Our flight from the north of Sumatra took a stop in Malaysia. This was the perfect visa run! We literally left the country of Indonesia, entered Malaysia through Kuala Lumpur and then went through immigration in Bali for Indonesia again. Our visa was almost expired and through this we have thirty days again. When we landed we were surprised how different Bali is. First of all the tourism. We went from the few travelers of Sumatra to one of the nine million people that visit Bali every year. Second is the Hindu culture. The difference was visible in every doorstep, every wall or every homestay. These were beautifully designed. This is a welcome change after being deeply engrained in the Muslim culture of Sumatra for so long.

After a much needed night of sleep we directly travel to Medewi, which is in the northwestern part of Bali. We drive three torturous hours. The driver is really friendly, but like every other Indonesian driver an aggressive driver. We would often overtake trucks and scooters without any visibility. This is pretty normal here. You just honk the horn of the car and hope for the best. This seems to work surprisingly often…

After traveling so much time without surfing I am more than ready to enter the water! It is finally the time. Medewi is a surfspot that is best entered on high tide. Unfortunately it was low tide, when we arrived that evening. I tried anyways… The whole black beach is covered in beautiful round stones. The sun was setting and it took me half an hour to walk over the stones to even get to the water. I paddled out and noticed a very strong current to the right side. After getting blasted by three massive waves I had enough and started the walk of shame. Frustrated and humiliated I went back over the stones. The next day I tried again. Everyone in town was already talking about the massive swell that would arrive this day. I met an older Australian and we paddled out together. On high tide all the stones are covered so it was much more easy. The waves were huge, but I have never seen such clear and long waves. Medewi is a wave that you can surf for 300 meters on such days. Luckily the Australian told me to stay on the outside first and watch the waves roll in. I listened and soon I would know why. The big set soon started to roll in. These were terrifying five meter walls of moving water. Maybe this was still above my level after all. When a big swell hits everybody is in the water. I am always more cautious of other surfers than the actual wave. I am afraid of another surfboard hitting me. This is one of the reasons I never paddle into the main take off zone. This resulted in me not catching a wave on that dreamy but terrifying day. Again I have to try another day… The next day I paddled out and didn’t catch a wave either. I just can’t navigate the crowd. I don’t trust most of them handling their board so I don’t want to come near. After a while of not catching a wave I was so frustrated that I went to the beach break instead. Surprisingly the beach break was absolutely empty. This is not a three hundred meter wave, but you can still surf. For me the choice is clear. I’d rather surf a not so perfect wave alone, than handling big crowds. I had the time of life. Finally enjoying some waves until a big set came. I had to duck several times. Until the biggest wave of the day came. Of course my leash ripped… My board was going to the direction of the beach without me. I had to swim like Michael Phelbs to catch up to my board. Waves crushing over my head. I can say that Bali waves on a big swell are absolutely insane! The things you go through, just to get a wave is sometimes beyond understanding. I can tell you the few waves I got in the big swell were beyond worth it!

Our bad luck seemed to continue as one day it started to rain and it didn’t stop for the day straight. The garden in our accommodation turned into a temporary river. I went to the surfspot anyways. Nobody was out. I met a few other surfers. Under them an older gentleman from Australia. Turns out he came to surf this wave for thirty years! He had some great knowledge about the wave, how to time it and most importantly how to identify the big sets. He told me he would get up in the morning and watch the waves. He would time the interval of two big sets coming in. This is almost consistent over the day. So this old man was sitting far on the outside on the smaller waves. He then looked at his watch he would paddle in but further out than the others. He would take a wave of the big set and would repeat this process. What a legend! This was great insight for me and something I will keep in mind on my next session.

The life in the rural part of Bali is easy going. We didn’t really realize until we went for a coffee in a surf shop. We were enjoying the ocean view with rice patios directly in front of it. A few locals were flying some kites on the rice terraces. After a while we realized our key of our scooter was missing. We went to the scooter and apparently we left it in the ignition. When we looked around we saw that from the other ten scooters that parked at the surf shop about eight had left the key in the ignition, too! We had laugh a bit about the paranoia I had. But hey what can I say? This would never fly in Latin America….

After our time in the north west of Bali we decided to go back. We made only one mistake. We didn’t do research before. We were just booking something close to Kuta Bali. Now if you’re wondering why Kuta Bali is not the place I want to be. Let me explain. Kuta Bali is the equivalent of the Ballermann in Mallorca, or Cancun Mexico. People may be very happy there. Especially on a short vacation to let loose. It is just not the place for long term backpackers. We checked out the beach. It was packed with two hundred surf schools, thousand people on the beach and even more vendors trying to sell something. I have nothing against the people that enjoy this. I just like more remote and wild places that’s all. We rented a scooter to check out Uluwatu. This is one of the most famous surf spots around the world. We didn’t expect much though, because we thought it might be as crowded as Kuta. So we sat on a scooter and cruised to Uluwatu. We were blown away by it’s initial beauty. There were still secluded beaches, beautiful cliffs and and crystal clear water! Also some restaurants, that were more health oriented than in Kuta. I didn’t go surfing here. If I couldn’t handle the crowd in Medewi I most certainly couldn’t handle the crowd of Uluwatu. I enjoyed watching though.

This is definitely more how we like it! We were exploring a few more empty beaches until we decided to check out the ancient Hindu temple Pura Luhur. This is one of the temples of Bali, that is believed to safeguard the island from evil spirits. This temple is standing here since the 11th century. We were blown away by it’s initial beauty on the cliffs. You have to be carful with phones, glasses and everything loose. Monkeys will try to steal it. They wait for an exchange for food afterwards. Otherwise you will not be able to get your things back. Pretty smart if you ask me. We walked around more and watched the astonishing cliffs. When we were overlooking the ocean we even saw some turtles poking up their heads down in the water.

After the temple we had an appointment in the Istana. It is a beautiful place also on top of the cliffs of Uluwatu. At the reception you have to give up your phone, as this place is a phone free area to disconnect. Here we had a specific appointment in the deprivation chamber. This is a completely dark soundless place. You float in a magnesium salted water brine. This is supposed to allow the brain to enter a deep relaxed state without any visual, auditive queues. I entered the dark chamber and tried to relax. It was difficult at first and my thoughts went everywhere. I was locked in this dark thing for an an hour. I thought it might feel like an eternity. After a while my brain entered a flow state. My thoughts brought me back to all those places I traveled almost vividly. It brought me to the beginning, where I was stressing out about everything. “How would I get from place A to place B?” How would I manage this crazy task of traveling the world? I almost laughed out loud when these thoughts came into my head. I learned, that it is not worth it to stress about something you don’t know. I also learned, that when the time comes just figure out a solution relying on myself or by asking others. Eventually you will work it out. Today I am not stressed about this at all. This is something I hope to apply in my normal life after my travels will end. To take one problem at a time, not stressing about the others that are too far in the future. Suddenly I heard a knock on the door. Is it already one hour? That is crazy! In the end it only felt like ten minutes not an eternity… When I got out I was happy to greet the sun and hear the sound of the waves. What a crazy experience!

We stayed in this absolutely beautiful area way after the sunset. People were just reading, taking an ice bath, going to the sauna, were meditating or they were just sun bathing. The no phone policy made it such an amazing relaxed atmosphere. No one trying to post the best picture of the experience and no one was focused on the externalities of life. instead everyone was focused inwards. In my opinion we need more places like this!

After this we went to Ubud. We tried to take the local bus. The bus drivers were telling us that we needed a card and the places that were supposed to sell the cards were telling us they wouldn’t have it. I suspect this is designed on purpose. Maybe locals don’t want cheap backpackers sitting on their local busses. We had to take Grab driver to get there in the end. So we ended up paying ten times more than on the bus, which resulted in paying 6 bucks instead of 60 cents…

Ubud is a weird mix of temples, rice fields and tourism resorts. The water system of the rice fields belongs to the UNESCOs World heritage sights. These water canals date back to the 9th century. Rice itself is seen as a gift from the gods in Hindu culture. The volcanic nature of the soil makes it very fertile. Usually in agriculture there is a crop rotation happening every three to four times to not deplete the soil of certain minerals. In this part the farmers are incentivized by the government to only grow rice. This is not because the soil is so rich or fertile. To the contrary the only reason is the booming tourism. The green and lush rice fields attract more tourists and look more exotic than corn or other crops. We also felt a bit uncomfortable watching the hard working farmers. A lot of people were taking pictures of the farmers. White person watching the hard working rice farmer. Like that never happened in history before…

We managed to get lost in the rice fields of Ubud. Sometimes you need a day where you allow yourself to get lost and see what it brings. We admired the irrigation system. It is truly remarkable. Wherever you go you find at least one stream of water flowing. Sometimes there were three or four streams flowing on different levels at the same time! While we were lost we met a local artist. He showed us his paintings. We were snacking a coconut and then exploring the waterfall and river he told us about.

In the evening we watched a fire show of the local Hindus. This is a dance that is telling an ancient story. The men create music by chanting. I have never seen something this strange. It was a beutiful experience and a good way to end our stay in Bali.

We like Bali surprisingly well. We thought it might be overcrowded with too many tourists. This may be true for parts of the island. However if you take the time to look past the touristy spots you can still find beautiful places, that are not too crowded! Until next time cheers!