Ubud overall

What can we say? We want to live here.

Ubud is the place to love yourself. Endless spas, yoga and meditation classes provide this - as after all, you can only love someone as much as you love yourself. 

Everything from the never-ending line of shops to the infinite number of restaurants makes Ubud the perfect place to relax. We've spent a week of luxury here, compared to bumming around on the beach, having reflexology, massages and facials, as well as visiting temples, markets and watching Balinese dancers.

The market was definitely an experience - 7am is far too early to be spying fish guts and pig heads out of the corner of your eyes. The smoke was choking and I doubt we saw one smile, yet it was interesting to see the locals bartering with each other... and we managed to grab some prawn crackers so all was good.

Ubud is FULL of market stalls; we are now pro barterers! Yet we cannot help but blow the budget everyday on smoothies, bags, t-shirts... and maybe a couple of billabong bikinis.

 

Every morning the locals put there offerings out on the streets of Bali, which is cute and makes the entire jungle city smell of incense.

Once again, we made a trip to the temple.... which meant passing the terrifying monkeys, though we squealed and ran for our lives, all was well when we discovered them pier jumping from the trees into a pond, hehe.

Afronisia!! An amazing african/reggae/jazz band we went to see with a bunch of dancing hippies; their music was incredible and wild dancing in the crown only heightened the AMBIANCEEEE.

A show of traditional Balinese dancers was amazing to see! Jod: I studied these back in the day during drama and it was fantastic to actually see them in the flesh.  An elderly man screeched down a microphone as the voice of many of the characters and they moved frantically about.  Their eyes were wild and darting and their hands outstretched and shaking continuously.  Definitely got my Artaud on. 

Treating our bodies as usual to a post-yoga raw honey lassie or whole coconut.

Our last day in Ubud was a little different from the rest.  Rather than spending six hours of our day in meditation of some form, we raced up the rice paddies on a quad bike! Not steady in the slightest but a very very fun way to see the scenery of the town.

LOVE FROM BALI
jod + meg

Nusa Lembongan

Possibly the sweetest island you will ever see.

About an hour on a slow boat away for Sanur, but it could not be more different! With no stalls of clothes, or even cars on the island, the only thing between our room and the sea was the sea wall - amazing!

 

 We spent our days with juice and yoga (where we once again befriended two middle-aged women who taught us a little about the island as they own property over here) by the beach, along with snorkeling with Manta Rays (much bigger then we remember from South Africa!!!!!) and surfing Lacerations (a surf break out to sea.... green waves and everything CHECK US OUT).  It's really sweet how the kids out here have so much more freedom than back home but are then again, so much safer as everyone seems to look after them.  For example, our surf instructor's boat took out a couple of the local kids! They were squealing with delight every time they caught a wave and I bet their parents weren't at all worried about where they were.

 Scooting around the mangroves was probably the most unsteady few hours of our life, but cool way to see the island without a painfully long walk... hilarious AND practical.

 Snorkelling ^ lol at the honeymoon shots.

Only in Bali.... not enough money for the change so got a chocolate bar instead, perfect.

Probably the best sunsets I have seen in my life! 5 days was not long enough!

Peace and love from Bali,
Jod + Meg xxx

Kuta + Uluwatu (Bali) PARDY

We have arrived in Bali! (well we have been here for nearly two weeks, but the internet is about as slow as everything else on Bali time so we have been struggling to update)

On our first night in Kuta, it was safe to say that we were terrified... we arrived in the dark, got completely ripped off for a taxi (30 dollars when it should have been 6, but he followed us around and into the toilet so what could we do), and then locked ourselves away into a crepe shop of all places, to hide forever.

HOWEVER, after a brave walk down a mysterious dark alley, we arrived in the perfectly fine, and equally hilarious Poppies Lane 2. We wandered outside and realised that Kuta was the Aiya Napa of Bali, with Bounty and Skygarden night clubs handing out free drinks to 'international guests' - free drinks for being on holiday? safe to say we got carried away!

The following night we were ready.... 9pm at Sky Garden for drinks and THE BEST dance in Sky Dome with the locals. We stayed at Gora Beach Inn... after you get over the scary exterior of a dingy car park, the inside is really sweet, for less then 5$ a night we had a room overlooking the pool and banana jaffles for breakfast! Pretty perfect as an escape from the streets of  'Transport!! Transport!!' and 'Mushrooms???'

After we had enjoyed the nightlife in Kuta, as well as hiring surfboards for just one day, we quickly plotted our escape to nicer surroundings; Uluwatu. We stayed near Padang Padang beach, which is beautiful! White sand, blue sea and the rest... though i'm pretty sure we spotted a few comodo dragons!!!!!!!! As we arrived on a Sunday we headed to the Single Fin Party at Uluwatu beach; there was an amazing local band and every traveler was keen to drukenly chat to you about Bali and their love for surfing.

We spent our days either chilling on the beach with a Nasi Goreng (Pot noodle with an egg on the top) or at the Temple, with the monkeys............ THAT ATTACKED US! Absolutely terrifying; the monkeys jumped out the trees, bared their fangs at us and started climbing up Jodie skirt.... our screaming did NOT help but was rather entertaining for the locals.... "You no like monkey???"

^^(After being asked SO many times for photos with various foreign people because we are English, we have started asking for photos back, with hilarious results hahahaha)

In Uluwatu, we spent our mornings taking part in the yoga classes at Mu, a hotel near where we were staying. It was SO NICE! The teacher was really cool, tanned, told us we were beautiful in our sweatiest times and loved everything about Bali - we would definitely recommended this class! It was quite pricey at 100,0000 for an hour but definitely worth the money, we spent the whole day feeling relaxed and stretchy.

