BALI BALI BALI

So, about a week ago some friends and I decided to head to Bali. What started as a joke is now a reality as I sit relaxing in the warmth of sunny Seminyak waiting for a ride to Ubud. Backpackers are the best. Spontenatiety is a way of life and it simply never grows old. But i'll get over my rambling mind and  give you a quick update on what happened in our 2.5 weeks in Bali.

PLANE PROBLEMS.

--Our flight got cancelled not 10 minutes after we had checked in. So after waiting in line for another hour and hearing 1000 different options of how we might have to get to Bali (including waiting 2 days, going through Melbourne, paying more for another flight etc) we were told we could leave later that night for a flight to Adelaide and then go from there to Bali.

--Given that Adelaide is the COMPLETE opposite side of the country, it seems a tad ridiculous, but none of us had been there before, we got to explore a wee bit, and we got set up in a PHENOMENAL hotel for the evening before we flew. PLUS we got to Bali just one day late instead of 3. Win.

KUTA, BALI

Stayed in Kuta for 2 nights trying to get our bearings. Pretty ugly city overall. But, the nightlife was awesome and food was great. Though one girl got mugged and had her money stolen before the night  was over. And waking up for check out at 10 was a bit rough after getting back at 4am. But overall a success. Even managed to hit the beach for a day.

SEMINYAK, BALI

Left Kuta for the upscale city of Seminyak where we ate delicious food and hung out at the fancy-schmancy PotatoHead Beach Club for the day drinking faulous cocktails and soaking up the sun until we could watch the beautiful sunset. Attempted to go out that evening but unfortunately the night life just wasn't as good as the drinks themselves. The following day we booked a bus to Ubud which is the cultural center of Bali.

 

                                 

UBUD, BALI

-Balinese cooking class NOM NOM NOM

                    

                                  

               

-Monkey Forest!

 

 

-hiked mt batur a volcano in the middle of Bali for sunrise

-heading to gili

GILI TRAWANGAN--sort of.

Ended up finding out upon arrival on the island that our accomodation fell through. So, we spent the next 4-5 hours wandering the entire island looking for places to stay but everywhere, and I mean EVERYWHERE was sold out. So we finally headed back to the restaurant where we'd left the guys with our bags and drinks and hung out until our new recruit---a friend of Dani's--arrived and then headed to Lombok to figure out life.

On the BRIGHT side.....Marine and I got this sweet selfie with some cows.

MATARAM, LOMBOK

Hung out in Mataram the first night. It's the capitol of Lombok but with NOTHING to do in the way of nightlife or anything. Primarily because it's a Muslim country. Then on day 2 of being there we headed to South Kuta Beach about 2 hours away and spent the day lying in the sand.

SENGGIGI, LOMBOK

--flooding hostel---but really GREAT beds....but the showers flooded everywhere. Horrendous.

--booked Komodo boat trip WHAT WHATTTT

--AND I got to play Volleyball!!! I'd been wanting to for ages....and i never get good vball pics so seeing as this is my blog i'm going to shamelessly put these up here. No worries.

 

--kids in the water were EVERYWHERE. It was somewhat annoying but also.....they were adorable and loved hanging out with us and i became bffs with some of them. And they all just looked SO happy to be at the beach.

KOMODO BOAT

Basically this was 4 days 3 nights of going to different islands, snorkelling, swimming, eating rice and noodles with sambal and trying not to get seasick followed by a trip to Komodo Island. While overall the boat was fun, the worst part was that the hull was shallow so the waves we're SO easily felt. We had one portion--an 18 hour stretch of boating where I and a lot of others just wanted to die. BUT we made it and it was worth it! The final night on the boat our crew kind of headded up a boat party with music supplied by the lovely Dani. We had the entire boat dancing, drinking and laughing. Even the crew got involved! It was an awesome night. The next day our fairly hungover boat had to do a trek followed by snorkelling n some beautiful water. Luckily swimming helped everyone out and by the end of the afternoon the guys were throwing crew members off the ship as a joke. Casual boat trips in Indonesia ya know?

