Project Week 2: Feeling at home

14th-20th July (Week 3: Mon-Sun)

This is just a disclaimer that the weekday descriptions may seem a bit shorter or repetitive as the routines we have for project days are often quite similar, though I've really been enjoying this as it has helped everything flow better and me feel comfortable and settled. Also I wanted to say thank you again all for reading and all of your lovely comments - I see and appreciate them so much.

14th: Breakfast on Monday morning was back to pancakes, feeling very worn out from the weekend on this partner meet day with a slightly earlier start. Meeting at the gallery my new team were off to meet with YPK, a brilliant organisation based in Denpasar who have been working since 2001 with children and adults with physical disabilities, a topic which faces a lot of stigma in this area, providing both rehabilitation and education. I felt extremely lucky to get to see the facilities their team of 24 work from, supporting people in life-changing ways every single day. Our action project work for the week mostly focused around marketing and donation support, so once we had got to know them a bit better, we were driven to our outpost working spot for the day, starting not before we had some lunch at an interesting restaurant called Mother. The rest of the day was quite chilled as we got on with coming up with our initial ideas and plans for the week, before coming back home to do some blog bits, call home (home being Albania as this is where the parents had gone off to for their holidays), and the usual card games to finish off the evening.

15th: Though there may seem less to comment on in terms of the action projects as a lot of it is spent with my team on our laptops researching and compiling information, just know I've been really enjoying it, especially having the work focused on the brilliant organisations I've been tasked with. Tuesday morning saw us involved in a litter pick just around the local village, helping tidy up the wildlife and keep the streets clean - a rewarding but roasting activity as the sun was out in full force and I felt like I was going to melt for the duration. Lunch brought the energy back - feta on toast and a side of chips, later topped up by a vanilla milkshake to keep me cool whilst working in the afternoon. Today was definitely a good food day, with dinner being deemed by me the best yet - fried vegetables, rice and the best spring rolls I have ever tasted. We did some homestay hopping to visit others for cards this evening, and then off to bed feeling quite exhausted yet again, but enjoying the routine of things.

16th: This morning we were back to the partner Q&A session, a very helpful hour's worth of discussions about the work we had produced so far and what to continue with, where the chairperson of YPK was in attendance, an amazingly inspirational woman who I'm very grateful to have had the chance to hear from. After a toastie for lunch from the nearest cafe to the gallery, which we have now made use of quite a few times, it was time to board the minibuses yet again for some more chaotic in-motion uno as we travelled to the ancient Tenganan Pegeringsingan, one of the oldest villages in Bali, located just up from the coast on the East. With lots of land and families still living there, it has been turned into a museum-style site for tourists to visit, displaying various historical photos and info to learn about the traditions and customs they continue to practise there. Lots of animals seemed to live here too, including bees - we learned about the process of making honey here, tasting the different sweet and sour versions produced. It was a very beautiful village to see. We got back in time for the pretty sunset which is great to view from the roof of our homestay, before more tasty dinner this evening, getting laundry back and some tv and chats before bed.

17th: This morning a hair wash was necessary in the humidity, which was already ruined an hour later by the trek to our meeting point for today. We did our peer feedback sessions and had lunch at a hotel round the corner before finishing off some more work. This afternoon's activities was sports day style games supposedly in celebration of Indonesian Independence Day, though this doesn't fall for another month yet, but was good fun nonetheless. All was well until I tried some of the prizes given out - seaweed flavoured crisps, failing to check the ingredients and consuming fish for the first time within my knowledge for a very long time - vegetarian frustrations but considering this doesn't happen often at all and I didn't know, I got over it soon enough. Another lovely sunset on the roof and more of the best spring rolls ever finished off the day, with some prep packing for the weekend away aswell.

18th: We went to deliver our action project work at YPK and meet with the partners for the last time, once again feeling very fortunate to have experienced first-hand the incredible work they do. Cream cheese bagel for lunch back in the village saw me through the rest of the afternoon as we speedily finished packing up and met our cars to travel away for our final free weekend - which I cannot believe has come around so quickly. The journey was nice again, this time as we drove south down the island into the more built up urban areas with wider roads and billboards - traffic being close to absolute chaos here. We'd decided to have a relatively quiet final weekend by the beach, booking an airbnb down in Jimbaran along the coast just past the airport, with our door being about 100 metres from the beach. This ended up being possibly the most perfect villa we could have chosen - it felt very fancy for still a reasonable price as all the accommodation has been. The building itself was beautiful, with gorgeous decorations, lots of space and a pool. As one of many villas on the same street it had security at the front too which was something new for me but made us feel more secure. 

