Island Life in Bali

Country number 6, Indonesia!!! Holy cow I can’t believe that we have now been to 6 new countries this year. All of them are so different and Bali, Indonesia is no exception. Indonesia is the first Muslim country we visited, but Bali (a small island in Indonesia) is Hindu. The first thing we noticed was the intricate doorways everywhere! The Balinese take great pride in the entrance to their homes and extravagantly decorate their doorways. We enjoyed learning about Indonesia's rich culture and traditions.

We traveled to the mountain city of Ubud and began apartment hunting. We hit the jackpot and rented a rice paddy bungalow for a month. Our land lord, Agnus, texted us our rent receipt, smiled, and said “This is Bali business. The simpler the better! We quickly realized that contrary to popular belief roosters “cock-a-doodle-do” at all times of the day, not just in the morning. Regardless we loved our little oasis.

We jumped into our routine of working 4-5 days a week and exploring in between. On our first day off we hopped on our motorbike and rode out to Tegallalang Rice Terraces. What a stunning place! We wondered around the terrace trails taking in the views. The highlight of the day was simultaneously riding humongous swings. We laughed as we swung out over the beautiful, green valley.

Another day off was dedicated to chasing waterfalls. After a chaotic and stressful motorbike ride we found the falls. We enjoyed cooling off in the refreshing waters. We hiked up stream and found a secluded canyon; complete with another swing (I’m starting to sense a theme!) The highlight of the day was watching local children play in the water. Their smiles and laughs were contagious.

While we were beginning to fall in love with island life in Bali, we also were confronted with some challenges. Though we had each been hired and started working with teaching companies, it hadn’t taken off. If students didn’t sign up... we didn’t make money. We found ourselves with dwindling savings accounts and lack of work. Que stress!

With stress levels on the rise the last thing we needed happened... Tatum came down with a ‘shitty’ case of dengue fever. After a few days with 104 degree temperatures, we headed to the doctor. Corbin never imagined he would have to run stool samples to the doctors office on a motorbike... but here we are! After a week of being extremely sick... Tatum started to feel better. However, nothing makes you miss home more than being sick.

By mid June, Corbin found himself with financial stress, a soon to expire visa, and an emotional-homesick fiancé. We had daily discussions about staying in Asia or calling it quits and going home (after having had an amazing adventure already). Although we were having challenges, we both didn't want our adventure to be over yet. In the end we decided to return home for the summer, focus on making teaching more profitable, enjoy seeing all of our loved ones, and fly back to Asia in September with a renewed wanderlust. We decided to call it our ‘half-time’ break.

**Coming Soon**

We had an experience in Bali that we deemed special enough to have its own individual post. Stay tuned...

With Love,

Boots Abroad

Corbin’s

Highs: Rice Terraces, “photo shoot”, canyon hike

Lows: Deciding to leave Asia, being a stool sample runner

Tatum’s

Highs: Rice terraces, photo shoot (see next post :))

Lows: Dengue, Dengue, Dengue, and being homesick