   

 

LABUAN BAJO, FLORES

Labuan Bajo is the city the boat docked in when we finally got off. It wasn't a crazy town but we had a nice littel hotel with a STUNNING view and ended up going out that evening with the crew and the rest of the boat to a littlel bar and just had a good night of laughing.

SOUTH KUTA, BALI

Finally we ended up in South Kuta to tyr somethign different from mainland Kuta. Pretty out of the way of things, but at least we had a swimming pool and had an amazing last night out in Kuta trying a bunch of different bars and clubs. Lots of dancing-----Bali success!

Unfortunately now we're back in Darwin attempting to figure out the next step of our lives. Lots of praers about where I should be next would be appreciated cause goodness knows whats happening now!

The End.

        Oh what to say, what to say. I haven’t cried today..yet. I cried a bit last night and came close twice today…but so far no tears. I blame this on the innumerable people in airports coupled with my inability to cry in front of people. Regardless, today has been hard. I slept one hour last night, as I simple couldn’t stop thinking about Cairo. This city…this dirty, hectic, loud, crazy city, without my fully realizing it, had become my home. I remember first being brought to Zamalek and wondering how I could ever learn to like this place. I don’t like dirty things, I don’t like being hassled, and I chose Cairo to live in. Bad decision. But, against all odds, this city has won my heart.

        As I walked around yesterday to my favorite eateries and hangouts in Zamalek I thought about my first week there. I remembered how confused and lost I was. Everything looked the same. It took me at least 2.5 weeks to remember where the grocery store was, much less food places. I remember being somewhat nervous going around Zamalek at night without other people and when I had to go get a phone I freaked out because I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to do that with my EXTREMELY limited Arabic. And I couldn’t help thinking how much had changed in these four months. Going to Euro Deli, Alf Leila or Goal was now second nature. Here I was walking around at 9pm, in the dark, on my own, without a second thought. Now, when boys (as I can’t call anyone who does this a man) cat called me I’d glare and yell at them in Arabic to walk away. On the ride back to Zamalek the night before, I had spoken with my taxi driver almost completely in Arabic for 45 minutes. Granted, I used terrible grammar and “baby” sentences, but I did it and we understood one another. When I picked up the taxi to get to the airport this morning and cars almost hit us, or a person walked through the 4 lanes of speeding traffic, I didn’t even think about it. Somehow, this city had become my own.

          While, I am extremely excited to go home and see my friends and family who I have missed dearly, I cannot fully express how much it hurts to leave Cairo behind. God blessed me with such amazing friends here and so many incredible experiences.  This pain is only deepened with the realization that unlike Europe of the UK, the likelihood of me coming back here is slim to none. The friends I made for the most part are American or European, I will be graduating next year, and I’ve seen the sights. I have nothing calling me back to Cairo other than an insatiable desire to relive some of the most amazing 4 months of my life. That’s the problem with travel I guess. You stay somewhere long enough to fully understand the way in which it functions and by the time you move on, it has become home. Egypt is an incredible country that I pray you all get a chance to visit at some point. Haha although, I’m very much of the opinion that you need at least a month in Cairo to fully appreciate its idiosyncrasies. I’m persuaded to believe that if any Westerner attempts to do Cairo in just a few days they will leave never wanting to come back to the dirty, noisy city that it is. But, nonetheless I pray you all get that chance. I feel so blessed to have been given the opportunity to go and experience it the way I did. It is something that I will hold dear to me for the rest of my life. When you go somewhere for that long, I guess a piece of it comes away with you. I have a piece of Bayern already, and now, Cairo, to add to my collection.  Thank you, Lord, for this insane place. Thank you for the friends I have made, the experiences I’ve had, and the overwhelming reminders that you are constantly there and watching out for me.

