Once I finally arrived to Bali, I hired my first Bluebird taxi driver to take me to a small town called Ubud. About one hour later I arrived in the middle of the night to my hotel called Kertiyasa Bungalow ($29/night)

The next morning, I was in disbelief by the beauty and nature of this place. I headed across the street to rent a scooter (Rp: 70,000 = $5.10/day). After I parked, a little monkey hopped on my bike trying to grab anything I would offer it. As I enter the monkey forest, I wander around feeling like I was in a scene of Indiana Jones. I

It was here where a girl approached me to take her photo and we started chatting about our plans for the day. We just clicked and decided to stick together for the day. Rachel and I joke about how the rest of the day felt like a pretty romantic date. She hopped on the back of my scooter, we explored the streets of Ubud, got a couples massage ($6.56/1 hour) and had lunch together ($3.28/greek salad).

Rachel invited me to join her and her friend Ovi to another town to watch the Balinese dancers during sunset. The performance consisted of 40 men all creating a uniform sound while the main actors danced out scenes to tell the story of a woman running away from a man she did not want to marry.

The driver dropped us all off at Rachel and Ovi’s hotel, where I had left my scooter to drive back to my hotel. It was about 11pm and my hotel was only about 10 mins away but in the middle of the dark and while I was too tired to drive, I somehow ended up lost in the middle of rice fields for about an hour. I surprisingly wasn’t worried, I knew I would figure it out and I’d be safe. Finally at home and exhausted I was so in awe at how day one in Ubud ended up panning out and couldn’t believe I still had 6 days left in Bali before heading to Thailand for the second part of my solo trip.