After settling in, I enjoyed some time with my book outside, before we all headed over to the beach, just in time for the most perfect sunset which I've been looking forward to since i stepped foot in Bali. Though they've all been nice enough this definitely stole the show. We had a walk in the waves but not realising how aggressive they were even at this time in the evening, my skirt got a bit damp, but it was still worth it. We admired the views for a while, including the sight of planes landing from the distance into the airport a few kilometres away, and then strolled a long a bit to a lovely looking bar on the top of a hotel resort where, although there was an event in the outdoor bit overlooking the beach, we could still see the rest of sunset from inside, and even caught sight of the fire dancing show they had on out there. We enjoyed a drink each, my mocktail aptly being named a Yellow Sparkling Sunset, with some surprisingly engaging rugby league playing on the tvs in the background making me realise I've felt very disconnected from sport since being here - a visit to see Bali United play football in Denpasar would have been good if I had more time. We then made our way a long a little further for dinner at a Spanish restaurant, where I opted for some pasta. Feeling tired and needing to get some sleep before tomorrow, we took a loop round to the main road to get some snacks, feeling quite intimated by the dark streets and barking dogs, but made it back safely and into our lovely big beds for the night.

19th: Our busy day started at 7am, where we were up and ready to be picked up by 8am, met outside our villa by the tour guide we had booked for a day of snorkelling and waterfall visits. There was a bit of confusion with how far we were going to the snorkelling spot, and it turned out to be 2 hours way, back up by the ancient village we had visited earlier that week, but was all fine and just showed how, despite the traffic, easy it is to get around the island in just one day. The drive was lovely yet again, including us passing the huge procession at the Goa Lawah Temple which occurs daily, on route. We arrived at a pretty harbour along the upper East coast, where we were briefed and boarded our quite small funny-looking boat for the 13 of us and our guide. Hoping I wouldn't feel too sea sick, we sped along to the snorkelling spot, geared up in our flippers and goggles and got straight in, eager to enjoy the gorgeous water. We had a fun couple of hours at two different spots, and though disappointed to not have seen any turtles or other special creatures, the colourful fish and corals were all beautiful, of course and the water felt amazing.

Once back on land, I was excited to have my first monkey 'encounter' since being here, spotting a cluster of them in the trees over some markets snatching from the the tables below. We had our lunch included in the ticket, and then were taken by the drivers along towards Ubud for our waterfall visit at the Tengenuan waterfall - another bucket list activity to tick off. Tis was incredible, with beautiful views both from above and down by the waterfall itself. It might well be the most powerful I've ever been that close too, with ropes stopping us getting any further in, but still being able to enjoy a swim around the lake in front of it. This was my highlight of the day - I absolutely love a waterfall and am sad I won't get the chance to explore a few more whilst here, though this one was amazing in and of itself. Feeling extremely worn out from the day we all had a little snooze in the car back to our villa in Jimbaran, and spent the evening relaxing at home. The shower at the end of the day was very much appreciated, as was the dinner we got from Grab - a delicious vegan wrap and some more Stuffed cookies to enjoy whilst watching tv before another very comfy sleep.

20th: Waking up naturally felt good after a busy week, packing up our things and checking out to spend the day chilling at the beach before heading home. The sun was absolutely scorching, so I wanted to hop in the sea straight away, but the waves seemed determined to keep me away, knocking me down multiple times within 5 minutes and giving me some not-so-fun scratches, so as difficult as the heat was to cope with, I spent the next couple of hours doused in sun cream, hiding my face under my t-shirt, reading and listening to music. Feeling extremely hot and sandy we all decided by middle-afternoon we needed to cool off indoors for a bit, so walked a short distance to a cafe with good aircon and conveniently, a wet room to wash off in as we waited for our food. My late brunch of pancakes and a delicious smoothie went down well, and I got some fries to take away for the journey back as this would be my main meal of the day. We said goodbye to the lovely Jimbaran beach and our villa and headed back to Mas for our final week, having a relaxed evening to decompress from the weekend, and enjoying the familiarity of the routine I need to make the most of before it is time to come home at the end of the week.