       I guess that’s another reason for my utter sadness at leaving this place. I learned so much here faith-wise. God blessed me with time each day to spend in the Bible and talking with him about everything going on in my life. He opened doors to talk to people about faith, and blessed me with friends who I could run to when I needed to freak out about something I had learned in my walk with God. I came into this semester desiring to have time each day to spend with God alone. I had come out of a period in our relationship where I was constantly surrounded by other Christians and being built up in my faith and I had prayed that God would do two things for me. First, I prayed that he would use this semester to embolden me in my faith and get the chance to grow on my own, without having the constant support of Christian community. Second, I prayed that he would let me meet at least one other Christian that I could turn to should I need someone to talk to. Well, I got both and more. God blessed me with some amazing friends who, even when I wasn’t hanging out with them, were constant reminders of what it means to walk by faith. They were a constant encouragement when I was struggling, whether they knew it or not. God had blessed me with people that would pray with and for me, and allow me to be open about the things I needed the most. But, he also blessed me with a community of amazing friends, who, though they don’t necessarily believe the same things, were always there to talk to and simply enjoy life with. I cannot begin to say how much the friendships I’ve made in Cairo have meant to me. It will be hard to come back to the United States and not be able to run downstairs and meet up with them for lunch whenever. It will be strange not to go on fun, random weekend trips with these hilarious gents and simply joke around the entire time. But, I am so insanely blessed to have met them and had the opportunity to call them my friends. Life, in my opinion, is nothing if you don’t experience it with others, and God has constantly surrounded me with people with whom I could do just that. I pray that he continues to do so; not only for me, but them as well. So, I guess, this sort of turned into a half prayer, so AMEN. Thank you all for giving me the chance to tell you all about the amazing adventures I’ve gotten to go on since being here. I love you all! God Bless!

Psalm 150

Praise the LORD

Praise God in his sanctuary; Praise him in his mighty heavens

Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness

Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet; praise him with the harp and lyre

Praise him with timbrel and dancing; praise him with strings and pipe,

Praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals

Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.

Praise the LORD.

The Whirlwind Tour Begins......Tomorrow.

It's beginning!!! And by that I mean it's the beginning of the end. So far this is what I have accomplished today:

• Finished paper
• Packed for trip
• Washed Clothes
• Studied for final 2 exams
• Had my final Egyptian (well actually Lebanese) dinner with Andrew
• Watched 2 episodes of Fringe
• Freaked out about looming departure

Guys. Packing today was the strangest feeling. tomorrow I leave for Jordan and Israel for 6 days. Guys, I have no idea what id going on. As Ron Burgundy would say:

.....I'm in a glass case of EMOTION! 

Unfortunately that's a completely accurate description of my current mental state. I'm beyond excited to be heading off on this whirlwind tour to Petra and Israel/Palestine, but there's so much going through my head! 

It's finally starting to hit me that this semester is over. And unfortunately it is ending with one of those sad, strange, unexpected, random farewell periods. That is to say that instead of everyone leaving at once, people leave at random times and often you don't get the chance to say goodbye. Well, i've said it before but i'll say it again; i'm not terrible with goodbyes...if i'm  leaving. But, knowing that when I return from this insane adventure i'm about to go on a lot of my crew will already be gone? DEPRESSING.Then, on top of that, i'm going to Jordan and Israel on my own! And, while I am excited to go to both of these places, the prospect of making sure I get to Petra and back to the hostel and whatnot all on my own DOES freak me out a tad bit. But, i'm thrilled to get the chance to walk the streets of Jerusalem and Bethlehem. 

But, on the bright side...i'm going to have a crazy amazing few days in Jordan and Israel. Plus, when I get back I'll have one more full day in Cairo to go to all my favorite places, say goodbye to some of my favorite girls and just enjoy this country for one last day. I'm sure i'll sit down and try to write a final blog that day since I won't want to sleep that night anyways...but this has been such an incredible semester. God answered so many prayers, i've made incredible friends, seen amazing things, been to crazy places, eaten delicious food, grown in my faith a ton, and just generally felt insanely blessed. 

So, here we are again...off on yet another adventure. But, as I leave this one behind I can't wait to take a day to reflect on how insanely good God has been to me=] I love you all so much! Thanks for listening to my stories and i'll be sure to post more before I leave!!