Traveling, writing and living around the world
Dear Indonesia,
Tag, you’re it.
One of the hardest questions that travelers can be asked is, “What’s your favorite country?”. It often sends our brains scrambling while an immediate, knee-jerk response like, “Ooooooh that’s a difficult one”, fills the quiet void that question created.
For me, the answer is you.
“How should I address you,” the young woman asked me. “Ms. Petri? Ms. Alexandra?”
I was floored. “No – Allie is fine. You can just call me Allie.”
She smiled.
I’d never had my own personal butler before, but there is a first time for everything I guess. I stood there in my beautiful ocean view suite – the turquoise waters of the Indian Ocean vast and calm before me, local fishermen paddling through the waters for daily catch – in my tattered backpacking clothes. This is luxury on a new level, I thought to myself. I tried to mask my giddy, childlike smile, but I couldn’t help it. I was just overcome with excitement.
We sat in the common area of our hostel watching the minutes pass. Then the hours. We were told to be ready for 7:30 a.m., and it was now getting close to 9. The thick, Bali heat was hitting us.
“We are definitely getting so ripped off with this tour,” we all said, echoing one another’s thoughts.
A couple of my friends and I had signed up to do a bike tour of Ubud, which is something that so many backpackers and travelers raved about.
When I left Flores, I knew that my budget was running thin and that I had only two weeks left in Indonesia. Part of me threw around the possibility of going to West Timor or Sumba – I mean, I was that far out into Indonesia already, I might as well tick off the islands out this way while I can.
I started leafing through my Lonely Planet for ideas, and I found that one of Bali’s biggest holidays coincided with my last two weeks in Indonesia.
This is what I imagined Bali to be like, I thought to myself as I watched the sunny streets transform into a long shaded drive as we drove down the sheltered pathway leading to the Alam Indah Resorts in the infamous Ubud.
Ubud in itself is considered a retreat for so many – a refuge from the craziness that clutters that streets of Seminyak and Kuta. And though this small town can still feel a bit hectic and touristic, it is possible to find a hideaway like the kind that can be found at Alam Indah Resorts.
