Things You Need to Know Before Travelling to Bali

Hey lovelies, so about 2 months ago I went to Bali for a week and I had an amazing time. I thought it would be cool to do like a short little post of things to be wary of when going to Bali because as much as it is a nice place to go to, safety is always first when travelling overseas.

Bargaining:

If you've been to Bali you'll know what I mean when I say that everyday is a new scam. Nearly every day I found out I got scammed the day before because I would find something I bought cheaper at another place which is super frustrating. So here's some quick easy steps to ensure you're getting the price you want:

1. Say you're buying a fake Gucci T-shirt and they say it is $20 (this is outrageous, don't spend more than $5 because it is obviously fake and cheap quality) but you only want to pay $10 at most
2. Start as low as $5 and they'll usually try to bargain with you and say $10
3. If you're comfortable with this price take it, if not pretend to walk away and say something like "No I've only got $5 on me," or "I saw it at another stall for cheaper"
4. Most of the time they'll settle with whatever price you offered. 

My friend was awful at bargaining and she got ripped off many times. 

Hotel Scams:

When we first arrived to our hotel, the staff in the lobby said that we got a "free" upgrade that was better. Of course we jumped at the chance because it sounded amazing. I was travelling with 2 other friends and we were originally meant to get a room with 3 single beds. Instead this "upgrade" turned out to be a single bed in the living room area and a king sized double. So I was stuck out in the other room with my friends. 

Another little scam I noticed throughout the week was, in the kitchen area they had small bottles of water that was for free, and then large litre bottler that were $2. By about mid week we noticed they had raise the price of the large bottles to around 3-4 dollars without notifying us which I thought was a little dodgy.

Oh and a side note, you can get large bottles for crazy cheap, like $1.

The infamous 'Bali Belly'

Luckily neither me, or my friends got Bali Belly which was something that was playing on my mind every meal I ate. But here are some simple steps to avoid it:

• Come prepared - buy hydralyte tablets which will replace your fluids if you do encounter Bali belly.
• Never drink tap water! - This is because your stomach is not used to the bacteria that is in the water over there. This is a general rule when travelling overseas. You'll find yourself buying loads of water. 
• Brush your teeth with bottle water - this was a hard one to wrap my head around. It's so difficult breaking routine. 
• Avoid getting ice in drinks - this surprisingly is a hard one, and you'll sometimes forget. It's not a huge deal because we had plenty of cocktails that would have crushed ice in it but just try to limit how much you have in it. 
• Buy foods from restaurants in reputable areas and where you see other tourists eating! You'll see plenty of aussies in Bali so it's not hard to tell which restaurants are best. 

Alcohol

Now this is one of the major things to be wary of in Bali. Unfortunately in some dodgy bars they like to serve a cheap alternative to alcohol called "Arak." They may not necessarily tell you they're serving it and will just poor it into a well known Smirnoff bottle. It's basically a cheap alcohol they make because there are high taxes on alcohol in Indonesia. It's basically like moonshine which is extremely potent. 

The risk: To my horror which I later found out, arak can literally cause blindness, organ failure, put you in a coma and in worse cases death. This is because whoever makes it, does not distill the alcohol properly which gets rid of all the toxins. If you look at a bottle of vodka it will say distilled 5 times or something, which is to ensure its safe. 

Ways to avoid this:

• If you see drinks that have spirits that are $5 or less I'd seriously avoid it. My dumbass bought vodka redbull's with double shots for $5. In Australia a single vodka redbull can cost like $13-$15 which puts it into perspective. 
• Even cheeky deals where you can get like 2 cocktails for $10 you have to be wary of.
• Like the food, look for popular bars with lots of other tourists.

Drink responsibly kids 'cause I sure don't!

Taxis

So here's a little hack I found when travelling in Bali. Choose the light blue taxis!!! I repeat choose the light blue taxis!!! Or any taxis that do it by metre. Usually in Australia, having a metre in the taxi is a no go because it is so pricy, and do you all feel that fear when you see it ticking up the price by like 20 cents.

Most the time we drove in dark blue taxis and they'd charge us up to $20 a fare which is decent for Sydney. However we later found out it could cost as little as $3!!!

Mopeds/Bikes

The first thing you will probably notice in Bali is the traffic and no road rules!!! To my horror all these people on mopeds and motorbikes would ride around with no care in the world. They will literally cut in front of cars and taxis and you will 100% be pushing your imaginary breaks in your mind. But after a while you get used to this style of driving and will soon admire how little accidents occur. 

I don't recommend riding a motorbike yourself but if you're going to do it, do it with a driver. At least they're used to the roads. However I will admit one drunken nights, my friends and I hopped on the back of a bike when leaving a club and I will say it is the most exhilarating experience. We were lucky because there was 0 traffic on the road because it was like 4am. 

So all in all these are the main things to be wary of in Bali. If you would like a post on fun activities to do let me know in the comments!

Changing Directions

Hey guys, so I figured I owed you all a short explanation before you get spammed with content you may not want. I've decided to change this blog into more of a lifestyle blog in the sense that I'm going to be posting about stuff that I am interested in outside of YA. I will continue writing reviews for books as YA will always be a significant influence in my life. But I feel like there is much more to me that you don't see.

Expect to see posts in the future like:

• Body positivity
• Life hacks
• Baking 
• Travel (I'll be in Bali in a week!)
• Maybe even a record of my weight loss journey
• Music and festivals 

So if any of these topics don't interest you, I won't be offended if you click the unfollow button because I'm blogging for fun now ;).

ALSO! More exciting news, Sunny and I have collaborated in the past and we figured for memories sake we'd do it again. We're cooking up some new and exciting content so stay posted on twitter!

