Two Sides of A Coin

I've been to Bali for, too many times.

But never once in those "too many times", did I visit the island as

A solo traveler.

Crazy how I've never been there alone! Because I always travel solo. Vicky Amin equals solo traveler. Yet Vicky Amin never been solo traveling to Bali? Yea I myself don't know exactly why. It's always been with my friends, or my family, but never with just myself.

So it just felt so weird to treat Bali this time as I treated any other travel destinations. Because all these years, I've always traveled Bali differently. Nicer hotel, nicer dining, car rentals, not too ambitious itinerary, because well, I was always with somebody. Now that I was alone, it's always the cheaper local foods, and going here and there by ojek, and packed schedule, and even a hostel with sharing dormitory! Something I always do when I solo travel abroad, but never even once in Bali!

I even made new friends during this super short trip. A French, an Australian, and a numerous locals. One was my dorm roommate. One I met at the club. The rest were everywhere else. Exchanging stories, exchanging contacts, listening to each others small talks and brags. Something I always do when I solo travel abroad, but never even once in Bali!

It's so weird to be for once a traveler in this place, and not a tourist.

But it's even weirder because I was bearing one other role there.

Also a new one, a role I never did while traveling to the island.

A business traveler.

Yes. The reason why I dragged myself and forced my ass to do this semi-urgent solo trip to Bali, was partly because I had this article to cover. For a Singaporean news portal. What it was about, and who I was contributing to, it's still a secret because I'm currently still cooking it.

I don't know which part I enjoyed the most: solo traveling part, or this article covering part. Because I'm actually living life as a travel contributor here! Making appointments with sources, coming down to multiple venues to gather information, holding a freaking interview with each informants, getting completely-new insights while trying to dig some other completely-different things, pivoting through my plans and making last-minute changes, discussing the topic with my editor remotely, starting to write down anything that came up my mind, laying down restlessly thinking about how I could nail the final article, dang! Can I stay like this forever??

With the fact that this was also my first solo trip to Bali, turned this trip to be wholesome despite the short duration. At some point I even felt like the 3-day trip brought way richer experience than any of my previous Bali trips, combined.

Just a hint of the article I'm covering.

Mandatory solo traveling memento: Vicky Amin's selfie.

Imagine.

It was just only two of my faces, two sides of me which colored this trip.

What if I came here also as an explorer? Or a content creator? Or an investor?

And what if I came here for a week? Or six months? Or even move in here?

There are many other Bali adventures waiting for me to uncover.

So maybe next time I must arrive here with my other side.

Which one?