scenes from indonesia.

Java + Bali
June - July 2017

I really could have broken this up into two different blog posts, Java and Bali. Two vastly different islands that felt like different countries.

Java was rugged and Muslim and authentic and dirty and noisy.

Bali was structured and beautiful and Buddhist and Hindu and touristy and green.

In Java I stayed in a homestay in the jungle and rode motorbikes and hiked mountains and ate street food and visited temples at sunrise and only took cold showers and made Indonesian friends and used squat toilets and learned to speak the language.

In Bali I ate at hipster restaurants and did yoga and sat on the beach with a coconut and got migraines and watched sunsets and bought souvenirs and took pictures of monkeys and puked my guts out.

Java felt like authentic Southeast Asia with locals and good food.

Bali felt like fake Southeast Asia with tourists and lots of pushy vendors.

Nevertheless, they were both absolutely beautiful.