Flights to Bali were booked for the 18th of June early on in the year. The plan was to drive to the Gold Coast from Streaky Bay, leave our van at the airport and go meet Ryan’s family (grandparents, parents, brother, brothers friend, aunty and cousins) for a two week vacation on the Indonesian island. Seeing as we both have quite a fondness for the lifestyle we live in Bali (= beach and surf, moped transport, incredible food and cheap cocktails), we decided to do an extra two weeks just to make the trip over there really worth it. We were planning on leaving south Australia with roughly three weeks to do the 2380km trip, taking time to see some more of the country on the way. The problem however, was due to a rare weather display in Streaky Bay, the season starting rain didn’t pour until near the end of May, which delayed the beginning of the season Ryan was supposed to be working and meant that by our our intended leave date, he was still in the thick of it. We pushed back as far as we could but because of possibility of van issues (which turned out to be an accurate assumption), we left with 6 days to get to Brisbane for our flight, despite the season still ongoing.

We left around 1pm after cleaning and packing and drove the first 4 hours to Port Augusta with high spirits and motivation for the next chapter. It was once we got 30 minutes out of Port Augusta that our next problem sprang out to ruin our day, the vans temperature gauge was reading HOT, I mean physically cannot go any higher hot. Immediately our minds (Ryans) went to the head gasket, fearing the worst. We pulled over and fretted before remembering that we have mechanics in the family who would be perfect to utilise in this situation. 5 minutes later Greg was on the phone, running through a bunch a checks with Ryan, trying to eliminate and highlight different issues. We got the clear to drive it very carefully back down the hill to the closest caravan park which luckily was a mere 8km away. Once we got into the site we turned her off to let her cool down over night before having a swig or two of wine to calm down. Granted, we were actually incredibly grateful that this happened right out of the biggest town we would be going through and we still had time to change plans if we needed too. The next day we took her straight to a car doctor who diagnosed a fucked temperature gauge (phew) and was able to fix her and some other little niggles all on the same day. Cost an arm and a leg but we were back on the road later that arvo, which felt like the achievement.

The rest of the drive went by mostly smoothly, a couple iffy moments driving through the great dividing ranges but otherwise we pushed through and got it done in two days thanks to energy drinks and crime podcasts. We had 3 days in the gold coast before our flights and were fortunate enough to spend those days with Ryan’s family, at Carmen and Justins place. We spent the mornings getting all of our things ready and enjoying being back in a city (which we hadn’t seen in 9 months) and our afternoons with Carmen and Justin, having a glass or two of wine and catching up on what life’s been like. It was perfect, and the biggest thank you to Carmen for letting us stay in your beautiful home and making us feel so comfortable and welcome. We are so grateful for you guys.

When the time came we made our way to the airport and found a park for Michmouse to live in for the next month. We flew across the ditch with Batik air (never heard of it? neither had we), and to our great surprise we got to bring our surfboards for free. First win. The flight was also delayed about 9 hours, which didn’t really phase us but resulted in a $100 flight voucher for both Ryan and I, so… win two. I now really like Batik air. The arrival in Denpasar went smoothly and later that night we were checked in to our first accomodation in Uluwatu, called Surga. It was a cheap hostel/airbnb vibe were we got our own space, had two for one cocktails and was only a 15 minute moped ride from the main attraction in Uluwatu, Dom and Lili.

The first week in Bali was an absolute beauty, we spent our days by the beach; surfing, drinking coconuts, reading, doing yoga classes and eating every colour of the rainbow. We used our afternoons to see Dom and Lili; having sunset drinks, playing monopoly deal (just making a quick note that during one of these games Dom put his deal breaker into his own bank, like a fool), going to cachos for 2v2 pool and just overall catch up chats that made hours feel like minutes and each day that much better. We decided to use our weekend to go for a bit of an explore, a day trip to Ubud perhaps? We left at 9am due to a few sore heads from the previous night at Lolas, and started our 3 hour drive to Ubud. Yes, 3 hours. Even though we were continuously told, 5 more minutes. Because of the insane traffic, we had about 4 hours to “see” Ubud before we hopped back into the car for the 3 hour drive back to Uluwatu. To be fair, we went on one of those kayaking adventure tours that you see at every second tourist shop, and it turned out to be one of the highlights of my year so far. So I ended up still absolutely loving that day, despite half of it being crammed into the back seat listening to cock fighting chat.

