I can see why Bali is a true tourist's favorite. There's just something so raw and organic about the place, maybe it's the never-ending layers of culture, tons of beautiful beaches, affordable villas and friendly locals. Most of all I think it's because it's so different from our usual city life. Trade our skyscrapers for wooden huts, our lamp posts for trees, our sea of cars to an actual blue sea, our blank, tired stares at 8am in the morning to warm, genuine greetings all day round, and you get Bali. Usually I'd find myself daydreaming about Europe but now that I've started my internship, I find myself missing Bali terribly. Can't wait to go back there again to look at more beautiful scenery, eat great food, immerse in Balinese culture and just chill.
Our villa, which I was so happy with :)
Have you heard of Kopi Luwak? It's the most expensive (and some will call it the best) coffee in the world, costing about $5-7 for a tiny cup, while the normal coffees and teas costs mere cents. The most interesting and grossest part about Kopi Luwak is that it's made from lemur's (above) poop... It's not only gross in terms of us humans paying so much $ to literally drink a cup of shit, but also cuz these poor lemurs aren't treated well at all, and are often driven to insanity, ending up gnawing on their own limbs, getting sick etc. Just look at how sad the little lemur is... And to think that I actually took one sip of the coffee, which was just awful in my opinion, and encouraged my mum to buy some back as souvenirs. Such ignorance...
These coffee cherries are fed to the lemurs to digest and poop, making the Kopi Luwak. It's super unhealthy for them and they get ill and eventually die young.
This cute old man immediately posed once I raised my camera :) He must be so used to tourists taking pictures of him, as Ubud's rice fields are so popular. The locals make their living by pleasing us tourists, be it providing us services or going out of their way for our comfort. A driver could drive 7 hours straight for $40-$50 bucks and consider that a great sum of money, that's the sad reality.
The best acai bowl I've ever had, and such a big portion!
As usual, thank you my babe for another wonderful trip (and for dealing with my tantrums!)
I feel like the pictures above are screaming reminders of why I need a new camera, asap. The Olympus emp1 that I got 4 years ago just doesn't make the cut anymore. I've already made plans to get a Olympus EPL 6 with my first internship paycheck and one day, a GoPro. Recording memories is just so important!