Bali Baby☀️🌴💃

Second to my dream of witnessing a Kenya where primary health care is achievable lives a dream of travelling to all the 195 countries on the globe.

In November, 2019 I had the chance to start my #Journeyto195 by ticking 1 country off the list. Yeeei! I got to go to Indonesia for the Asia World Model United Nations III (AWMUN) conference courtesy of my friends and family💕. After the conference, I had the privilege of extending my stay for eight days solo making my stay in Indonesia eleven days long.

I visited Bali, one of the 17,508 islands that make up Indonesia, and here are some tips and information I found useful and would love to share with you:-)

Airline : I used China Southern Air because it had the cheapest rates at the time. I later blessed the heavens when I found out they offer free accommodation/city tour for layovers longer than 8 hours. How cool! They have the best hotels, very comfortable seats and the tour has an English speaking guide. The tour is only available once a day at 8 am so make sure you chose an itinerary that arrives in Guangzhou in the morning😉. It took us a total of 18 hours from Kenya to Bali plus 10 hours for layover. Find more info on free accommodation booking here.

Booking your air ticket: It is known that booking tickets months/a year earlier offers better rates. Ensure you book your flight months before to avoid high prices! I booked my tickets trough STA Travels but would advice you to book directly on the airline’s website. It helps in cases of missed flights or lost luggage; story for another day😭.

Hair: I made the decision to travel with my natural hair days to the journey. The decision was mainly due to inadequate finances😆 but it ended up being the best decision! Blacks hardly visit Bali so kinky hair is a mystery to them. My bantu knots were everyone’s favorite. It helped me get a discount at the market, start most of my conversations and even had me confused for a model – insert Naomi Campbell here😎. I however had to deal with stares everywhere and people randomly touching my hair👑.

Accommodation: During the conference we were accommodated at the Permata Kuta hotel; a four star hotel that deserves to be a five star!🙌 During my extension I entirely slept in hostels. All the hostels were below 400 Ksh except for Stellar Capsules which was 600 ksh. I booked all my hostels on hostelworld.com ;some prior to the journey and others while in Bali. The hostels I stayed in are: House of D16, Arta Garden hostel, Margarita surf hostel, Pretty girl hostel and Stellar Capsules. I was lucky that all this hostels had swimming pools, were very clean and I met the most amazing roommates🤗.

Places visited: The conference was held at Nusa Dua with a one day tour to Uluwatu. After the conference I went ahead and explored Ubud, Canggu, Seminyak and Kuta. While in Kuta I got to go for a night out in Legian and was lucky to find a club playing African music! I really can’t decide which of the towns is my favorite but I wish I got to spend more time in Uluwatu, the place is divine😍

Getting around: I started off my extension with an amazing Ubud tour with a lady called Ana Ana. The 10 hour tour cost 6,000ksh but I with 3 of my friends so we paid 2,000ksh each . The rest of my days were spent exploring the different towns using Google maps, Google Translator and Gojek app for transportation.

Transportation: I entirely used Gojek, an online transport app that allows you to order for GoCar and GoJek (bodas) online. It is something similar to Uber with very affordable rates.

Sim card: I got a Telekomsel sim card from klook.com for roughly seven dollars. The sim card had an amazing package of 8 GB data, 300 minutes for international calls and unlimited international SMS’s. Kindly note that this package is not available for over the counter purchase and you will need to make the order 8 hours before your flight lands at the airport. The data came through big time when using the online apps while solo and for easy communication with my family and friends.

Photos: I entirely used my tripod while solo and asked strangers to take photos where the tripod was not efficient. Tripods for the win!! I bought my tripod here. If you however can, buy a 54 inch one for more efficiency

Food: The street food in Bali is so yummy! Their kibanda is called a Warung and they are so stylish! My favorite meal was Chicken Nasi Goreng; it’s a mix of fried rice and chicken. I also looved the fanta strawberry; so sweet! The prices range between 150 ksh to 600 ksh depending on where you buy from. They also have mini mats on most streets so you can buy snacks to cut on costs.

Water: By all means DO NOT drink any tap water as it is widely known that tap water in Bali is not safe. You can easily buy bottled water from any the mini mats. A 1.5 liter bottle goes for 45 ksh depending on the water company.

Souvenirs: This one really had me stressed! I can be quite a spendthrift and having streets filled with cute items really gave me a hard time. There are cute souvenir pieces all over the streets of Bali. As a foreigner make sure you bargain to a third of the quoted price. If you are not good at bargaining you can visit Krisna Oleh Oleh stores in Kuta. Their prices are fixed although slightly higher than the market prices. I also found Kuta market cheaper compared to the famous Ubud market.

Now that I have shared the most important tips, we can get into the different activities and sites I visited and can recommend. My budget for the trip was 24,000 ksh and I made sure everything fit within this budget! Haha, I know you are thinking how on earth did 24k sustain 11 days🤯?? Be back a fortnight from now to get all the juice😋.