The following week we moved up to Seminyak, a place for us to meet up with Ryan’s family and introduce them to Bali. We also had another special guest coming to spend a week with us… miss Britney was back! Ryan and I got to the accomodation early, and as were making ourselves at home in our new villa for the week (absolute luxury she was), Britz turned up and gave me a cuddle so big I almost cried. It felt so good to see her. We grabbed some lunch and had a big catch up before spending the remainder of the day drinking vodka lemonades and dancing around the villa playing song for song. It was perfect. I however ended up putting myself to bed a little too early and wasn’t there to get the family crew from the airport after their late arrival at 11pm. I did wake up when they got back though and it was absolutely brilliant to see everyone again after over a year.

To cover as much ground as possible with as little words as I can, I am going to write a highlight reel for our first week.

We spent our time by: walking through the busy streets trying to find somewhere that could feed all 13 of us, drinking bintangs by the pool every afternoon, driving the mopeds around to explore different areas, having a private chef cook dinner for us, another day trip to Ubud (dangerous little monkey forest included), reading time in the mornings for Jax and I, shopping amongst the chaos, saying fuck off to Harry (after buying 3 watches from him), playing cards with G & T and playing mushroom with Greg, listening to Max and Alex snore, watching the state of origin with every other aussie in Seminyak, crocheting with G, getting pretty nails with Sari, going to and then leaving the expensive beach clubs, celebrating Alex’s 21st and having sleepovers with Britz. It was hectic and chaotic but was a brilliant week to start the trip off.

On our moving day from Seminyak to Uluwatu we wished Britney our dreaded goodbyes before loading up the vans and making our way to our next accomodation, the Sterling Villas. This accom was two 6-people villas right next to each other, which was a beauty for the sleeping situation because both Max and Alex (but mainly Max) sounded like freight trains while we were trying to sleep and having rooms to ourselves was an absolute luxury. I loved our week here so much. We got into a swing of things, with rented mopeds and grabs becoming a much easier transportation than the big vans. We had breakfast buffets for breakfast, spent the days lounging between dreamland and Padang Padang, went out for dinners at beautiful restaurants, played cards and visited cachos quite a few times. We watched the second state of origin match at the Bench and stuck around for some live tunes, played pool and canasta and monopoly deal, watched sunsets and all took a turn at getting sick.

It was a sad day when we had to bid farewell to G & T, Deb and Greg, Aimee and the kids. They had all left on the 8th of July, but Max and Alex weren’t leaving until 4 days later on the 12th. This meant we moved again to a little airbnb in the middle of nowhere that was tiny and very warm but had a pool and we could afford it so we felt like kings there. We spent these four days bouncing back and forth between The Cashew Tree, Dreamland, Cachos, Bench and Bingin. We developed a routine that started in the morning with myself going to yoga and Ryan heading for a surf, meeting the boys at a breakfast spot (usually cashew tree) before choosing a beach to hang out at until the clock hit 4pm and Cachos happy hour started. We would head there for as many $7 frozen mango margaritas as we could afford and as many games of pool we could manage before heading to Bench or finding somewhere for dinner. It was a brilliant little system. Just riding the moped around turned out to be one of my favourite memories of these days, a slightly intoxicated Max or Alex sitting on the back adding their notes on the drives home or watching them drive together trying to navigate the back streets was an unexpectedly delightful experience. As was Alex’s red face and watching Max with his new cacho friend, Billy.

After the boys left, Ryan and I had three days to soak up the last of the Bali beauty. The best part was our two surf lessons with this legend named Al, who was introduced to us by Lili and Anna. Those lessons were phenomenal and increased my confidence on the board tremendously which left me feeling excited for what was yet to come. We also played some paddle ball for the first time, ate at Fish Market, hung out at Bingin with some new mates and just soaked up our last few days before heading back to the van life. It was tough to leave but definitely time to go, to start our next adventure.

I’m positive we will be back in the not too distant future, but until then, thank you for the memories Bali.