My Trip to Bali

My Trip to Bali

When I was little, I love to travel around Indonesia together with my grandmother. We’ve been in various towns together. We’ve been to Bali, Palembang, Lampung, Lembang, Puncak, Wonogiri, Yogyakarta, Surakarta, Bogor, Solo and many more. And this time, one of the greatest experiences I've had that I'm going to tell you is; my trip to Bali. Different from most people who took an airplane to get there, because we went to Bali with a bus! On the way, we saw a lot of unexpected things in Bali, including traffic accidents and beautiful views of nature. We saw amazing landscapes of the beautiful ocean, astonishing sunset and saw a lot of foreigners there. It was a very unforgettable moment for me.

My grandmother has worked in GSM as known as Geologi Sumberdaya Mineral, which gave her access to go anywhere in Indonesia. This is why she often took me along with her to her various trips in Indonesia. And this is our trip together to Bali.

If I remember correctly, it took place when I was on a holiday of my graduation from Elementary School. I was about 12 years old at the time. I went to Bali with my grandmother, together with my auntie and her daughter along with my 9 years old niece. At first my grandmother decided to take us there by using a plane, but then one of her friend offered a cheap trip using a pariwisata bus. It was offered by her good friend and since there were a lot of my grandmother's friends who were going with the same bus trip. She couldn't refuse the offer. So, we decided to go to Bali using a bus.

We were told to gather in a huge open-field, at a very early morning: 5am. There were 3 buses including the one we were going to ride. I was a little surprised because there were so many people gathered around, but what I was surprised the most is the amount of friends my grandmother had. It was like 60-70% of the people gathered here, was her friend. I was very sleepy that time, but the excitement erased all of it. After everyone gathered, our names were called one by one for the attended list. After that we set off from the open-field at 7 o'clock.

In the trip my auntie was sulking, because she thought that using airplane would be much more comfortable. She kept on mumbling about the bus and about the time we were going to spend inside the bus. I wasn't very surprised that time because I've never been to Bali before, so I thought the trip wouldn't be so long. But I thought I was wrong. I thought the trip may took approximately about 6-8 hours, just like when we went to Pangandaran from Jakarta, but after 6 hours we weren't even there yet.

I didn't remember much about the places we visited in the way to Bali. What I remembered was that we stayed in various towns for a moment and bought a lot of snacks to spend in the bus. We also stopped a lot because we have to take prayers and needed to go to the toilet. It was causing the trip a little lag, but I thought it was fun to take a long trip, inside a bus.

We spent a night on a motel in a town, I've forgotten the name of the town but it was pretty creepy as I remember. The motel was looking great at the first corridor and the furniture looked pretty nice too. But it was all changed after I found out that our room was located on the 2nd floor on the rear side of the building, which was near huge and bushy trees. I was creeped a lot and I wanted to change rooms, but unfortunately we have run out of rooms that time. We arrived pretty late at that time, maybe it was around twilight. So I thought that as a very creepy moment of my first trip to Bali.

Inside the room there were two beds; one is for my grandmother and my auntie, the other one is for me and my nieces. The three of us was sleeping in the same bed, so it was pretty crumpled. But I was happy because the weather was pretty cold and because we stayed in the same bed, we didn't feel so cold as before. But it was a little annoying in the morning because my 9 years old niece wetted the bed, maybe it was because of the cold weather. But fortunately I didn't get wet, but unfortunately my blanked was wet and stinks all over so we got to wash it.

After that we set of from the motel and went inside the bus to continue our trip. Once again the tiring long trip was going to begin. After taking about 3 hours we arrived in a harbor. Again, I've forgotten the name of the harbor and where it was located. But it was very exciting to see the view of the blue ocean. There were a lot of children gathered in the ocean; they were waving their hands as we entered the ship. As I remember, the ship was red colored and was pretty big. I was a little scared because I afraid that they could get crushed if they stay too near to our ship. But my grandmother said that they were used to it and that they were actually waiting for us to throw coins at them. Then they would catch the coins we threw or dive to catch the drowning coins.

After we went inside the ship, I rushed toward the balcony to see the view of the coin catcher children. I asked my grandmother for some coins to throw to them. And what my grandmother said earlier was right; the coin catcher children were professionals at swimming. The sea was actually very deep and I was really amazed by their agility.

After taking about 4 hours, we arrived at the other harbor. I was really excited because it would take only a little more trip to reach Bali. And finally we arrived at the gate of Bali, and finally we were in Bali. I was very excited and I was really looking forward toward this tour. But then…“Bam!” Suddenly we saw a huge truck carrying a couple of cows, crashed into a small street shop. There were some of the cows fell down the truck and were walking panicky around the street. One was running away, two were walking staggering. 

I was shocked because we have just arrived in Bali and then suddenly we were faced with seeing an accident. After that we continued our trip with sorry feeling, I hope that the people inside the shop were somehow okay. We were relieved for some time but shockingly after that we saw another accident again. A motorbike crashed into a car, a woman riding it was bleeding on her head and then brought to a hospital.

Aside from the heart-throbbing accidents we saw. Finally, we could enjoy our vacation in Bali. There were a lot of foreigners there, maybe from all over the world. The Balinese society was very friendly and open-minded, they smile to everyone they met. I saw a lot of ‘sesajen’ on the side of the road and the trees along the street were all covered by some kind of checkered pattern sarong. It was their ancient tradition and was still lasts until this time. I was amazed. It was very interesting to watch their activity of rites along the street.

After that we arrived at our hotel, this time the hotel was very beautiful. We have a swimming pool, garden, cafeteria, a huge TV and of course a comfortable room. On our first day, we visited Kuta Beach and visited a holy shrine in Bali. I didn’t remember much about the things we did there. But I remember clearly about the awesome amazed feeling we’ve felt. In the morning we went to visit a huge amusement place in Bali, I forgot the name but inside we saw a huge fish pond contained of Holy Fishes and some small fishes used to clean the moss and for therapy. I put my feet inside the pond and I felt the fish eating the dead skins of my feet, it was really ticklish. In the evening we went to the beach and splashing the water to my nieces. I saw a really nice view there it was very satisfying to see the sunset. The chilling breeze of the sea, the silhouettes of people walking, the mixed color of the sun’s reflection on the sea, just like fire auroras of the sea. All the time we spent on the bus paid off by the beauty of the landscapes. This was where my first day in Bali ended.

On the second day, we decided to go to GWK or as known as Garuda Wisnu Kencana. In there, we saw three huge statues of Garuda, The God Wisnu and Ganesha if I remember correctly. It was amazing how big the statues could be. There was a new huge statue being built at the time we visited them, I wonder if they have been finished by now.

And on the third way, we went back home. But before we went back to Jakarta, we visited Mount Bromo to see a sunrise. I remembered that was the most freezing weather I’ve felt in my life perhaps the temperature was about 3 Celsius degree. But the sunrise view was very beautiful that the chill was gone.

I have a great unforgettable vacation and I could still remember the moment I felt that time, clearly. I was really happy, because I was able to spend my time with my grandmother, my auntie and my nieces. I hope I can go to Bali again sometime, but then next time it will be with my father, my mother and my siblings.