One day after class we befriended a 60 year old french man (why are our mates always about a thousand years old) and we gave both of us a lift home on his moped whilst telling us which surf competition he was organizing that day.... hilarious.

Happy Travels xxx

Finally... We're booked!

Whenever we begin to discuss our trip with worried relatives, they ask "But nothing's booked yet?" to wish we shamefully answered "no", and once more their smiles were restored and their fears banished. 

But the tables have turned!!!! and the excitement grows!

Our flights (and travel insurance) are now booked and paid for.  Thing's were slowed down a little for us, living in Jersey, as companies specialising in travelling and gap years do not have offices over here.  So, after one horrendous phone call in which we began hysterically laughing and throwing the phone to one another, we resorted to communicating only through email.  So, this weekend Megan when to visit her cousin at the University of Brighton.  Where STA travel conveniently have an office.

Two and a half hours of details and decisions later, it was definitely for the best to have visited an agency in person! The staff were brilliant and each had travelled all different parts of the world so knew exactly what kind of flights and insurance we should be looking at. After spinning the globe on the desk around multiple times, I managed to figure out exactly where we were heading...

With our first stop switching from Niarobi to MOMBASSA to take part in Camp Kenya (elephant sanctuaries, hanging out with local tribes, game drives and volunteering in local schools.... more details to follow after the next pay cheque!) we were left with a grand total of EIGHT flights through our five destinations. For under £1,700 for all the flights, booking through STA was definitely a good decision as we could use our under 25's discount saving huge £££££!!!!!!!!

Finally booking is a HUGE relief, leaving us with only visas, transfers and a few essentials to buy before simply earning our much needed spending money for food, accommodation and necessary extras; eg SKY DIVES, BUNGEES JUMPS, ADVANCED DIVING COURSES, and hopefully some other wild adventures!


Brighton itself was wild but great, the perfect british weekend away finished off with fish & chips on the pier in the rain, mmmmm.

Check out the moody brighton sea...


Updates soon!
Megan and Jodie.

The Plan

    Hujambo, Selamat Sore, Hai, Sawatdee, Ayo Bowan.

 

So firsts thing's first on the travel front; the plan - believe me it's changed alot over the course of the last few months. 

First, we were all about Bali, Thailand, Australia, New Zeland and Fiji.  The classic gap year route with countless bagpackers just like us to meet, surf, sun and beautiful auzzie boys.  Saaweet enough, but when we sat down to think about what we wanted from our experience and from each country we planned on visiting, we were unsure.  We don't want to just gain a tan and sit on a beach drinking smoothies (although for a little while it might be nice!). We want exotic locations (not just a hot England), exciting cultures to learn about, cool sites and beautiful, rare species to see!

So, we decided to mix things up a little;

Kenya - Bali - Malaysia - Thailand - Sri Lanka.

(hence the 'hello's at the beginning of this post).

Unfortunately, we had to crop Madagascar out of the equation where we had planned a diving, teaching and conservation project, due to cost reasons.

We plan to stay for roughly a month in each country.

Kenya; the one place in which we plan to stay still, mostly due to it being our first and probably most dangerous stop.  We're in the process of organising a volunteer project; perhaps staying with a tribe, building for the community and a conservation project all in one...

Bali; I suppose it's difficult to give a real plan at this stage of each of the stops, as really our plan is to explore and see something new - the religion and temples as well as the wildlife here,

Malaysia/Thailand; Something very exciting/death-threatening here. Our flight drops as to Kuala Lumpar in Malaysia and picks us up in Bangkok (eeeeek!)  So making our way along the coast, visiting different islands on the way should be interesting!  We are also looking at a short conservation project with Orangutans in Malaysia with real gap if funds permit.

Sri Lanka: Our last stop before home and the most planned yet.  Jodie is lucky enough to have friends from Sri Lanka who have helped us plan our route, places not to miss out on and some volunteering.  After arriving in Colombo, we will hopefully be able to stay with some of the locals who live not far away before heading straight up to the mountains to explore the temples, the national park and visit a friend's family (hopefully digging into a traditional dinner of curry) and to volunteer in the children's orphanage.  Then, as we begin travelling down towards to coast and more touristy side of Sri Lanka, we will stop off at the wildlife orphange, volunteering there for a couple of days.  We will finish our trip with the "beach boys" as our Sri Lankan helper puts it before heading home to Jersey.

Woah, apologies for the waffle but hopefully you find our plan even a quarter as exciting as us! 

Comment and let us know what you think or if you've been to any of these places - tips much appreciated!

We'll keep you posted,

Jodie and Megan

(photos from Nat Geo)

Our starting point: Jersey

Jersey.
Our hometown and pretty great starting point that is.
After our final summer holidays of kidding around before far too many of our friends left for university, we've been left looking back on our incredible summer with nostalgia as we dive into 9-5. 

The beaches, the parties, the nights when you and ten friends are naked in the pool as the police arrive.  True, the nightlife is shit but there's lots of ways to make your own fun when you've got great company and lots of water (and vodka).  With countless beaches, you're never at a loss of things to do as even when the weather isn't great, rock-jumping and surfing with a hot chocolate afterwards are always less than nine miles away!

Pass the Parcel and a passed-out member of the party at Jodie's 18th.

Appreciating the Jersey waters.

 Prior to being chased around the house naked by a policeman getting told "there's nothing special between your legs".

Charity sky-dive for Hope for John managing to raise £1,200 between three of us.

Our Favourite place to spend time - St. Ouen's Bay

Peace and Love,

Jodie and Megan.