Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.

And here we are. The last blog post of my/our so-called Round-The-World diary. When, before the trip started, I looked into different blog websites, layouts, fonts and photo options, a whole new world opened in front of my eyes. And this is not even considering or having the slightest grasp of the world and its countries we were going to see and explore over the following 15 months….!

But I’m getting ahead of myself. In our last few days we were hoping to finish with the highlight of diving with Manta Rays on Nusa Lembongan, before taking the ferry to the mainland. There we intended to do n-o-t-h-i-n-g in Sanur (which Lonely Planet also describes as “Snore”, due to it’s unexcitingness), but spend a lot more money than usual on accommodation and treat ourselves to a nice place with a grand pool and very unbackpacker-y facilities.

This is how we roll: banana pancake breakfast on our porch under palmtrees (also note the coconuts sneaking their way into the picture as well as the white linen trousers)

Time flies when you enjoy what you are doing: taking Tom to Ubud

Have I mentioned that I love Ubud? Yes? Ok, sorry for repeating myself then… Have I mentioned that Tom loves Ubud? No? Well, that’s because strangely he doesn’t. Whilst he doesn’t mind it, he didn’t fall head over heels for it either. Weird kiddo.

Of course I wanted to show him the best parts of the crowded, touristy and very humid cultural capital of Bali. Based on what I discovered last year and just a few days ago when I came here by myself, I put together a little itinerary, allowing plenty of downtime for Tom yet including all the highlights that Ubud has to offer.

So what did we do? The first day, I eased a slightly apprehensive Tom into the experience. Allowing him a lie in, I went to my yoga class and by the time I got back, my boyfriend was in a good mood to explore whatever I had in my mind.

Greetings from Ubud, Bali!

Taking contentment to the next level on Gili Air

“We are not very good at leaving our bungalow before midday, are we?”, shouts Tom whilst having a cold shower before the two of us are going to head to our family run warung to get some lunch. We have eaten there the last three days, often for lunch and dinner, and naturally are greeted with a “Heeeey, welcome baaaack!” and a wide smile from the guys working there.

No, we haven’t left the bungalow much before midday in the last couple of days (except one morning when I went to do some morning yoga along the beach, but I came back afterwards and then we didn’t leave until midday), but it doesn’t matter. We have no schedule or agenda we need to follow, so we are taking it very slow and easy. Things will change soon enough, so we are making sure to consciously make the most of our remaining time in paradise.

How can one not be content in this setting?

Call me an Advanced Open Water diver!

It’s official: merely a year after my first dive in beautiful Koh Tao, Thailand, I decided to take my dive career to the next level and become an Advanced Open Water diver. The main difference for me now is that I am allowed to dive to 30m depth (as opposed to 18m only) and can access ship wrecks I may not have been allowed to before. I had to “specialise” in five different kind of dives: navigation and deep dive were mandatory; in addition to those I did wreck, night and drift dives.

As always, I did some research beforehand about which dive school to choose and in the end went with Adventure Divers Bali, a choice I was very happy with and Ketut, my instructor, was great.

All good buddy

Exploring new territories: headed to coastal Amed

My week in Ubud has come to an end – apologies for no blog updates, but as I explained to Tom, this last week was Kathrin quality time without any pressure to do what I don’t feel like doing. Plus, we will both come back to Ubud together next week, when I’ll have plenty of opportunity to report.

Knowing that I’ll be back so soon to my favourite Bali town, leaving Ubud wasn’t too hard. The oppressing heat with no chance of cooling down – of course there are the most amazing hotels with infinity pools and air conditioning, but we have travelled for the last 15 months and are not exactly swimming in money – other than lingering in book shops and supermarkets for longer than actually necessary, paired with very noisy and annoying French neighbours, meant that I was looking forward to a change of scenery when the day came. In the early morning hours I shouldered my backpack, frontloaded my small rucksack, said goodbye to my landlady and walked the 25 min to the Perama shuttle bus.

Rice paddies on the way to rural Amed