Life is a beach

Kuta beach on Bali

So what am I doing on the most touristy beach on what is probably one of the most touristy islands on the planet?

Beaches are not really my thing. But I was curious about the famous Kuta beach on Bali and since the airport from where I'm flying out is almost within walking distance from the beach, I had to come this way anyway.

Besides, it's the last week of my more than six month adventure and I wanted to take a few days off to just idle on the beach before I finally head home.

I'm actually not idling on the beach. It's much too hot for that. I go to the beach early in the morning for a walk and then again about an hour before sunset. The rest of the time I'm in my air conditioned hotel room or out on the patio by the swimming pool, in the shade.

I'm reading all those books that I took along on my trip but never had the time to read. I thought that since I would be traveling alone, I would have too much time on my hands and was prepared with tons of reading material.

It turned out that I didn't have too much time at all. The past six months were actually quite exhausting. On typical days I would wake up early, sometimes go for a run, check my email if I had access to internet, have breakfast, order a second coffee after breakfast and read for a while. Then I would head out to explore, sightsee or whatever else I had planned for the day. I would usually return in late afternoon, find something for dinner and then settle down with my computer to download photographs from my camera, sort through the photos and immediately delete at least half of them (I did this every day to avoid the accumulation of thousands of unsorted photos), write my blog, read and send emails, charge my devices and so on.

Since I was traveling, I spent lots of time reading travel guidebooks, researching and making reservations online, planning my destinations and deciding what I wanted to see and do. I would often check my finances and calculate how much money to withdraw each time I visited the ATM to make sure I had enough but not too much cash on hand.

Many days were not as typical. I never stayed in one place for too long. Therefore many days were travel days when I would have to pack my stuff, check out of the guesthouse where I was staying, get to my transport and spend the day (or simetimes night) traveling to my next destination. Then I would have to find a place to stay (more often than not I chose my guesthouse ahead of time and made a reservation online), figure out how to get there, check in, unpack, find food. In addition, I would have to get my laundry done regularly.

It was a busy six months and I feel I deserve a few days off. So a touristy beach is just the right place to be for that purpose.

Kuta beach