Our second day in Ubud was spent zipping around the area, exploring via moped. We stopped at the Tegalalang rice terraces which were very cool and oddly reminded us of a Balinese version of Hobbiton, very whimsical!

Afterwards, we trekked an hour north towards Mount Batur , which is technically a volcano. We planned to hike to the top but the weather wasn’t the best (cloudy with on and off rain showers) so instead we decided to drive around the perimeter of it and explore the small towns along the base. We went through some extremely rural towns and saw huge fields of old molten lava which was very other worldly.

After spending most of the day on the moped, our legs and butts were going numb so we decided to head back to town for some dinner. We found a great little restaurant where shoes were optional.

The next day, we headed south to Karamas, which doesn’t have much going on other than it being a famous surf location. Unfortunately, Tristan didn’t get out in the waves because they were way WAY too big (we’re talking like 25 feet) so he, being the intelligent man we know and love, decided to just observe from shore. This was honestly just as cool because we were able to watch/meet a few professionals surfers who were in town training for a big surf competition.

But it was definitely a little freaky to watch them in the water. Not only were the waves huge but the water was very shallow and the bottom was all reef (many surfers came out bloody from gashes). At one point there was a set of four massive waves in a row and two of the surfers got absolutely demolished. They both lost their boards and were clearly having trouble staying afloat. Eventually, they made it to shore (one with just half of his surfboard, and one without his surfboard all together) and they both clearly looked shaken by the experience. Pictures can’t do it justice, but trust us, they were huge. Needless to say, we are very grateful Tristan had the peace of mind to not go in the water!

Overall, other than the surf, we felt that Karamas just wasn’t doing it for us, so we actually decided to cut our Bali stay short. We initially planned to stay in Bali for 3 weeks, but decided to leave after a week and a half.

Some people might think “What? Are you insane? Leave early!?” but traveling… it’s such an individual and unique experience. Two people can go to the exact same place and have entirely different experiences; neither one is the right and neither is wrong, it all depends on the individual. We know many people who have been to Bali and thought it was the best place in the world. Though we are grateful for our time there, at the end of the day, it just wasn’t really for us.

Though the island has its areas of beauty, it was difficult for us to ignore the trash and pollution. Every beach we went to was littered with garbage (both in and out of the water) and the amount of vehicle exhaust was more than we had ever experienced. Yes, we could have gone into the middle of the jungle or stayed at an all-inclusive resort and simply ignored those aspects, but that’s wasn’t our experience.

That being said, if you’ve been to Bali and had the most incredible time, that’s great. But if you didn’t, that’s ok too. We feel good knowing that we went, we had some good experiences, some bad experiences, and at the end of the day, we decided to make a decision that was best for us.

We wanted to end this post with the one thing we will always remember from Bali: the PEOPLE. The Balinese are the nicest, most respectful, kind people. We have never shared so many smiles with strangers in our lives and that is something we will never forget.

Until next time, love from T&T