Wheelan Family Takes On Bali
GUEST ENTRY. GET EXCITED.
To the loyal readers of this blog who don’t already know me (which is probably not many since most of you are my relatives), I’m Grace, aka CJ’s cousin and a Dartmouth 28.
We go way back.
This was the ultimate success story of a trip that not only made it out of the group chat, but made it out of a group chat that didn’t even exist before this trip was planned. Sophie (CJ’s middle sister) had stockpiled vacation days, and I was home for 6 weeks over winterim, and I truly don’t know how this actually happened, but Sophie and I booked flights to Indonesia and next thing we knew we were meeting CJ at the Bali airport.
We then hopped in a Grab (the never dull Indonesian Uber) and headed to our AirBnB in Canggu on the southern coast of the island.
To understand Canggu, you must first understand the monolith that is Finn’s Beach Club. Bali needs to take another look at their anti-trust laws because Finn’s Beach Club was absolutely running the island. They ran the beach shuttle system, had their own brand of alcohol, and when I tried to go to the only ATM on our street, it turned out to be inside Finn’s and you couldn’t withdraw money without first paying the club cover to enter. (Ironic I know)
Here are some other sights that sum up our peaceful corner of Canggu:
I apologize in advance because this entry is going to flop dramatically on the food content (typically this blog’s flagship attraction). I know you’re all dying to know everything CJ ate, so I will do my best.
Our first night started with a bookstore and some fire Indian food. They unfortunately swapped our orders gave me Sophie’s extremely spicy dish and her my mild dish. According to CJ, it was not quite flavor bomb status but still gas.
We then fought the jet lag and did some planning back at the Airbnb. Big things in store over the next couple days.
The next morning we woke up and headed to the beach.
After a few hours, we left the beach in search of food. Sophie and I got these beautiful smoothie bowls, but CJ left to eat some suspicious fried noodles from a street vendor.
That turned out to be a very poor decision on his part. He soon succumbed to his (3rd or so?) illness of the trip. Thank God Sophie and I were there to make sure the event was thoroughly documented.
The next day, while CJ was recovering, Sophie and I took a 2 hour taxi to the north of the island to go on a hike and see some waterfalls. We did not consider the fact that without CJ, we had 0 cash. (I blame the Finn’s ATM monopoly.) We also both forgot our raincoats.
Naturally, it poured rain the entire day. Also, every waterfall had a cash only entry fee. Didn’t stop us. Look at those waterfalls.
We also got extraordinarily lost. The strava map was a gem.
We spotted this dog and immediately stopped for lunch at the restaurant, which of course ended up being cash only. To top off our day of creative bartering, our $10 meal was paid for with a random Canadian $20 bill that I found in my backpack, courtesy of an old French man who bought my used lift ticket in Tremblant. Not sure that was legal, but major shoutout to him for getting us this lunch.
Our taxi driver asked for a photo to commemorate our 4 hours of driving together :)
In the meantime, CJ won a major victory against Chinese bureaucracy. He taxied an hour from Canggu to pick up his passport, marking the successful completion of his Chinese visa journey.
We started packing that night, which included Sophie drying all her clothes and shoes from the hike with a hairdryer.
The next morning, the two of us went to a yoga class while CJ finished recovering from his illness.
We then sadly left our Canggu Airbnb and set out with all our luggage for one last day in Bali before our night of travel.
Our first stop was lunch (more smoothie bowls), and then a jewelry studio where CJ spent the afternoon making a pair earrings for his girlfriend Julia. Cue the sappy music…
Sophie and I brought a lot of expertise to this process with 16+ piercings and infinite Pinterest knowledge between the two of us. We helped with the design and then got bored and left CJ to bring it to fruition. Sophie got her nails done and I left to start the airport journey from hell. More on that shortly, but first take a look at the final product (sneak peak from Julia in China!!!) The comment section of this blog is a great place to leave CJ any feedback on his craftsmanship!
With that, we said goodbye to Bali and started on the long and winding road that would eventually bring us to the launch point for our dive boat.
By truly impressive measures, we all started out on separate flights with multiple separate connections to get from Bali to Sorong, where we would then take a ferry to Waisai, the launch point (yet another island) for our seven day boat journey. CJ was gloating about having the only direct flight until he realized that said direct flight did not exist and he had been moved to Sophie’s indirect flight without being notified. Good work from Garuda Air — never let them know your next move!
Meanwhile, I somehow had not 1 or 2 but 3 different flights. For reference, if you were able to fly directly from Bali to Sorong, it would take under 3 hours. But what’s the fun in that?! Instead, I slept in 4 different Indonesian airports between 7 pm and 7 am. One flight didn’t start boarding until 20 minutes before takeoff. I almost missed the next one because they randomly closed boarding 45 minutes early. Rest assured that Sriwijaya air kept me on my toes as well!
The next morning, we all reunited in Sorong for the final and most harrowing leg: the ferry from Sorong to Waisai. This was where things started to go downhill for me…
Stay tuned for that and more in the next blog post. I know you’re devastated to see this guest entry end, but back to the regularly scheduled programming of CJ and his food content.
And CJ and Sophie, thank you again for the spontaneous invite that turned into the trip of a lifetime. Coolest cousins ever and no one I’d rather do it with <3
If you read this whole thing… THANK YOU I LOVE YOU!
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SNEAK PEEK:
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