I’ll always remember Bali as that trip of mine with so many firsts.
Before Bali, I’d either travel with my family or friends. I’m so used to going with a group that even if I’ve considered traveling alone many times in the past, I’d always have reservations and end up not going.
Until I turned 30 and felt it was the time for me to start doing things I’ve always wanted to do but, for whatever reason, have been putting off. It was either now or never!
And so I went on my first ever solo trip…
…to Bali. :)
You know how people say it’s best for first-time solo travelers to go local first before going international? I could’ve chosen a local destination if it was any other time. But I was feeling brave and bold that “practicing” locally wasn’t at all necessary. I was soooo ready to finally cross “solo traveling” off my bucket list and take it to the next level right away!
I still pat myself on the back for making Bali my choice of destination. There really couldn’t have been a better place for first-time solo traveling than Bali.
I stayed at the super nice, 4-star Astagina Resort & Spa. I was going alone and had no one to share hotel expenses with, but price really wasn’t a concern anymore since I wanted a pleasant, relaxing place to come home to after a long day of tiresome traveling.
And you bet Astagina Resort & Spa was money well-spent! An overall excellent hotel with a really nice pool (yay!) and a swim-up bar (even yayer!). My room was modern and clean with all the ammenities I could ask for. The bed was huge, comfy and it was all mine and mine alone! Oh the perks of traveling solo! :)
One of the things I made sure to add to my itinerary was surfing! I haven’t tried it before and figured where else would it be more perfect to learn how to surf than Bali?
I booked a 1-day, 2-hour course with Rip Curl School of Surf, which was a good 5 minutes walk from my hotel. It cost me about Php2,000 if I remember it correctly, plus another Php1,000 for my surfing pictures stored in a cute Rip Curl branded surfboard USB. Not too shabby, eh?
The session went rather well. It took me about half an hour’s worth of falling before I was finally able to get up and maintain balance on the board. Surfing is a freaking workout and is a lot harder than it looks. It can even be extra challenging if you’re a smoker like myself, but I had fun nonetheless and fell in love with surfing right away! I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about surfing since then and actually went surfing in Siargao just one month after Bali, but that’s a different story altogether. :)
I’m just so glad I got into surfing because it really has that amazing ability to soothe the mind and ease the heart. Ocean therapy at its finest! :)
Along with surfing and being in the ocean, I also find sunsets very therapeutic. Sunsets always leave me feeling relaxed, humbled and more appreciative of where I am and what I have in life. That’s why I always make it a point to sit back and watch the sun go down regardless if I’m home or away.
Bali was not an exception, and of course I wasn’t settling for anything less than the Uluwatu Temple as the spot for me to catch the sunset.
The view of the temple against a vast sky and ocean backdrop was truly beautiful. Wait until the sun starts setting and that’s when the view becomes all the more epic. I’ve been lucky enough to have seen the sunset from different parts of the world, but it was actually in Bali where it felt most serene and comforting. The fact that I did it in a place of worship – my first time, by the way – added more value to the experience.
Looking back, the objective for this trip was to finally accomplish my goal of traveling by myself, and I came home bearing more. I’m really happy I bit the bullet and just…went. :)
BEAUVELISTA 