Sara meets me in Seminyak, Bali

I arrived in Bali, Indonesia a few days before my friend Sara was due to arrive from San Francisco. I spent those first days doing absolutely nothing as I feared that my two weeks with Sara would be jam packed and exhausting. I have come to expect friends that visit me during my travels are on a totally different intensity level than I am and want to see as much as they can in the short time they have. Of course this is to be expected since most people working in the real world only get a few weeks holiday a year and they want to make the most of their time! It may seem that I am not as excited as they are but for me, traveling has become my normal life this past year. While I do get very excited to visit a new place, I love to be able to stay longer in that new town I just discovered and fell in love with instead of sticking to a planned itinerary.

I was relieved to learn that Sara was looking for a relaxing two week vacation, didn’t have any specific plans for how to spend our time, and didn’t want to move around too much. While I have gotten very good at quickly repacking my backpack, I still hate to do it! We had pondered the idea of a four day hike to the top of a volcano in Lombok, but decided we couldn’t be bothered and would rather play at the beach! I was so happy Sara wanted to chill as I was feeling very tired and lazy after trekking all over Southeast Asia for the previous four months!

I had not seen Sara in close to a year, so we had ALOT to catch up on right away! We got a bottle of wine and chilled out at the pool at our resort, Bali Agung.

I wanted to discuss politics and all that is going on at home, but Sara wanted to escape from the the real world and everything she left behind at home.

Sara came bearing many fun girly stuff for us to play with including deep conditioner hair treatments and face masks. I think she was worried I was looking a bit grungy these days and wanted to clean me up a bit before taking me out on the town!

We decided to start off our trip in Seminyak, a beach town just north of the infamous Kuta Beach, as it was supposed to be more layed back and less touristy than Kuta.

Seminyak turned out to be very posh with expensive resorts, restaurants, and boutiques carrying clothing collections from designers all over the world. Sara and I spent the fist day in awe of all the great clothes and jewelry for sale.

Sara could not believe how hot is was and thinks that my body has adjusted to SE Asia’s extreme heat and humidity.

I am also apparently immune to mosquito bites now as I got very few bites compared to the 68 bites Sara got in the first 2 days! I have NEVER seen someone have such a bad reaction to mosquito bites!

We relaxed on the beach by day and had amazing dinners on the beach by night.

We got the best massage of our life at Jari Menari!

One of my favorite memories of Seminyak

was our little monkey friend that lived in a cage near our room. We would visit her a few times a day and bring her fruit. She was tiny and adorable and would love to hold your hand. The cutest sight was seeing her sleeping in a hammock someone had made her from a pink sarong! Sara and I decided we couldn’t be her friend anymore after we saw her pull poo out of her bum with the little hands we had held so many times!

To see photos of Seminyak CLICK HERE!