BACK TO BALI
Before
Since visiting Bali for the first time two years ago, we couldn’t get it out of our minds. We loved the beautiful scenery, the smiling and friendly people, the unique and stunning culture. Everything. And we only stayed there for two weeks in Ubud, which is a smaller, more traditional town in Bali. We knew there was so much more to discover and enjoy on the island of Bali, and couldn’t wait to return.
As we all know, COVID hit in March 2020, halting everyone's plans, and stopping travel around the whole world. We were stuck in the little city of Anjo, Japan, working our lives away and wishing for something else. That’s when we decided: We had to move somewhere abroad and new for both of us. And why not start our new lives together, in the place where everything started: Bali: the first place we traveled together, the first place we decided we wanted a different lifestyle. And that’s what we decided we would do!
We got to work. Like, super hard work. Saving up money, investing that money, looking for any and all possible ways to make our dreams happen. We did everything we could to save money- we never went out with friends, didn’t eat out, ate super cheap groceries, biked, and walked instead of taking transportation. It was rough, I’m not gonna lie. But we were so determined to make a difference in our lives.
And we were doing pretty good! We decided we could leave in August 2021, and stay until Christmas time!
During
July arrived, and it was time to start planning our new adventure! So exciting! We applied for our visas, through our amazing visa agent, and started packing our stuff.
Then: of course, the borders closed. We were devastated. All of our hard work and excitement, just to have to wait for who knows how long until the borders opened again.
September rolled around, and we were still in Japan. That’s when Thailand opened to tourists, and we decided it was better to go to Thailand instead of staying in Japan! We had traveled to Thailand before, and loved it as well! And, we hoped it would be easier to get into Indonesia from Thailand, than from Japan, if Indonesia opened anytime soon.
And it did!!! Two weeks after we got to Thailand, Indonesia opened the borders to people who already had visas, to come. Lucky for us, we had everything we needed and were able to book the soonest flight over to Jakarta. Where we had to do a 7-night quarantine before we could fly to Bali.
Was the quarantine as terrible as everyone says? Not gonna lie… I actually enjoyed it hahaha. I got to be in a room, unbothered, relaxing for 7 days straight. Very much needed after a crazy year and a half. However, we did get to order food on Grab, which most people didn’t… so if it weren’t for that I don’t know if I would have enjoyed it so much. And of course, it was a good time for me to catch up on some work!
After quarantine, we booked our flights over to Bali! We decided to stay in Canggu this time. As Canggu was highly recommended to us by many friends on social media, and it’s where many many tourists/foreigners stay!
After
And, it was absolutely amazing. Better than we could have imagined.
Because of our delay in plans, we were only able to stay for about one month(because I have to renew my Japanese visa/be home for the holidays), when we planned to stay for 6 months. But, we were able to use this experience as a bit of a “trial run” to see if we could really live somewhere else successfully. And oh was it successful.
Bali outlived our expectations x10000%. The people, the vibes, the food, the weather, the dogs on the beach, the amazing villas, the friends we made, everything was perfect, and exactly what we needed. I’ve never felt like I belonged somewhere so much as being in Bali. I feel like Bali is a place where I can thrive as my genuine self while growing into the person I want to be, surrounded by people with similar goals, and a similar mindset. I really can’t wait to be back and continue that chapter of my life.