaid for our ride to Kuta. While I was browsing through the book, Kelly met a guy from our plane. He was a surfer from New Zealand and was also going to Kuta. Figuring he might be able to help us, we allowed him to share our taxi and picked his brain about the area during the taxi ride. He had been to Bali before, but when the taxi dropped us off on the wrong street, our new friend had to make a guess at which direction we needed to walk to get to hotels. Kelly and I gripped our bags tightly and walked down some really creepy, dark streets. The next day we discovered we were passing though a big market in Kuta, but at night the market was just a bunch of empty stalls all in a row on a street without any lights. When we turned a corner, saw three girls walking out of a hotel with a security guard Kelly and without saying a word Kelly and I knew this is where we would stay. We departed from our New Zealand tour guide and walked inside. The Bounty Hotel turned out to be a huge destination for young Australian party-goers. One guy sort of gawked at Kelly when she told him she was a twenty-four year old teacher. He also told her that we were the only Americans he had ever seen at the hotel before.



The hotel itself turned out to be fine. It had a pretty pool and a free breakfast buffet. Our first morning at the Bounty, we put on our bathing suites, lathered up with SPF 70 and headed to the beach. We couldn’t figure out why no one else was walking to the beach, but we quickly learned. We arrived to the beach and were greeted with signs saying that the water was dangerous because of rip tides. As we walked down the beach to find the “pretty” part we were quickly disappointed. Not only were we walking through sand filled with trash, but also there were huge piles of trash all along the sides of the beach and locals haggling us to buy anything and everything they were selling.

We eventually settled in two overpriced chairs. Kelly and I knew that we would not be staying here another day. At least we had our books. We spent the day getting a little bit of sun and reading. That night we went online and booked a new hotel for the rest of our stay in Bali. Our guidebook called the new beach, Nusa Dua, a bit sterile, a quiet destination and perfect for honeymooners. When I was checking out of the Bounty the man behind the desk laughed when I told him where we were going. He said it was a bit boring. I told him that’s exactly what we were looking for. We spent our last few hours in Kuta walking through the markets and shopping, which is what our guidebook said Kuta is best known for. The market and little shops were definitely the best part of our time in Kuta.



Kelly and I spent the rest of our week swimming in the ocean, reading books, and eating delicious Balinese food. For two nights we met up with our friends Josh and Kate. It was fun to have them around to join us for dinner at the beach restaurant while we watched the sunset and listened to the quartet that played music each night on the beach.





Kelly and I saw two weddings on the beach that week and were completely outnumbered by couples, but we didn’t mind. We knew that the more adventurous part of our trip lied ahead in Thailand and we relished in relaxation while we could. At the end of the week we gave such a great review to the hotel that they have asked us to be on their testimonial page. I can honestly day that our week in Bali was one the best weeks of my life. We left excited for the next portion of our trip, Singapore and Thailand.