Bali is a popular destination for honeymooners and people who are in love. For years I said to myself that I would save it for that trip with the right guy. I said that this wasn’t the place for a solo travel trip. But then I woke up one day and realized that while my life has been totally amazing and improving year after year, my love life consisted generally of heartbreaks by wrong people disguised as sweet nice right people. But such is life, when 95% of it is going well you can’t be too greedy. It’s not fun if everything is perfect.

So that same day in Hong Kong I was thinking of places to go next and couldn’t decide. Maybe I should go to Bali and stop waiting for that special someone, I thought. But what if I did the Philippines or Cambodia or Thailand instead and left Bali for later? Since I couldn’t decide, I came up with a poll that I posted to my friends on Facebook and committed to go to the place that got the most votes. Bali was the clear favorite. So be it! A solo trip to Bali was next on the cards.

Except…it didn’t turn to be nearly as solo as I thought. On day 1 I receive a message from a cute guy who was also traveling alone and seemed to be looking for people to visit around with. A quick flirt here and there and next thing you know we’re in bed and it was on.

Good sex and a little random chit chat later and I learned that he has been partnered for ages. Partnered people tend to enjoy the excitement that they’ve lost with their partners and then, no matter how much they like you, once done I find that they will almost always discard you and go back to what they’ve grown so accustomed and attached to. All fair game.

So back to this guy. I understood the risk and I had clearly decided in my head that nothing else would happen except hanging out and sightseeing. But I’m never so disciplined with matters of the $&@k and so one night turned into two, three, an extension of my trip and of course in the end a mini heartbreak. How else did you think this would end?

There are at least four factors in my opinion that determine how close you can get to someone. The environment (external stressors, beauty of the surroundings, etc), how well you get along, the amount of time spent together, and the emotional states both people are in. In this case, the stars lined up perfectly. Both on holiday in a place that resembles paradise, alone, with limited time, and both in more or less vulnerable positions – I had been traveling alone for several months and started feeling lonely and he had been having some relationship issues.

It felt like a match made in heaven. We shared everything. A bed, a motorcycle, meals, hikes, monkey bites, sunsets, and sunrises. We understood each other like we had known each other for years. He was sweet and loving and had an incredible passion for life, food, kids, and animals. We did many trips and broke many rules together. We took surfing lessons and hiked an active volcano at sunrise. We sneaked into every other hotel pool, a sold out fire dance, made out naked at a straight beach club, and finally, the obvious one, the no cheating rule.

After all the fireworks were done and we left each other and the tears rolled down my face I wondered if it were all real or not. Was the passion because of the limited time we had? Because of the rocky relationship on the other side? Because after months traveling solo I got lonely? I didn’t know and in the end I decided it didn’t really matter. For two weeks I was in love and that was enough. From meeting to sex to friendship to falling for each other followed by a honeymoon of sorts in Ubud and finally a breakup 13 days later this may the best type of relationship to be in. You get to see the good side of a person without dealing with the ugly parts. And of course as you would imagine I did find some ugly ones later on and I’m sure he did too.

Falling in love again was on my bucket list and I am very thankful to get a chance to scratch it off the list now. From a non selfish perspective, I hope I helped rebalance their relationship and bring it back to a healthy state. What happened in Bali shall stay in Bali (and on this site).

Now let me bring this back to a travel blog! Bali was amazing, there are so many things to do you are almost guaranteed to feel fomo before, during, and after your trip. So plan carefully! And plan as long a trip as you can. The food was amazing and I especially loved the fresh vegetarian food. Ubud was by far my favorite place.

Here were some of the highlights:

The Beaches

The southern parts had the better ones it seemed to me. I enjoyed Badung beach.

Monkeys (Everywhere but mostly at Sacred Monkey Forest)

Keep in mind these bastards aren’t as friendly as they look! Make sure not to look them in the eye or play with their offspring

Sunsets (everywhere but my best one was at mount batur)

The rice fields

The food (failed to take good pics this trip)

The world’s most expensive coffee

The main reason Kopi Luwak is the world’s most expensive coffee is due to the way it is produced. It is made from coffee beans digested by an Indonesian cat-like animal called the civet cat. $35 to $100 for a cup of coffee.

The Ubud hotels (at great value)

The friendly people

The culture

The seemingly never ending religious sites (sarongs are not optional)

And finally for my least favorite bit. How chill people were as a snake was slithering around one of the temples 😨😱