How did i end up spending New Years Eve with a 50 yrs old German Diving instructor in Bali?

First, i wish you guys all Happy New Years! i hope you had a great start to the new year and set up some great resolutions.

Well, i had great plans for this New Years Eve but they didn’t realize. Destiny had some other plans for me .

• Original plan: Fly from Singapore to Bali on the early morning of December 31st, meet my Couchsurfing host and settle down at his place. Then head out with my host to the beach to meet some polish travellers i met in the Philippines and celebrate new years eve together watching fireworks and then hitting some clubs.

• What destiny planned for me: My CouchSurfing host cancelled on me 2 days before my arrival, i had to rush sending last minute requests and ended up having to stay with two different hosts since everyone else is busy during NYE. One host for my first night and another for the nights that follow. The host for the first night arranged to pick me up at the airport but to my surprise he forgot the time of my arrival, he thought i arrive the day after.

I was very tired and decided to hell with CouchSurfing, i will just stay in hostel. i started walking around the streets of Kuta trying to find a cheap hostel but everything was FULL! The cheapest available accommodation would cost at least 80CAD.I stopped at some souvenirs store and asked the owner if he could recommend a place nearby where i can possibly stay but he said right away:

” all places are fully booked on new years eve, since yesterday we see backpackers walking around the streets trying to find a place to stay with no luck, i don’t think you’ll have any better luck”

Thankfully the shop owner named Agun is a traveller himself (more on this angel who saved me is to come) and he could understand my situation so he suggested he’d take me on his motorbike to some hostels a bit further away from town to see if i can find a place. We spent almost 45 minute driving around and checked more then 7 hostels but they were all full. At that time, torrential rain started and we had to go back to his shop until we figure out some solution.

As a last resort, he mentioned that he has a friend is staying at a nice hotel with extra bed and i can stay with him. He introduced me to his friend who turned out to be a German gentleman in his late 50’s. He works as a diving instructor in Lombok and is staying in Bali for NYE.

He graciously invited me to share his place, so we waited for the rain to stop (which it never did) , then headed to the hotel. It turned out to be such a nice place with balcony, swimming pool and free breakfast.

The rain continued throughout the whole evening but we still ventured out to the beach to join Agun at his bar. We met some more of his friends and spent a nice evening under the rain, watching fireworks by the beach. The midnight fireworks were like nothing  i’ever seen before: they were launched by regular people not any type of professionals which was pretty dangerous.

Overall, my plans didn’t go as i wanted but things didn’t go that bad. I guess sometime if you let destiny guide you, it won’t be as bad as you think

Lessons i’ve learned:

• Not all CouchSurfing experiences are good, you will have some shitty ones
• Set some money aside during your trip for a “rainy day”
• Don’t be afraid to ask people for help, some stranger might be your saviour
• Karma ! Karma! Karma! : do good and will receive good , i don’t think i would have found someone to help me if the gods were not happy with me