Hey dudes and dudettes !! This would be the first attempt to write a blog on my second International Trip which was also my first solo trip. being single and waiting for my friends to initiate an international trip took years and it never happened similar to how our guys (90's born kids ) would plan for a Goa trip for ages and it would never happen :). so I reached a point where I thought that I don’t have to wait for anyone to travel along since one needs to enjoy self-company rather than to desperate about going with a group of people . so at the neck of the moment, I booked my flight tickets exactly 2 weeks before my departure through goibibo.com via scoot flights around 17,800 INR (round trip) and booked dormitory via agoda.com after comparing prices at different platforms.
I neither had time to make a proper plan nor time to research on it, so besides wasting time on researching I just wanna go along with the pace when I reach the destination and the reason why I choose Bali was since visa for Indians is free and it’s an absolute paradise to spend our leisure times over there. and that’s when I decided to set my foot in this gorgeous place.
DAY-1 arrival at Singapore Changi Airport (layover) and arrival at Bali Ngurah Rai Airport (Denpasar)
since I hail from Chennai and we don’t have direct flights to Bali, had a layover via Singapore for about 8 hours at Singapore Airport where I had been checking out the interesting places at the airport which I have added above as a collage pic.it was the best airport that I have ever heard or seen. I had plenty of time to check out the airport terminals and to do window shopping at stores and tried skytrains to commute from one terminal to another where I had a chance to see the jewel waterfall which was absolutely spell bounding and marvelous. Actually Singapore govt had a free sightseeing tour for travelers who have long lay overtime at the Changi Airport. the only thing you need to do is to register before the mentioned time and enjoy the free sightseeing around Singapore city. unfortunately for Indians we need to either have a Singapore visa or US visa stamped in our airport to avail of this program.
Nevertheless, I had a great time at the airport visiting Jewel waterfall, sky trains, Butterfly park, koi ponds and to check out other some stuff there. and landed Bali eve at 6 PM and got a Smartfren SIM that I had booked via klook and used gojek app to book a bike taxi to reach my hotel.
Day 2: ATV Bike Quad — An Adventurous ride through Bali Farmlands
I got Freshen up today morning at my hotel where I booked a dormitory room where I was sharing spaces with an Ethiopian Guy name “Karl” and a Taiwan Guy name “Kyle” and below pic was taken at my Hotel “Gelatik Bed and Breakfast” Located at Seminyak, Kuta. ( Southern part of Bali ).
I didn’t really know what to do on this day since I didn’t make any specific travel plans on a daily basis. so just went through klook app and booked this ATV-Quad Bike Adventure based on Klook reviews and ratings for single person ride along with pickup and it was around 4,400 INR (58$ USD). But I would suggest going directly and book to get at a cheaper price since they have sent me a 6+ seater car exclusively to pick only me from the hotel and the destination was about a 1+hour journey since it was situated on the north part of Bali.
About the ride: It was hell awful lot of moments experienced with this ride, these are just a glimpse of pics taken before and after few mins of the ride which was taken by the organizing person for which you need to pay extra at the end if you would like to get it ( probably guess I paid around 1000 INR for these pics) . and I really enjoyed this ride driving the Quad bike in the mid of soggy farmlands and forest on the top of a mountain with narrow and steep paths . and it was like really similar to playing some android games like subway surf or temple run :).
I planned to try this again during my next visit. almost most of my day time spent on this . just to add information on this, while you try this you can’t carry your mobiles on your pockets since there is a high chance of dropping it in the mid of driving, but if you didn’t carry it, you would really miss capturing awesome moments in between the forests and farmlands .so I’d suggest taking a pouch-like thing to put your phone on that and tie to your neck .so that it would be safe to keep and can be used to click few pics in middle.
Day 3: Ubud Swing and River Rafting.
spent around 3200 INR for doing these activities covering Ubud swing which had lots of swing varieties for solo and couples which you can try n number of times as you wish, it depends on the package that you opt . and I spent around 2.5 hours doing river rafting in a nearby lake, but I was literally exhausted while at river rafting though it was engrossing.
Ubud swing was my favorite one during this day, I was really able to capture a lot of beautiful and cool pics which I can use to share in my social media. and this place resides in the north side again so I rented a bike and drove on my own which again was a different experience driving in another country without IDR ( international driving license ), but I don’t think cops in Bali care much about it since Bali is surrounded full of tourists across all parts of the globe and tourism is the main revenue for the govt.
Day 4: Nusa Penida Islands
Again this was planned a day before while I was having a conversation with other North Indian Tourists where they suggested to try this as this a must-visit place for sure. so booked this for 3500 INR including sightseeing of west Nusa Penida Islands pickups, cruise transport, lunch and drop. but it seems few people I met had bargained to get this package for even 2500 INR .took a cruise along with a lot of tourists to reach this island, and I had covered only the west part of places like kelingking beach ,broken island, and angels billabong . had a great time though on clicking the best pictures of nature but the climate was pretty much hot making us unbearable after some time.
Day 5: Bali Bird Park and Uluwatu temple.
booked the ticket for Bali bird park via klook app (1300 INR ) since the direct price was a little high comparatively .so its good for a traveler to compare the price at multiple places before booking so that we could save lots of cost and it will give us an idea and knowledge to make a budget tour plan.
Again visiting various kinds of birds and getting a chance to click few clicks with them was a highly admirable and aesthetic .perhaps had I got a couple of days, I would likely interested to revisit here as I feel one day was not really enough to check all the stuff since I had missed few bird feedings which would occur only at specified timings.
later in the evening, I drove from north Bali to Uluwatu temple which is at down south of Bali and the temple is famous for sunset and the Ramayana act which would be performed by the native Bali people . was felt very calm to sit and enjoy the act with thousands of people and to admire the known traditional, mythological Indian story of ram and sita.
And finally its time to end this blog, as I am tired and have covered most of the part. as a final note, I have shared a collage of an awesome bunch of people that I had visited at Bali during my activities and in my dormitory. glad to meet people from various countries like Canada, Japan, US, Korea, Ethiopia, Taiwan, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, India, Russia, Manila and thus I came to realize why Bali is called a paradise by many people.
I’ve never had a feeling of loneliness during my stay over there in Bali. besides I gradually got an interest to try solo trips going forward. and this has been a great learning experience of planning Vacation and stuffs on your own. and I believe this would be helpful during my further trips.
And also I couldn’t cover all the places during these 4 days at Bali. Ideally we would need at least 2 weeks to cover all other islands, beaches, temples, and activities. besides most of the tourists from western countries I met were staying here for months since euros and dollars have a high money value compared to Indonesian rupiah.
Budget: I didn’t spend lavishly on things since it was a budge tour, I was able to finish everything under 40,000 INR(around 500 USD ) including flights, hotels, food, sightseeing, activity cost, bike rent, etc. had I still spent my money effectively, I’d have brought the total expenditure under 35,000 INR.
and for bike rent, I spent 200,000 IDR for 3 days and for petrol we have to spend on our own. (1 liter comes around 8000 to 10000 IDR)
Flight Cost varies from where you start since I hail from Chennai- Tamilnadu, and Bali was much nearer to my geographical area, I gotta reasonable price rates though I booked tickets just 2 weeks before my trip
Nevertheless, it was an awesome experience on a solo trip with a lot of takeaway.
Special thanks to my friends Rupesh and Karthika for inspiring me on many ways
checkout other few random collages below :
