Bali, falling in love with you.

I had spent years researching Bali as a destination to visit and longed to visit the island of Indonesia one day.  I knew it was only a matter of time before my heart intervened and took me to another part of Asia.

I had imagined a place: sun drenched, tropical, spiritual, and full of healthy food. Well let me know tell you this… I was so entirely wrong. Bali was all of the above, but so much more. I feel naïve to have just presumed that I would have found this. Bali was full of surprises at every single corner, I feel overdosed on travel love right now for a place just so, so very beautiful. 

Travel always manages to capture my heart unknowingly, with every adventure I take the greater the hunger and desire to see the whole world becomes. I remember declaring to my husband how I had broken my own record for falling in love in less than twelve hours of being on the island.

I am a dreamer, there is no denying that. But, something about Bali felt incredibly grown up and responsible. I’d chosen this destination, I'd saved hard for this trip and all my gut instincts about Ubud and beyond were so incredibly close to how I'd hoped I'd feel when I was there.

Thailand two years ago first gave me a glimpse of a life I then could only dare imagine, an intrigue and glimmer of something far magical. It's true travel pulls at my heart strings, the desire grows and the love for culture blossoms.

I know a two-week trip to Bali is not a story of ever after. I am only the same woman, in the same life I was before. But, what if this trip is the one that sets the seeds for the future? And all of those dreams, that have been so unsettled for years can now become the focus of my life.

If there is a dream stored deep inside of you, the only way to ever settle it is to unravel it piece by piece until you find the clues you are looking for. Maybe the answer isn't inside of you, it wouldn't be that easy.

All I know now is that, Bali has restored my faith in finding that destiny, which haunts me every single day. 

♥

I'm going to Bali. Today.

I know there is one thing in this world that drives my ambition more than anything else. My passion to travel is one attribute in my life I have carved out entirely myself. I used to fear travel, but then I jumped into the complete unknown and started believing in challenging myself. It felt the most exhilarating feeling.

When I travelled to Thailand, my entire life changed right in front of me…

I followed my dream to write, quit my job and took a different role 100 miles away, I stopped obsessing over my weight and I fell in love with a whole different me. I loved the girl who came back from Thailand.

I try every day, to bring that part of me out in my personality, the raw ambition, the genuine desire and the love for culture so rich and nourishing. Some days it shines brighter than others, but it’s still there deep inside.   

Going to Bali was inevitable one day. I began researching Ubud some years ago when I first starting my weight loss journey. It kept popping up as a topic of conversation, and of course I fell head over heels in love with the idea of visiting Bali around the release of Eat Pray Love. (Rome and India still firmly on the bucket list too, just saying).

What do I want to find in Bali?

Tropical fruit, every kind, every variety. That’s a given.

But I want to find time. Time to enjoy my surroundings, my marriage, my fitness. Maybe along the way my truest ambitions might just service again.

I promise to give it my everything, because that’s the thing with travel – it’s such a rare occurrence in our mundane lives. It’s magical, rare and so so beautiful. 

See you soon.

♥

Oh, Carrie. Why are our dreams so real?

Usually when it comes to travel, I have it planned via months of endlessly Pinning and trawling through guide book after guide book.  But given the true spontaneity of my trip to New York last week, I left for the airport with a case full of mix-matched clothes, a notepad full of work memos and a wallet of pounds not dollars. I figured I’d figure out the rest when I arrived.

As I left for the airport, I remember calling my Mum and exclaiming how unorganised I was – and she just replied:

 ‘Think like Carrie’.

And that was it, a reference to my youth. Carrie Bradshaw was my absolute hero in my teens. There is no denying I was absolutely obsessed with Sex and the City. It was all that played on repeat on my television set...  

So, Carrie’s apartment was a life-long must see. Now, true to location Carrie’s apartment is located on 66 Perry Street. I’ve got to admit, as soon as we were nearing the Grenwhich neighbourhood I felt an overwhelming sense of familiarity. I couldn’t help but gaze around at the locals, drinking coffee, going about their normal days.

It turns out after 19 years since the first episode of SATC broadcast it’s not just me who still fangirls over Carrie Bradshaw. The true giveaway came when I spotted a group of girls outside a doorway. Definitely not just me. The fashionista in me couldn’t resist a photo a la Carrie – just for those seconds breathing in the NY air, wearing an over-sized corsage, pink skirt and gazing into my own fairy-tale...

A doorway might not seem a big deal, the actual set was studio based … but the fact Sarah Jessica Parker had stood there, and that doorway had been featured in SO many scenes was enough to make my heart warm.  

Now, basing your entire vision of a city around a television program may seem unfair. But, standing on the steps of New York Public Library a few days earlier, where Carrie never got married, instead jilted by Big, felt real. I remember thinking GOSH, what a place to get married. If, only...

Travel makes you think, not only about your own future, but your past. It lets you process all your dreams at once...

My dream, for as long as I can remember has been to write. 

A couple of weeks ago I found myself in a situation at work, which transpired into me declaring I no longer wanted to ‘write’ – now let’s face it, that was a barefaced lie – said in the heat of the moment. And, I think my boss saw the lie written all over my face.

As each day passed in New York, I figured the truth was the same truth it always has been, right from my first journal entry. I want to write.

Surely if there was any place better to realise a real dream. It must be New York? Right.

♥