Welcome to week thirty-eight of the backpacking diaries and the final entry! I’ve been updating you weekly on where I’ve been, what I’ve been getting up to, and most importantly, how I’m really feeling about this insane decision I’ve made.
But we’ve now come to the end!
I actually haven’t yet made it to Australia, but more on that later in this blog post.
As you probably know, I’m currently backpacking through Asia after quitting my job and leaving London for good.
I want to remember every moment of this experience, and document as much of it as I can, just like I’ve documented everything else in my life post-18 on this website.
You can keep up to date with my travels on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube but for now, enjoy the final instalment, week thirty-eight of the travel diaries!
If you missed the first thirty-seven weeks of backpacking diaries, you can catch up here.
Top tip: for mobile data around Asia, we used the Jetpac eSim. This was super handy and easily installed onto our phones as soon as we arrived in Japan! Get $5 off your eSIM package when you use my referral code: ORLZRLN2.
Day 260: Monday 2nd December 2024
Location: Uluwatu, Bali, Indonesia
Dear travel diary,
Drum roll please… because today is our final day in Uluwatu. And in Bali. And also in Indonesia.
In fact, it’s our last full day in Southeast Asia…
Tomorrow, we are heading home!!!
I can’t believe I’m writing this, but it’s actually been in the works for quite a few months and we knew this was coming. I just can’t believe how quickly it’s come around!
We’ve decided to visit home for a short while, to feel Christmassy and to take a break from the travelling we’ve been doing since March this year.
And if you’re wondering what this means, we’re actually only on a pit-stop by visiting home, and will be onto another destination in a few weeks… any guesses where?!
But today, we headed out for breakfast at a spot called Nourish. It turned out to be a great spot that we spent most of the day working from here on our laptops as they had charging ports, air-conditioning and soft drinks too.
Around 3.30pm, we headed to Blue Point Beach to try to access the beach while the tide was out. It was a little crowded with people taking photos and getting a good Instagram shot, so we didn’t stay for long.
We headed upstairs for a drink overlooking the surfers and watching the monkeys play around before it started to rain. Since it was raining, we headed for an early dinner at Mana hoping to catch our final Bali sunset, but it wasn’t to be.
The clouds were blue and full of rain, and there was no sun to be seen, never mind sunset. We had an early dinner instead at Mana and walked back to our hotel to get everything charging and pack up for one last time!!
But of course, we came back to a power-cut so I was able to read for an hour before the place came back to life.
I can’t believe we head home tomorrow!!!!
Day 261: Tuesday 3rd December 2024
Location: Uluwatu, Bali, Indonesia & Singapore Airport, Singapore
Dear travel diary,
Today is the day!! Our backpacking travels come to a somewhat-end!!
Let’s call it a brief hiatus because we’re not even heading on to Australia yet and that was due to be our end goal.
We’re going home!! I’m going back to Ireland and himself is going to Wales!
We were up bright and early this morning as we had a driver collecting us from our hotel at 9am. So, we headed out for our final Uluwatu brunch at Ours Home that just a few minutes walk away from our hotel.
One last shakshuka for the road!
I was working with DayTrip, which organises drivers in countries all around the world. Since it was our last day and we had a while until we needed to be at the airport, we were heading to two destinations with our driver.
The first stop was GWK where we visited the 4th largest statue in the world (!!) that’s right here in Bali. We headed up to the top of the statue and were met with some very cool views of the island.
Afterwards, we headed on to Ubud to Celk Village to see how they make jewellery from gold and silver and browse through the markets. I bought some souvenirs and then it was time to head to the airport for our first of three flights.
Our first flight was at 6.30pm to Singapore, which was a nice three hours, arriving ahead of our night flight from Singapore to Munich, Germany.
We didn’t have much time to explore Singapore airport this time around unfortunately with transferring to our next flight, so it was a quick hot chocolate from Dunkin’ before heading on to boarding for our 13 hour flight.
Day 262: Wednesday 4th December 2024
Location: Singapore & Munich, Germany & Dublin, Ireland
Dear travel diary,
As you can imagine, the 13 hour flight was long.
But I was able to finally watch It Ends With Us which I actually really enjoyed after hearing mixed reviews online and loving the book.
I only slept for around four hours and woke up with another three hours still to go on the flight. I managed to make my way through more of the book I was reading and didn’t watch as much TV as I thought I would.
We were also lucky with space as the seat to my right was empty, as was the row in front of us. So no complaints on that end.
We arrived into Munch at 5am, so had to wait around until 6am before the cafes opened and we could get our hands on a hot cup of coffee. The cold met us as soon as we stepped off the plane – a shock to the system after months of 30 degree weather.
Another few hours passed and it was time to board our final flight of the day (for me) to Dublin. Another two hours and then we were back on Irish soil.
It does feel really weird to be back home again after being away for eight months. Even though I’m usually away from home a lot longer than this at a time, I think with all of the travelling to different countries and cities, it seemed like a lot longer than eight months.
I can’t tell you how excited I am for my home comforts.
I waved goodbye to himself who was off to catch a final flight to Bristol and then met my dad at arrivals and headed back home to surprise my mum at her work.
It was lunch time so I had a lovely turkey dinner at the hotel, and headed home to collapse on the sofa.
I actually did really well with the jet lag and didn’t fall asleep at all until around 10pm, so hoping I’ve been able to skip it!
So What’s Next and Why Am I Home??!
I suppose it would be a good idea to let you know what’s actually happening with our travel plans…
We’re still moving to Australia, that’s still happening. It’s just been a little more delayed than we thought.
We’ve come home for two weeks ahead of going somewhere special for Christmas and New Year’s. You’ll be able to see where we end up over on my Instagram, so keep your eyes peeled!
We’re spending three weeks there, then coming back to Ireland for a week and then finally heading back out to Asia again to spend a little more time in Bali before finally moving to Australia.
Well, that’s the plans for now so let’s just hope everything goes according to plan!
Leave a Reply