Being negative only makes a journey more difficult. You may be given a cactus, but you don’t have to sit on it.”
Joyce Meyer
What to expect
One year in New Zealand in 2005
When I was 15 years old, I spent one year in New Zealand as a high school exchange. I stayed with my wonderful host parents Lola and Barry in Dunedin who also “adopted” two other host students from Japan and Hong Kong while I was there. I’ve never had a sister, so having two right away was pretty cool!
Why Bali and Hong Kong
I mainly stayed in touch with Sam from Hong Kong and throughout the years we visited each other in Hong Kong and Germany. She got married in 2019 and luckily her wedding fell onto the last weekend of my autumn holidays. So I pretty much had no other choice but to do another trip to Hong Kong 😉. Fortunately, Blake loves to travel as much as I do and we are both huge fans of Asia. This is why we decided to combine the wedding in Hong Kong with one of our favourite destinations: BALI.
In the end, what’s the difference whether we’d meet in Canada, Germany or somewhere else in the world 😉?
Bali
As soon as I got to Bali, everything felt familiar: the smell of tasty Asian food, the view of chaotic streets with entire families on one scooter, the sound of beeping taxis and the feel of warm air in October – man was I happy to be back! Oh and to see Blake again, that was the main highlight of course 😉.
Uluwatu, Bali
I did not have much time to adjust once I got to Uluwatu in Bali as there was a cliff party going on that night. After a Tiger beer for the jetlag and a quick shower for the tiredness after 15 hours on the plane, I was ready to party (well, my body wasn’t but I ignored that feeling).
The cliff party was awesome and if I had known that the world would come to a halt only a few months after this, I probably would have appreciated it even more. But either way – it was amazing! On the way home we stopped at a little party in front of a mini market so we bought two beers inside and joined the dance party on the street (things that would never happen in Germany – no offence). Unfortunately, my phone got stolen out of my bag in that moment and being optimistic as I am, I was sure, I’d find this “mean thief”. Blake, however, knew that by the time I had noticed my missing phone, the sim card had probably already been taken out and the phone had gotten sold again. Tough life.
Canggu, Bali
At least without a phone I could relax fully and live in the moment without any distractions (I’ll just leave out the part where I borrowed Blake’s phone several times). Relaxation was definitely big in the next eight days as we had rented a little apartment with a pool in Canggu called Pondok Canguu Homestay.
This cute homestay was right off the main road in a little side street and had the most amazing breakfast place called Crate Café right around the corner. If you are into smoothie bowls, chia pudding, smoothies and fresh coconuts, this is your place! We also rented a scooter for the time there. It was perfect to have a base but still explore other places in Bali on the scooter.
Similar days in Canggu
- have breakfast at Crate Café
- relax by the pool
- take a one-hour-massage at noon (also to get out of the sun, you do NOT want to look like Blake – trust me!)
- explore other towns/ rice fields on the scooter
- enjoy sunset with a drink at the beach
- have dinner (for example at Clear Café which has a great vegan selection. You can also take the pole down or slide down – in case you ate too much)
- rest
- repeat
Why Bali is our “happy place”
Have I mentioned yet that we love Bali? Besides the friendly people, the amazing countryside, the cheap massages and the wicked sunsets, there is one thing we probably love the most about Bali: the food!
Many people complain about how Bali is not as authentic or rural anymore as it used to be but I rather see the positive in that: the food is mixed by many different cultures and the result is honestly incredible!
Day trips from Canggu
- see the Tegalalang Rice Terrace (We actually tried to go there twice. But the first time our scooter played up so we had to turn around again.)
- visit Ubud (where you can see monkeys, visit the waterfall or stroll around town)
Okay, I just realised these were the only day trips we did. We must have really liked Canggu… I guess that just means that we have to come back to explore more. Good that it’s on our bucket list for our world trip in July 2022.
One night in Bangkok
In between Bali and Hong Kong we had a twelve-hour-stopover in Bangkok so this meant we had lots of time for one thing: street food! Mango sticky rice is my absolute favourite by the way (you can tell by my happy face).
Hong Kong
Culture shock in Hong Kong
Coming from Bali where everything was relaxing and calm, Hong Kong was quite the culture shock: high buildings, noisy cars and a lot of traffic! Welcome to Hong Kong! Our hostel room, in which we stayed for three nights, was on the 30th floor so our view changed from rice fields to busy streets and skyscrapers.
Also, the food in the little shop around the corner from our accommodation looked quite “interesting” as we didn’t know what type of meat was in our soups. We decided it’s better not to ask.
Things to do in Hong Kong
In Hong Kong we spent the next few days exploring, which included the following:
- walk the “The Avenue of Stars” in Tsim Sha Tsui
The Avenue of Stars, modelled on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, is an avenue located along the Victoria Harbour waterfront in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong. It honours celebrities of the Hong Kong film industry.”
wikipedia
- see the “Symphony of Lights” from Central across Victoria Harbour at 8:00 p.m. every evening
A Symphony of Lights is a daily light and sound show in Hong Kong. It is the world’s largest permanent light and sound show according to Guinness World Records. As of 2017, there are 42 participating buildings in the show.”
Wikipedia
- take one of Hong Kong’s tramways to explore the north of Hong Kong Island
- visit the Ladies’ Market on Tung Choi Street
- visit Hong Kong Island and take the Peak Tram up to Victoria Peak
Wedding in Hong Kong
On Saturday we attended my host sister’s wedding and it was a wedding we both had never experienced before. When we got there in the afternoon, some guests were playing an old Chinese board game called MahJong in the back of the hall while other people were still ironing the curtains on the stage. We double checked the time but we were definitely – surprisingly for us – on time. There was a buffet that we helped ourselves to. Little did we know that this buffet wasn’t even part of the fourteen-course-meal (!) that was awaiting us.
Cultural differences
Slowly the room filled up with more guests and thanks to the seating plan we found our seats at one of the many round tables. There were over 400 people at Sam’s wedding and throughout the entire fourteen courses that were brought to us by our personal waiter, Sam and her husband took photos on stage with EVERY-SINGLE-GUEST. When were they going to eat? There were even two wedding cakes: one (big one) for the guests and one for show to take photos with. This was such an interesting wedding for us. The waiters definitely stayed on track and were rushing to bring out one course after the other. At one point I went to the washroom and missed two courses while I was gone!
We wondered how the guests would be able to dance (or move) after all these courses (which were delicious by the way) but there was no dancing afterwards! As soon as everyone was done with the last course of dessert, the lights went on and people left! Cultural differences, I guess.
Travelling back in time
On Sunday I flew back to Germany again. Luckily, I was travelling “back in time” so I made it back to Germany just in time for school to start on Monday again 😉.
In winter I got to spend my second Christmas with Blake’s family in Canada again.
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