Bali is a destination that not many of us in England would consider visiting. Some people may not have even heard of it. When I learnt of Bali, I learnt of traditional Hindu temples, rice paddies and somewhere to visit for the ultimate relaxation experience however due its distance from home and cost of getting there, I always thought Bali was out of my reach. What spurred me on to visit was the book and film 'Eat, Pray, Love'. I envied Elizabeth Gilbert (the author of said book) for having such a life changing experience in Bali and I wanted to see and do the things that she did so when planning my travels, Bali was on top of the must-visit destinations.

During the film version of 'Eat, Pray, Love', Julia Roberts (who plays Elizabeth) is riding a bicycle down a quiet road going past rice paddies with virtually nobody around. In reality, the film makers closed the road to film that scene which was probably a wise decision as Ms Roberts probably would have been run over by several mopeds that zoom around Bali's small roads had they not closed it. As I was sitting in my taxi on the journey from Denpasar airport to my hotel in the lively Kuta, I realised that 'Eat, Pray, Love' was definitely not the best way to learn about what Bali was going to be like! In fact, all the roads in the film that appear to be empty and quiet could not be any further from the truth as every road I encountered was usually buzzing with traffic and mopeds holding families of up to five whizzing around cars and buses to get ahead. Looking back, it is kind of funny that I started my travels in New York; a city full of traffic and I was finishing in Bali which was also full of traffic. Despite being miles and miles away from each other in distance and culture, bad traffic seems to find its way around the world.

When I arrived at the Ida Hotel in Kuta, I actually thought I had been screwed by my travel agent and that I would be staying at a dump of a hotel down a dirty alleyway in the middle of crazy Kuta. I would like to apologise to Ida Hotel for thinking that as I absolutely loved it there. I met such wonderful people whom I am so happy to have met and spent my last days of travelling with. Because I loved it there so much, I didn't stay at the other hotels that I had booked for any longer than one night so that I could go back to Ida and stay there until it was time for me to leave for a very long journey home. For anyone who doesn't know, Bali is a popular holiday destination for Australians so if you were to travel there alone and you fear that you will be alone for the whole duration of your visit, you needn't worry as I made some great friends who I hope that I will be lucky enough to see them again in the future.

Bali is not like your typical European destination. For anyone who has been to countries like Egypt, Tunisia and Turkey, you have probably experienced shop owners trying to entice your into their shops to "only look" at what they have to sell and then bartering with you over the price of something you have taken an interest in. Bali is no different to this; in fact I think the Balinese may be a little more determined to get you to buy their clothes, shoes, souvenirs etc. On my first day in Kuta, I was pulled into a shop by two women who started painting flowers on my fingernails and then wanted to charge me 350,000 rupiahs (which is around £23) each. I managed to haggle it down to 50,000 rupiahs each but when I informed my friend from the hotel, a lovely Croatian woman who now lives in Adelaide, of what had happened, she marched into the shop screaming at them as to how dare they do such a thing to her "daughter" and demanded that they give the full amount of money back. And believe me, they did. That was a valuable lesson for me that I would have to be a lot more assertive when it came to simply saying "no" otherwise I would have ran out of money very quickly. It's not that the Balinese want to con money out of you; at the end of the day they are trying to make money in a place where amenities aren't easily affordable for them without the help of tourists. It is the same in many other countries around the world, you just need to be prepared to be rude if someone won't take a polite "no" as an answer.

As I had already mentioned, Bali is considered to be a good place to visit to relax and chill out. I can wholeheartedly say that I don't think I have ever been so relaxed somewhere. I had two massages, a facial and a hair treatment all for half of the price that one massage would cost me at a spa back home. The second treatment I had was a massage and the hair treatment which made me so relaxed that I was walking down the street feeling drunk and went to sleep before 9pm and slept for TEN HOURS! If that's not relaxation then I don't know what is.

Several times every day, the Balinese will place offerings that consist of flowers, food, money, even cigarettes on exquisitely sculptured shrines, outside temples, offices or shops and in cars not only in order to please their Gods but also to placate bad spirits. I loved seeing this tradition taking place but I worried that with all the high rise hotels being built and Bali slowly becoming reachable from all corners of the globe, that Bali would lose its character with its growing tourism. I asked my tour guide who took me to Ubud for the day if he was worried about the same thing to which he said no because Balinese families ensure that their culture and traditions are passed down from generation to generation. Each house in Bali has a temple that the household will worship (some temples are built to be better than the house!) in so I imagine it would be hard for Balinese individuals to lose their identity when part of it is in the garden. It's a shame that with globalisation, some countries do lose their identity and culture but I hope that Bali keeps theirs as it was lovely to bare witness to and embrace.

Bali may not be as accessible to us compared to places like Spain or Egypt but should a time come when flights are cheaper and it is a lot quicker to get to Bali, I would implore you to go. It is so different to any other place I have visited and so beautiful with friendly people. Once you get over the mopeds and shop owners trying to get you into their shops to buy everything and anything, you will have fantastic time. If you don't, you probably didn't drink enough Bintang beer or have enough massages.