{Mini Review} Let's Talk About Love by Claire Kann

Author: Claire Kann
Release: January 23rd 2018
Publishers: Swoon Reads 
Pages: 288
Genre: Contemporary | Romance | LGBT
Links: Goodreads | Book Depository

Alice had her whole summer planned. Nonstop all-you-can-eat buffets while marathoning her favorite TV shows (best friends totally included) with the smallest dash of adulting—working at the library to pay her share of the rent. The only thing missing from her perfect plan? Her girlfriend (who ended things when Alice confessed she's asexual). Alice is done with dating—no thank you, do not pass go, stick a fork in her, done.

But then Alice meets Takumi and she can’t stop thinking about him or the rom com-grade romance feels she did not ask for (uncertainty, butterflies, and swoons, oh my!).

When her blissful summer takes an unexpected turn and Takumi becomes her knight with a shiny library-employee badge (close enough), Alice has to decide if she’s willing to risk their friendship for a love that might not be reciprocated—or understood

Review

This novel was such a cute and light read. And it warmed my heart to finally read a contemporary romance with a black girl as the main character. I honestly don't think I've ever read a book with a POC as the main character. I wish I could teleport back in time and hand my 12 year old self this book. It would have been a major confidence boost having a protagonist I could relate to in some ways. Little things like struggling with hair is something a black girl struggles with on the daily and Claire Kann was spot on in her description. 

Another aspect I loved is that it tackled the issues of dating while being asexual. I'll have to be honest that before this book I didn't know too much about it but I definitely got something educational out of it. This is what I mean when I say we want more diverse books! I would never have understood how frustrating it would be meeting someone you like and them not understanding what asexual is before this book. It made me so much more open minded about it and it's interesting to see dating from that perspective as it so completely different to my views. 

The characters were so different from what I was used to and in a way more realistic. Like the tensions between Alice and her two best friends who were dating. I can totally understand how that would be hard in real life to balance the friendship as well as the relationship without leaving somebody out. The whole time while I was reading it I could just imagine it as a good TV series.

Another plus is that we had an interracial couple. Not very often in YA would we have an asian love interest and that was really refreshing. I really loved Takumi's personality and the slow build up of their relationship was SO cute! If I could describe their relationship in a few words it would be rainbows, unicorns  and cupcakes haha. 

I think this read is more of a 3.5 hearts. It's more than satisfactory, it's honestly a cute read you would take on a holiday.

{Mini Review} Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon

Author: Nicola Yoon
Release September 1st 2015
Publishers: Corgi Books 
Pages: 307
Genre: Contemporary | Romance
Links: Goodreads | Author's Website | Book Depository

My disease is as rare as it is famous. Basically, I’m allergic to the world. I don’t leave my house, have not left my house in seventeen years. The only people I ever see are my mom and my nurse, Carla.

But then one day, a moving truck arrives next door. I look out my window, and I see him. He’s tall, lean and wearing all black—black T-shirt, black jeans, black sneakers, and a black knit cap that covers his hair completely. He catches me looking and stares at me. I stare right back. His name is Olly.

Maybe we can’t predict the future, but we can predict some things. For example, I am certainly going to fall in love with Olly. It’s almost certainly going to be a disaster.

Spoilery Mini Review

This year I have set a little bit of a goal for myself reading wise - books that have more diverse characters. Growing up I've never really had characters that I could relate to wholly because I never read books that had protagonist that was a POC. But now with movies such as Black Panther that has sparked a huge debate regarding this topic I think its time I join the discussion and expand the type of novels I read. Everything Everything was a perfect start to my little challenge because it a) was an easy read and b) got me out of my reading slump. 

Now where to begin?

The first thing I noticed about this novel is the format of it. It's super creative and hardly ever do I read books that have cute little visuals. I loved every little bit of it like the graphs at the beginning to the emails, to even her little recipe to creating a bundt cake. I even loved the titles, its very rare that books that have fun titles instead of the usual, boring chapter 1, 2, 3...

Bet that mad ya yawn didn't it??? ;)

Maddy was a unique character and it was interesting to see her relationship with her mother and nurse, Carla. If I'm completely honest I feel like Yoon grappled with some philosophical ideas but I was still looking for more depth. I can't imagine what it would be like to be in Maddy's scenario and only have your mum and nurse as your only friends. I know she had online friends but that's no substitute for real life friends and I can't imagine what it would be like being so closed off to the world. It would have some serious effect to your mental health and the novel could have explored this a little more. 

Olly was a good love interest and I liked that he had a quirky side. I wish we could have gotten more insight to his character and the relationship with his family and the whole abuse thing with his mother and father. But at the same time it was more effective having it from Maddy's perspective. We were limited to seeing things from her window but in a way that was more impactful because it's what you don't see behind closed doors. And I think that was the hidden message behind it. 

The romance was pretty cute but a little rushed in my opinion. But to be honest the trip to Hawaii was super cute and exactly what the book needed to further their relationship. I mean how are they going to get anywhere by basically doing sign language across the window and IM chats. 

The plot twist...

I personally thought it was predictable and could see it coming from when I started reading it but it didn't affect my enjoyment of the book. Again I feel like Yoon could have gone into more detail with Maddy's emotions. If I found out that my mum was lying about a disease I had regardless of her mental issues, my anger would sky rocket. Maddy was way too calm for my liking. But I guess every person reacts differently and Maddy dealt with it in her own way.

The ending was super cute though I'm not going to lie. Yoon left it at a good spot where it was kind of wrapped up in a nice little bow. I wanted a little more like maybe a 1 year later epilogue like where are the characters now sort of thing but I think I like that you're kind of left wondering what happened. 

All in all I think I'll give it: