I wish I could say that I was writing this post about my first day in Bali and how much I fell in love and lost myself in the beauty and spiritual side of Bali. Instead I am writing this about the crazy motorbike experience I had, and how Josh and I got utterly and completely lost in Bali.
We woke up and had a delicious breakfast made for us at our guesthouse, looked up directions to where we were going, packed a beach bag and loaded on sunscreen.
Goal 1: Find Uluwatu Beach and explore the Bukit Peninsula
We had one of the fun-est (is that a word) and most stressful days yet. We climbed on our moped for the first day in Bali with big plans…we were convinced that we would find Uluwatu Beach. It is only 45 min away, should be easy to navigate there…we expected it would take a bit over an hour since it was our first time driving in the country. We successfully stopped at the gas station to fill up our bike and set off. 2 hours later we realized that there are no street names ANYWHERE in Bali to be found, traffic is mostly awful and we had probably driven in 3 – 4 big circles at this point. Josh’s flip-flops broke in a near-accident when driving the bike so we stopped to pick him up new ones at a market, while also stopping multiple other times to pick up some water/juice and would always ask directions. It seemed so easy to the locals…just drive up straight for a bit…swing a right…and then a left…and poof you were wherever you wanted to be! Not so simple for us 🙂 We dodged cars and other bikes, Josh balanced the bike while I held on tight. The easy answer would be to find a taxi or hire a driver, but what is the fun in that?
Goal 2: Find Kuta/Seminiak/Legian Beach
We both knew we would be back to Uluwatu, but for today we were giving up and settling for a beach near us. We were staying near Canggu at the Dana Guesthouse for our first three nights until Teka-Teki was available. The Dana Guesthouse is a bit further away from everything, but they let you use their scooters for free which is a great way to get around (if you know where you are going)! By the fifth time we got turned around we started following signs to Kuta Beach. That’s a popular beach, there is no way we can miss that one…right? Remember during this time we are still dodging, whizzing and whirling around every obstacle that magically appears on the road. Somehow, someone points us in the right direction and we see in front of us beautiful blue water and white sand.
Goal 3: Find a Beach… Any Beach!
We see water and we see sand, that is our new goal. We stop our bike along with the hundreds of other bikes parked along the beach and gladly climb off to feel the sand on our feet. Well, this sand was super hot so we preferred it not between our toes and left our flip flops on. We started walking off our tension (at least driver Josh was). Not being used to driving the bike, his legs and hips were tight from the constant stop and go craziness of the trip to the beach. The water felt glorious. The surf was up and we finally found a great seat on the beach to sit and enjoy the activities around us and the relaxing sound of the waves. We realized it was already 2:30 pm and we were hungry for lunch after our 3 hour tour. We grabbed some local grub at a warung across the street, enjoyed the shade and (didn’t really enjoy) the heavy metal music playing in the background.
Now the big question is… how in the @#@@!! are we going to find our way home?
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