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Showing posts from November, 2015

Nusa Lembongan. This little island off Bali.

Nusa Lembongan has recently become my most favourite place in the world. We visited this tiny island on our last trip to Bali. Imagine what Bali would have been like 30 years ago and that is how it feels stepping onto Lembongan. There is no traffic, no stallholders hassling you. The pace over there is slow, relaxing and exactly what we needed for a 2-day stop over to chill out, refuel and explore. It was the highlight for me of our trip, and when we return back to Bali – I will be booking at least 4 nights over on this untouched paradise. The details that you need:     Image via Pinterest Getting there  Nusa Lembongan is a 12km boat ride east of Bali. A number of boat charters head to Lembongan from Sanur with up to 3 boat rides there daily. We chose Glory Boats. Return boat ride with transfers from you hotel cost approx 500,000 Rp ($50 AUD).  Check out Glory Fast Boats site here for more information.   Where to stay There are many accommodation options for all budgets on L

Kiva.org - Micro-Financing helping to alleviate poverty

   Earlier this year, back in July, I signed up to become a Kiva lender . If you’re not sure what a Kiva lender is, in a nutshell it is a non – profit organisation that was established in October 2005 with a mission to connect people through lending (micro-financing) to alleviate poverty. I loaned $25 to this lady from Bali, Indonesia, her name is Harini and it was to help her buy more fish to sell through her business.     Her total loan through Kiva was $750. That’s over one million rupiah and in rural Bali that is A LOT of money.  To give you some perspective, the minimum wage per month is approx 1.6 million Rupiah (approx $161 AUD) I’ve already received 2 updates from Kiva since my initial sign up and lend. Harini’s latest repayment which I received a couple of days ago means that she has already paid off $3.13 from my $25 loan to her. I love getting updates like this. I love knowing that in a small way, my ability to provide a micro-finance loan to Harini is helping her

Back in Black. Mental Illness still has stigma

  Image via Pinterest   A few nights ago, I watched the doco-movie about Amy Winehouse . I had known of her, had listened to some of her music, but let’s say I never really followed the paparazzi fuelled exposure that was up until her death. This movie, which documents Amy’s life in never seen before footage timelines from the ages of 14 until 27 where she was found dead after a history of drug and alcohol abuse. It has stayed in the back of my mind ever since. You never really know what is really going on for someone. But I can truly and whole heartedly empathise with was I saw, a young woman seemingly spiraling out of control and self medicating her pain. It was her pain that I felt throughout the film. The pain of hopelessness, despair, loneliness and sadness. I understand those feelings, because I have had them many times throughout my life. And I also know, what it feels like when you get to that place that you are just empty and seek anything to fill that void, numb the hu