On May 20th I set off from Siem Reap towards the airport. Siem Reap was a lovely town, and Angkor was an absolutely fantastic area to visit. It’s definitely one of the places I’d like to revisit. The biggest downside was the constant chase for tourists’ attention. Fortunately it was in a harmless way, and apart from a bit of irritation, I still felt comfortable on the streets of the town.

I leave Cambodia with a generally good impression of the country. There’s a lot of exciting history in the country, both old and new. Food, lodging, and transport have also been good the whole way through. There are many big and small towns that I chose not to visit this time around, but that I’d love to come back to some other good time.

I land in Indonesia on Bali the same day. My friend Eline is going to show me around all the good spots in Canggu and Ubud over the next couple of weeks. She’s even arranged a spot for me at a good hostel, so I’ll be well taken care of.

First, though, I have to get through immigration. I applied for my visa 10 days before the trip. By the time I set off in the morning, it still hasn’t been approved. It’s not a huge problem, but it’s definitely annoying. My plan was to be in Indonesia for the next 2 months, and I had therefore applied for the extended visa in advance.

I get off the plane in Bali, connect to wifi, and check my visa status. It’s still not processed. I ask at the visa office before immigration. Apparently they can’t check my status and ask me to get in line for manual visa control. The line consists mostly of Indians, since everyone from Europe, the US, and Australia can just walk through the automatic control gates. I stand in line for an hour. When I finally reach the counter, I’m told I have to go to the visa office to get my visa. I can’t get the one I applied for, so I have to buy a new one. Back to the visa counter. It takes 3 seconds, and I’ve paid and gotten a 30-day visa.

There’s no point getting worked up about it, so I take my visa and slip through passport control. My 30-day visa can be extended by 30 days, but it costs extra and requires me to show up at a visa office. So a hassle, but not a disaster.

It’s dark by the time I get out of the airport. It’s an hour to Nyaman hostel in Canggu, and I hop into a Grab car. It’s always exciting to experience the traffic in a new country. My driver is very aggressive in his driving. There’s no honking like in Vietnam. Instead people flash their high beams. There’s heavy traffic at this time of day. The lanes are more of a suggestion for how many cars there’s room for side by side, but if you can fit in the extra car, you just do it. And if you want to drive between two lanes, you just do that too. Watch out for scooters, since they overtake on the inside, on the outside, and diagonally across.

As we get closer to the hostel, the roads get smaller and smaller. The traffic doesn’t get any lighter though. We’re now on a single-lane road with an oncoming lane, and the reckless overtaking makes my toes curl. There’s a scooter ahead that doesn’t value its own life enough. It pulls out only to pull back in again, repeatedly, and on tight, narrow bends with no visibility. Meanwhile my driver is riding right up on the scooter’s license plate. When the scooter finally manages to overtake, I breathe a sigh of relief.

I arrive at the hostel and get a warm welcome from Eline. I’m introduced to both the other guests and the staff. Dinner is arranged for me, and afterwards we head out to a bar where a local band plays “House of the Rising Sun and other country rock. Back at the hostel I’ll be sleeping in a shared room. The bed is good, and I have blackout curtains that I can pull down to make a little den. It’s totally fine.

Eline has arranged a trip to Ubud for the coming weekend. Sound healing, yoga, river rafting, and nature excursions. I’m really excited, and I’ll probably make a video or two over the days, which you can look forward to.

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