[Week 11.5-12] Bali Trip

April 4 - April 7

Weekend trip to Bali, Indonesia! I visited Bali this weekend to celebrate a friend's birthday. Right after class, I ate a quick lunch and packed up to get ready to the airport. I took budget airline JetStar to Bali and it was surprisingly quite comfortable. It doesn't live up to non budget airline comfort, but it was definitely more comfortable than what people usually say about riding budget. I was comfortable the entire 2-3 hr trip.

While traveling, it is important to also focus on your studies! When I arrived in Bali, I immediately went to Starbucks and attended a group project meeting while waiting for a friend to arrive. I did not know my way around Bali and since we both arrived around a similar time (but different flights due to class), we decided to meetup with each other before leaving the airport to our accommodation.

Throughout our trip, we walked around the town we were in. The food was delicious, but we had to be careful with what we ordered since there is something called "Bali belly" tourists get due to food poisoning. Luckily I did not get it! My favorite part of the trip was bonding with other exchangers and eating at a cliffside restaurant. It had the perfect view of the mountains, ocean, and sunset. It was majestic.

The one thing I kind of regret was missing out on the Mount Batur hike. Our group planned to wake up at 1am to get ready, eat breakfast, and meet the guide who would lead us up the mountain. However, I was incredibly tired from midterms and wanted to rest. Vacations can be tiring because you want to see everything you can while you are traveling but at the same time, it is also an opportunity to rest.

Two things I learned about Bali:

1. The traffic in Bali is really bad. There are many motorists on the road. What would take only 10 minutes to get to by car would take 25 minutes.

2. The weather is better than Singapore. Despite being neighboring countries, Singapore was just hot. It was dry heat. On the other hand, Singapore was hot due to the humidity.