Island of Bali, Indonesia

Bali was Australia’s playground destination. It’s our second most popular overseas holiday choice, after New Zealand. This little Indonesian island is known for its tropical white sandy beaches, its iconic rice paddy fields, the snorkelling and coral reef.

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Bali is back!

In 2019 6.2 million foreign tourists and one Little Wandering Wren holidayed in Bali. The exciting news is that after one of the strictest lockdowns, Bali is back! The Covid quarantine rule has just been lifted and I for one am excited to consider a return to this tropical island paradise.

Why Bali is so loved

Quite how one island can appeal to those who want to meditate and find their inner peace, whilst at the same time attracting the party crowd is impressive. It’s close to Australia well… its three and a half hours from Perth, five hours 35 mins from Melbourne, for us that’s just down the road.

It’s cheap, surprisingly good for shopping and eating, and it’s a lot of fun…

Until it is not…

Well, it was, before 2002 when everything changed in Bali. Two hundred and two people, including Eighty-eight Australians, were killed in the first of two terrorist attacks. Tourist numbers plummeted.

Add in the pesky volcano Mount Agung which periodically spews and causes chaos. Ash from the volcano disrupts flights and airport operations. Headlines in 2017 Holidaymakers are stranded.

Australian Government travel advice continued to suggest to Exercise a high degree of caution in Indonesia overall due to:

security risks
the impacts of COVID-19

My Bali Holidays

I first travelled to Bali in 1991 as part of a gap year after finding myself sick of the corporate hampster wheel. Those paddy fields of Ubud were a highlight in a year of global travel.

We stayed away for many years too following the Bali bombings, preferring elsewhere in Asia, for our family holidays until a yoga holiday in 2014 which I repeated again in 2015.

In 2019 I returned for a Fitcation with some friends from my Aussie Gym. All were amazing holidays, with happy memories.

I hope this extract from this previous Bali holiday gives you a little taste of the delights of Bali.

Imagine my great excitement riding on the back of a scooter, on my crazy ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ adventure, to visit a lady who hands me a photo of myself with not a stitch on…

I hope you’re not about to censor me, but you’re about to see I’m completely butt naked.

This ultimately requires a blue necklace. Earth Mother here I come.

‘Now whatever you do, never ever, ever ride a scooter in Bali’ I warn my teenage kids,

‘Oh, and don’t go anywhere near the Monkey Forest’, I add. So that’s me, Miss Worrywart for my kids, but that’s rabies and road traffic accidents covered.

I’m the sort of painful, overprotective Mum, my family hate to travel with me, they get impatient as I wave on endless taxis searching for a safe car with seat belts

Ok time for some zen yoga deep breaths…Perhaps a pair of Buddhas can help?!

So it was totally out of character, to have booked an appointment for a Bio-Dynamic Energy Analysis. We meet at the popular vegan Cafe, Alchemy in Ubud and if you’re in Ubud I would recommend it Before I know it, I‘m on the back of a scooter, riding off into the sunset with a stranger. Well, in my dreams.

In reality, I’m sitting on the back of a scooter, wearing a brown flowery dress, not the best for scooter riding clutching the purple leather handbag my Mum and Dad gave me as a 50th Birthday present.

I should know better at my age…

AND as I’m not sure where’s appropriate to put my hands possibly not round the lady I’ve only just met, I’m not hanging onto anything, but I’m gripping on for dear life with just my knees

hoping and praying that we’re not going to pass anyone from my yoga class as this will take some explaining…

When we reach our destination, I open my eyes again and wobble off the scooter.

I’m alive!

I place my shaking hand on a sophisticated hand sensor, linked to a computer and a printer, which measures the energy in my body the screen lights up with a mass of rainbow of colours

I seem to have a lot of flashing colours.

I am handed a printout and we begin to talk about what this means…

Are you ready here’s the photo of me in the buff

Ok?

!

V

Tee hee, thought that might shock you but as I look at it again, there is a man that seems to have muscled in on my picture! But just look at all my pretty colours.

Anyway the complete long and the short of it is that my energy levels are good but my throat chakra needs a bit of work, but in every woman’s dream, my yoga teacher said that if I wore a blue necklace that would help. Big Time!

So the next day I’m out braving the humidity, for a bit of jewellery shopping and here is a picture of me wearing my new blue sapphire and lapis lazuli necklace! Which I have strategically placed to cover up that erm man’s bits… I obviously wear it higher up.

Haha, I hope that has given you a little chuckle. Oh, that was an amazing holiday in Bali.

If you would like to read some more about my time in Bali try these:

Bali yoga searching for inner peace: I am a Yoga teacher’s worst nightmare… Whilst I’ve booked the BALI holiday with a yoga retreat, others have booked a YOGA retreat in Bali…
Zen Yoga Mum in Blissful Bali: When the teacher says ‘if anyone would like to join us, we are organising a Yoga Retreat in Ubud, Bali. Flyers are here, up the front’ the words ‘like a rat up a drainpipe’ spring to mind…
Spa Queen of Asia Visiting some amazing Balinese Spas and struggling with the paper knickers. It’s the Spa version of Ready, Steady, Cook…