Bali Adventure
It was time to do a Visa Run. I saw a cheap flight from Bangkok to Bali, and I. thought “Why not go on an adventure?”
My trip to Bali began very early in the morning.
My flight was scheduled to leave Bangkok at 6:25 a.m., which meant I needed to be at the airport by 4:30 in the morning. The day before, I had flown into Bangkok and checked into one of my favorite airport hotels, the Floral Shire Resort.
I always liked staying there before early flights. The rooms were comfortable, the prices incredibly affordable, and they offered free airport transportation — something I greatly appreciated while traveling on a budget.
At 3:30 in the morning I received my wake up call, and by 4:00 I was already riding in the hotel van toward the airport through the dark Bangkok streets.
Good thing too, because it took nearly two full hours to check in, clear customs, and make my way through the airport. By the time I finally reached my gate they were already calling final boarding.
The adventure had officially begun.
I had spent weeks researching Bali before the trip, trying to decide where I wanted to go and what I hoped to experience. I eventually settled on beginning my stay in Lovina, a quiet coastal town on the northeastern side of the island.
Traveling alone, I decided it was worth paying a little extra to arrange transportation from the airport directly to the hotel. The thought of navigating an unfamiliar island on my first day sounded far more stressful than adventurous.
After landing in Denpasar and making my way through customs, I stepped outside into the bright Bali sunshine and immediately spotted a smiling Balinese man holding a sign with my name written across it in large letters.
Instant relief.
Our destination was roughly three hours away, which sounded perfect to me. Rather than rushing directly to a hotel, I wanted the chance to see Bali unfold slowly through the car window.
Almost immediately I began noticing things that felt different from Thailand, yet strangely familiar at the same time.
The first thing that caught my attention was the sky filled with kites.
Dozens of them.
Large colorful kites floated above villages and rooftops as we wound our way out of Denpasar and deeper into the countryside.
As we left the city behind, the roads narrowed into smaller winding streets passing through villages, rice fields, jungle landscapes, and endless examples of beautiful Balinese architecture.
Everywhere I looked there seemed to be intricate stone carvings, temple gates, statues, shrines, and traditional homes tucked between tropical greenery.
I remember thinking that simply driving through Bali already felt like part of the destination itself.
The traffic moved slowly, much like Thailand, with motorbikes, bicycles, and cars all somehow sharing narrow roads together in what appeared to be organized chaos. But unlike the aggressive feeling traffic sometimes carries elsewhere, Bali’s roads seemed strangely relaxed.
People simply flowed together.
The slow pace allowed me to absorb everything around me — the scenery, the architecture, the rice fields, and the atmosphere of the island itself.
We stopped several times during the drive north.
Our first stop was at a restaurant overlooking beautiful rice terraces. The meal was buffet style, delicious, and surprisingly expensive by Bali standards — nearly ten dollars, which turned out to be the most expensive meal of my entire trip.
Still, with views overlooking the rice fields, it was hard to complain.
Later we stopped at a viewpoint overlooking a lake high in the hills.
But honestly, it was not the lake that fascinated me most.
It was the monkeys.
The roadside was filled with them.
Vendors nearby sold bananas and peanuts specifically for feeding the monkeys, and for someone like me, who has always loved animals, this was incredibly exciting.
The monkeys would walk right up and gently take food directly from your hand.
I could have stayed there for hours.
Reluctantly, I climbed back into the car and we continued toward Lovina, making one final stop at a beautiful temple and garden area beside another lake.
By the time we finally arrived at the Adirama Beach Hotel in Lovina, I already felt like I had experienced a full day of adventure.
The hotel was exactly what I had hoped for — comfortable, welcoming, tropical, and located right along the beach. Palm trees surrounded the swimming pool, and the ocean sat only steps beyond the restaurant.
The staff immediately made me feel welcome.
One thing I had worried about before the trip was food. As a vegetarian, traveling can sometimes be unpredictable, especially when visiting a new country for the first time. Before leaving Thailand, I had even printed out a list of vegetarian restaurants in Bali from HappyCow, just in case.
Thankfully, my concerns disappeared almost immediately.
The hotel restaurant offered several vegetarian meals at very affordable prices, and I quickly discovered vegetarian food was easy to find throughout Bali.
After dinner overlooking the ocean, exhaustion finally caught up with me.
Before heading to bed, I arranged a sunrise dolphin watching trip for the following morning. Since I was already on such an early sleep schedule from traveling, I figured getting up before dawn again would not be a problem.
At the end of that long first day, I stood along the beach watching the sunset fade into the ocean.
And just like that, my Bali adventure had truly begun.
Bali Wallpaper Collection
These wallpapers were photographed during my travels across Bali, from the quiet beaches of Lovina to the streets of Ubud, the terraced rice fields of the countryside, and the tropical coastline of Sanur.
Each image is connected to moments, places, and experiences shared throughout the Bali Stories series.
