With exam season around the corner myself and three students found ourselves fantasising over faraway holidays at a high stool table in a local Belfast student bar. Little did we know the realistic cost of an Indonesian adventure and that five months later we would be departing Dublin airport with three-hundred euro in our pockets, backpacks half the size of us, ready for a two-week excursion around Bali and The Gili islands.
The booking process was dangerously easy with STA travel, who arranged our returning flights from Dublin to Doha and Doha to Denpasar for two weeks. They also booked us onto a tour with ‘Bali Intro’ which included airport pickup, luxury resort accommodation, transport across the island, activities and entrance fees, most meals and the trip of a lifetime all for a total of £1200.
After 24 hours of comfortable travel with Qatar airways, we began our trip staying south of Bali in Kuta village where we shopped at street markets, attempted to surf, visited temples and chilled on Bali’s best beaches. We visited the most amazing beach (Seminyak beach) which was covered in colourful bean bags and umbrellas filled with artists selling paintings and good vibes. Making our way west of the island we visited rice paddies, Ubud’s swings and gazed under natures greatest waterfalls. Travelling up to the north coast we swam with dolphins in the Bali sea, visited local families and spent our evenings relaxing in our hotel’s infinity pool overlooking the island.
A bumpy bus journey and a three-hour roof-top boat trip later, we pulled up our shorts and jumped off the boat into the shore of Gili Trawangan east of Bali. The tiny island known for its magical sunsets, lush resorts and insane nightlife could not be described as anything but a paradise. Gili Trawangan (one of the three Gili islands) amazed me from the moment I stepped foot on the sand and realised there were no motorbikes, cars or buses just bikes and horses; it felt like entirely different world. We spent our days cycling around the stunning island and our nights doing what us students do best… partying! We spent our last hours snorkelling with turtles around Gili Air and Gili Meno before we had to sadly depart back to reality.
My favourite and most memorable part of the trip was meeting the Balinese people. Their generosity and kind-heartedness is indescribable and they go completely out of their way to make you feel content in a place so far away from home. While we waited a short time for breakfast in a cafe one morning, a slice of cake was delivered to our table as an apology for the delay. In a resort we stayed in the staff even presented us with flowers, hand crafted from napkins as a welcome gesture; I have never experienced customer service like it. Secondly, the food was out of this world - from healthy smoothie bowls to traditional Balinese dishes, it was safe to say our days were centred around what we ate. The islands’ restaurants and cafes are fully catered for tourists with American and Italian styled options on nearly every menu, but it was nice having the choice to get a taste for their culture and I most definitely fell in love with it.
Seven months on, Bali should be stroked off my bucket list, but it remains untouched as I have to go back.
