Lombok & Bali

My final international trip while being based in Kuala Lumpur was to Lombok and Bali, Indonesia. It might also be my favorite trip so far – which makes sense, really, since the longer you travel, the better you get at it! Plus, I had good company, and Indonesia is stunning. Maybe another minor reason I liked it is because their language is extremely similar to Malaysia – so I could read a decent amount of signage.

My friend and I began the trip by flying from Kuala Lumpur to Lombok. For this trip I didn’t plan more than a couple days ahead at a time – I didn’t even have a return flight home. Another reason why it was so great 🙂

We wanted to climb Mt Rinjani, an active volcano, while visiting Lombok. Near the end of the flight we saw a giant peak of a volcano from the window and apprehensively asked ourselves…shit, is that Rinjani?! 😛 Later we confirmed that it was. So cool that just a few days later we were there at the top!

We made a Dutch friend from the plane (who also ended up climbing Rinjani with us) and shared a cab to our lodging in Kuta.

Balian Beach

I’ll admit, I am annoyingly anti-mainstream sometimes – always have been. But when it comes to traveling, I know I’m not the only one. Massive crowds of tourists and touts are a huge turn off from visiting some places (I’m lookin at you, Thailand). For this reason I was hesitant to go to Bali. It’s a super popular/famous destination, and I kept hearing the stereotype that it’s just a place that Australians go to get drunk. While this may be true, upon landing on Bali, I truly felt that ‘magic’ that people describe it as. I only drove through the heavily touristed areas, like Kuta, and stayed at a much less populated beach, Balian Beach, which I’m sure contributed to my positive feelings. 🙂