Category — The Best So Far

When we left Bali we were happy, lighter and more tan than when we arrived, with the peace of the certainty that we are coming back to this magical place someday.

Felipe with his collection of injuries: the bike accident that yielded an infection, the board that cut his head and a “Bali kiss” – common burning on the bike’s exhaust pipe. People say he probably had a “karma” with the island, I think that after all the debt must be paid! Another theory is that he’s already used his whole “quota of bad luck” of the trip during this single month, so from now on it will be all about joy! I like this second one… and I hope that my “quota of bad luck” doesn’t exist. hehe

I leave with my new passion, which later, in Brazil, my friend Carlos explained that there is nothing new about it, this love story is old, and that makes me even more delighted.

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Selamat pagi everyone. We’ve been in Indonesia for 2 weeks, but it feels like a lot more and as long as it’s been awhile that we don’t post anything, prepare yourself because here comes a big story. It is a feeling of newness at every minute and at the same time of identification, something here makes me feel at home. New Zealand seems so distant now, and the feeling is that Australia was no more than a quick passage and that the journey only began on the day they we took off from Perth. Today, more precisely, we are in Lombok, one of the islands of Nusa Tenggara, but I came here to tell a little bit of what were the first weeks in Bali.

Arrival

At the airport in Perth and throughout the flight I broke a strange nervousness. My heart seemed that was beating up at my mouth, I got dizzy and could not explain why. Only later I realized that I was about to fall in love. It was love at first sight of the colors of the sea, the architecture, the smiles, the first scent of sandalwood, the sea and restaurants, the first sound of bells, the sea, the horns, the first desire to take off my boots, my pants and wear only a summer dress as it was 30 degrees inside the airport. The kind of love that even knowing the shortcomings of other, falls in love more and more every day. Bali is a place to fall in love with. Even with the intrinsic poverty, chaotic, noisy and polluted traffic, the open sewers, the garbage on the streets, the corruption, the excessive number of tourists … Bali is still lovely. The little we could know of the island before coming to Lombok showed us that Bali is beautiful, colorful and smiling. Every corner, every house, every object, is an example that Bali is overflowing art, history and culture by every pore. The food is wonderful. Before leaving NZ we received several warnings to do not even brush our teeth with tap water at the risk of contamination, even so since the first day we’ve been having natural juices, tea with ice, eating in small local restaurants (which do not speak English, do not serve Western food and do not charge us 5x the normal price) and yes, we do brush our teeth usually with tap water and have not had any problem, neither I nor Felipe.

Immigration

We left Perth with 1 hour of delay and arrived at the airport in Denpasar (which indeed is not in Denpasar) at 3:30 in the afternoon. First stop was to pay the visa – US$25 each, 50,000 rupees for both, as Felipe had taken a few rupees before leaving Australia. Second and loooong was the stop at the immigration queue, which despite the delay of approximately 1 hour, was very calm, they got our passports, the forms that we had filled out during the flight, the receipt of payment and returned it with the stamp “Republic of Indonesia” with a 30-day visa. No questions, no other document required, simple like this. When we finally left, our bags were waiting on the floor in the lobby of the airport. Airport security guards surrendered the bags to their respective owners. We also passed by the police with bags and surfboards with no question, or even a X-ray. But behind me I saw a guy having to put the surfboard on the table, open and show the police officer what was inside it. The Indonesian law has zero tolerance for possession of drugs and if the person is carrying any, he can get death penalty here. Leaving the airport, there was a huge crowd outside. A total madness, everyone squeezing themselves behind a little gate, shouting, holding labels with names, pushing each other… a lot of people, and a very hot weather. From inside we saw Pasqual and Ale, by the corner, a little separated from the crowd, waving to us.

Reception in Bali

Pasqual and Ale are a couple of very good and dear friends, also from Curitiba and who also live in New Zealand, they left NZ 1 month before us and we’ll be with us during this trip in several parts of the way. They arrived in Indonesia also 1 month before us and when we arrived not only they were waiting for us at the airport but also had already arranged a taxi to take us to a friend’s house and had even rented a motorbike for us for the next month. Thanks a loooooooot, dears! In Singapore we’ll be waiting for you. We got the cab to Luis’ house, another Brazilian, also from Curitiba, who’s been living in Bali for 7 months with his wife, Aline, who is from Switzerland. Luis’ house is located in Sanur, a city on the east coast of Bali. The first shock was the traffic, we already knew the fame of the chaos of traffic here, but from inside the taxi we were even more impressed. Many many bikes, sometimes whole families on a bike, the cars and bikes pile up, if they overtaking, the turn in front of each other without waiting their turn, they only warn with the horn .. it means that everybody horns all the time and it seems that everyone “almost hits” all the time too. In Luis’ house I finally managed to get off my boots and pants and relax. We paid the rent of our bike, 600,000 Rupees for a month, which is equivalent to US$ 60 (that’s right, US$2 per day). At night we moved the four of us to “Kesari Sanur”, an excellent inn in Sanur, western style, with pool, internet and rooms with air conditioning. Price: 150,000 Rupees per day each room – US$ 7.50 per person. We spent 3 days there and then we moved to “Sun House”, another excellent inn, Balinese style, but also with pool, air conditioning and the same price. We spent 2 more days there. I recommend either of them for who is looking to go to Sanur, only the pool is worth it on this freaking hot city.

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Yesterday, 25th of July, No Place Like Here completed one month online.
You may think “whatever.. 1 month?.. 1 month is nothing,” but when the kid is still a baby we want to celebrate each month, especially the first one (which deserves a post!).
Yes, the first post is from the 10th of June, but the site was still being developed at that time and the actual date of birth was 25th of June, when we put it online and told all our friends to come visit us!

We’re surprised how well the site has been doing during this first month. The truth is that we weren’t expecting that anyone apart from family and close friends wanted to read what we write here.
It ended up happening exactly the opposite, we met a lot of nice new people through the site, we’ve been receiving visits from the most diverse locations in the globe (31 countries so far, all continents), we exchanged links with other travellers-writers, and at the end of the day who least visit us are our friends and families… it is common to have a friend asking about something that we have just posted here!

We are so happy to know that the majority is reading our posts in English, despite the primary language is still Portuguese, since this is our first language (and that I love.. just because Portuguese is beautiful!).
It is also nice to see people from various different locations in Brazil visiting us (38 cities so far) and know that Brazilians are interested in travelling too.

There are still many stories to come, and if you want to continue following us, you may want to subscribe to our RSS.
If you do not know what RSS is, watch this video made by Lee and Sachi LeFever. I wouldn’t be able to explain it better than this.

And since you are visiting us here, leave us a comment, we love meeting new people and receiving comments! Even if you’re not new.

P.S.: counting down: 43 days left.