A Canggu New Year

Today was a simple day; woke up at the hostel, having enjoyed the full moon party last night, to a fairly relaxed morning. Our ferry isn’t boarding until 12:45pm so Scott, Jon and I have a slow morning getting packed before wandering over to the ferry. Luckily we have chosen a different company to take us back to Bali so the journey is a little nicer, but that may just be because of the weather. It was cloudy with the occasional downpour meaning the boat wasn’t such a sweat box. Once we had made it to the port we stopped off for lunch before getting a taxi to our hostel in Canggu (pronounced Chang - goo), a coastal village with 10 km of beach on the south coast of Bali. By the time we reach our hostel it is late and we are knackered so we pretty much head straight to bed.

Lunch

The next day is spent mainly at the hostel getting to know the people there. It seems to be a close knit group, many of the people have stayed before and come back multiple times. The hostel is a bit rough and ready but it is inexpensive and the people are very nice and like to party, so after a day of chilling we head out on the town doing a bit of a bar crawl. First Scott, Jon and I go for some food at a British style pub before heading to X Bar, a local bar where friends of the hostel workers are performing with their band. Once we have partied with the hostel lot for a while Scott, Jon and I check out Old Man’s Bar (named after the surf break) on the famous Batu Bolong beach, which has more of a club vibe. Jon and I are a bit too sober for it to be honest and stay in the bar area as Scott delves into the dance floor. After we meet back up with some of the hostel lot at X Bar before heading to Sand Bar which is less of a bar and more of a DJ set on the beach. All in all it is a fun night and finally I go to bed at 5:30am which is a little stupid as we're going to Waterbom, a water park, early tomorrow morning.

X Bar

Old Man's Bar

The next day is a recovery day for the hostel with everyone spending the day lounging about by the pool, playing pool and almost everyone gets Grab food deliveries. It is nice to have a chilled day with everyone before we leave, especially as both Jon and I have early starts so won’t be able to say goodbye to Scott in the morning. As such we both have an early night. The next day I am up at about 5am, Jon has already left so I quietly get ready and head out to catch my bus to the port. Luckily for me the ride over is once again fairly chilled and the boat no way near as hot as the first one we had all gotten together. Once I am back on Gili T I walk to my accommodation which is, this time, only a couple of blocks from the port and check in. After a full day of travelling I am pretty tired but I head out to Blue Marlin Dive, where I am booked to do both my Open Water and Open Water Advanced certification. I need to do a little paperwork, so they aren’t liable if I die before doing anything even remotely potentially dangerous. While I am doing it the instructor lets me know that I am supposed to have the first three sections of the e-learning I have been sent done before even getting in the water, which I’ll be doing tomorrow morning! Damn, it is 9pm and I haven’t even eaten yet. I rush to a local restaurant have a quick dinner before heading back to my room and spending the next three hours smashing through my E-Learning. I fall asleep knackered but excited to start my Scuba journey tomorrow!

Sand Bar

Waterbom

A cloudy sunrise on Batu Bolong Beach

Old Man's Bar
(click on the top right hand icon)

Sand Bar
(click on the top right hand icon)

So after only three hours sleep I am up with Scott and Jon ordering a taxi to the water park. It is a massive water park and we get there fairly early at roughly 9:45am. We have a little scare with the tickets we arranged through the hostel as the park originally only has us down for one ticket, but we get it sorted. Once in we realise that we need some sunscreen so we buy some in the shop. It is only once I go to put it on that I realise it is not sun screen but actually a 3 in1 shower gel, shampoo and conditioner, a little annoying considering we asked for sun screen, but oh well I needed some shampoo anyway. After we had bought the sunscreen we headed out to the biggest slides they had and they are impressive. A mixture of straight drops, blow up ring slides and some double up slides. It is a great day although the lazy river is a little too lazy. After having some lunch we lounge by one of the pools before we head back to the hostel. We spend the rest of the evening just chilling at the hostel with everyone playing pool, having some beers and chatting; you know, general hostel goings on. Just as I am getting ready for bed a new friend, Aaliyah,drags me into the pool for a late night swim, she is kind enough to let me take my wallet and phone out of my pocket just before I am pulled in fully clothed with my T-shirt and PJ shorts on. Once in though I embrace it and see the night through swimming around with some new friends and playing some silly pool games. Before an early night Aaliyah,the boys and I have agreed to wake up pre-sunrise to go to the beach and do some surfing while the sun rises.

So at 5:30am we are all up and ordering a Grab to the beach front; weirdly it is the same beach front that Sand Bar is on but it looks very different in the daylight. We make it just in time for sunrise but it is really cloudy so there isn’t much sunrise to see. We find the one surf shop open at this hour and rent a board each. With our surf shirts on we head into the sea for what is an absolutely abysmal display of surfing. None of us really know what we are doing and I think that all of us only achieved standing on the board maybe once or twice. After just over an hour we are all completely knackered and head back in to chill on the beach a bit before deciding we have had enough. When we first got here we had the beach to ourselves, now the sea is full of learners and good surfers so it is time for us to leave. Although a disappointing sunrise and terrible surfing it is still a great way to start the day; a good workout and cold sea water really wakes you up. Having said that, as soon as I got back I showered and had a nap. Once up I chilled in our room planning out the next steps of my travel in three days. Jon would be heading home and I plan on going back to Gili T to finally do my scuba certification. So I book all that as well as a place to stay back on Bali before my flight to Australia. It all gets me very excited for the rest of my trip. Once I have everything booked I head back out to the hostel common area to chill, play pool and have a few beers before our New Year Night out. Originally the boys and I had bought tickets to a club night called Potato Head but, having done a little research, we realised it was about an hour away in good traffic and on NYE more like three hours away. So as such we sacked it off and had a night out with everyone from the hostel, following a similar pattern to the other night, X bar, Old Man’s and Sand Bar. Although this time I got to bed at a more reasonable hour; around 2am.

A lot to learn

The diving school back on Gili T