By: Cheryl Hodiono

Bali is known for its beaches, breathtaking Islands, nature, and beach clubs. On December 17, 2023, my family and I went to Bali because it was the best and the cheapest place we could think of, and since I was always bored at home. During this Bali adventure, I visited many places such as Bali Zoo, Benoa Water Sports, or Finns Beach Club. What happened next during my adventure let us see!

   On the first day, we went to a famous restaurant called “Naughty Nuri’s” there. I ate mac n’ cheese and lychee tea for breakfast. After breakfast, we went on a 2-hour 37-minute drive to Bali Zoo. As we got there, we bought the tickets to go in and saw loads of animals like deer, otters, and more, but the creepiest was the turtle and alligator stuck in one cage. I wondered, will the alligator eat the poor turtle or are they best friends?  When we went to get water, we passed by other animals such as parrots, elephants, monkeys, lions, ostriches, zebras, a lonely bear, and even a fennec fox. Even though it looked cool, I feel bad for the animals stuck in the cage, I can imagine myself if I were them. Once we arrived to get water it turned out to be extremely expensive, it is around 50.000Rp for 2, but we bought it anyway. After that traumatizing store, we went to a parrot show, and it was fun. We saw a Javan hawk eagle, cuckoo bird, and Love birds too. If I had to rate this place, I wound give it a 6/10 because it was too small, it feels the same as other Zoo’s, and minus points for expensive water. 

   On day two, we went to Benoa Water Sports, we did lots of activities there such as parasailing, banana boat, sea walking, jet ski, and I even did free diving for the first time. We started off with a banana boat, it was creepy because the person tried to make us fall. 15 minutes later I fell twice, and I thought I saw a shark, but it was just a hallucination. Next, we did parasail, we had to sit down first because we might fall into the water if we did not. When we finally flied up, we realized we were the highest. It was very entertaining for me and my sister, but my mom looked like she was about to faint because she was scared, we might fall into the water. After parasailing, we went sea walking. I had to wait for 20 minutes because other people wanted to try to. After they were done, I put on the helmet that looked like an astronaut’s one. They said it is for us to breathe underwater, but I still do not get how. When we went deep inside the ocean, I saw small little fishes and fed them bread. Then they asked me to try to touch the coral, when I touched it, it disappeared into thin air.  An hour later, we got back to the beach and ate eggs and rice. After lunch, I went jet skiing. It was so fast I almost fell. We landed on another island, but once we did it again my mom was the one driving, and to be honest I did not really trust her from the last incident with the car, she almost went to Tangerang instead of my house! But luckily everything went smoothly, I asked my mom if I could try, and she nodded. Once I drove it, it felt fun, but the waves were big, but I tried to be brave. 

On the Last day of my holiday, my friend and his family came to Bali. We decided to go to FINN’S beach club because we tried most beach clubs but not this one. It was crowded there, I did not like it, but I ignored it. While waiting for my friend to arrive, I ordered some matcha lava cake and I might have accidentally drunk coffee. Once our food arrived, I secretly tried some of my mom’s wine and, to my surprise, it tasted good; I do not understand what is so bitter about it. After I finished my food they arrived, and we swam at the pool and we played some games such as, who breathes the longest, splash fights, and we raced, surprisingly I won all 3 games. Later, we got bored, so we took a shower, and we went to his villa. It was big there and looked very cozy. And the pool looks deep, around 1.5 meters. We went to his room and watched some movies such as Peppa pig, Peppa pig horror film, and so on. After a while the food arrived, I ate drumstick chicken and rice. Around 15 minutes later during my dinner my uncle brought some homemade lambchop. I am a very fussy eater, but I tried it because it is impolite if I did not. Surprisingly, it tasted incredibly good. After dinner, we continued watching Peppa pig horror film. Once my mom came, we went back home.

I enjoyed my holiday, I saw some animals at the zoo, I did some extreme sports at Benoa, and played with my friends. It was incredibly fun and enjoyable, I would give this holiday a 9/10 because I learned new things, unfamiliar words such as ‘gek’ or ‘bli’ which mean Mr or Ms. You can use the word gek for the person younger than you, but for older people you call it ‘Mbok.’ For bli is also for the person younger than you, and for older people you call them pak. There is still more during my adventure but these 3 are what I remembered the most. It was another pleasing, enjoyable, entertaining, interesting, experience of Bali.