Unpublished Bali Photos 2015

So I spent most of my life in Aylmer, Quebec, Canada. I started saving up for a trip, not knowing where I was going. For a long time, I've felt the need to get away as far as possible from home because that was something I had never done. A dear friend of mine Jess mentioned she was going to Bali. It made sense, I love yoga, my good friend Nick Lives there and it was as far as possible from home that I could possibly go (kind of). So we bought tickets and left for what would come to be the most adventurous trip I have ever done. From Syracuse to Chicago to Hong Kong, Singapore then finally, we arrived at the beautiful island of Bali. The trip alone was quite an experience. I had traveled more countries in a day then I had in my whole life. Being a visible minority in Hong Kong and Singapore airport was a very pleasant life experience.

I took about one thousand photos in the five weeks I spent in Indonesia, here are some of my favorites; Kuta city, these are photos of the neighborhood we stayed in when we met up with our friend Nick. This being the city closest coming out of the airport, of course it is very touristic, commercial and kind of scary. Felt like a target to shop owners, prostitutes and criminals. Still a very great place to eat, drink, shop and party if safe and responsible.

After spending a few Days in Kuta we rented a scooter and traveled to the much more layed back and quiet Canggu, by far the favorite place I've visited in Bali. The rice fields were beautiful, the people were amazingly nice, the food was delicious and Echo Beach was an amazing Surfers Paradise. Never seen anything like it.

Using the magic of social media, I met this amazing person that was interested in being one of my models. I'm very happy with the results. He was a very good model and the environment was nothing that I ever worked with in the past. There was no real concept in mind, we just winged it! It's how I usually proceed for the best shoots. We went to the beach late night and the waves were loud and powerful.

We then traveled to this very impressive city called Ubud, city of yoga, monkey forest and haha hipsters! Driving around this city was quite a treat! so many cool shops, landscapes and architecture.

Sacred Monkey Forest sanctuary is a large forest in the center of Ubud designated for macaque monkeys. They are sneeky and will try to grab any food or shiny object in sight, but very pleasant if you have a few bananas to offer.

These photos are views from Gilli Trawangan, a series of three small islands on the coast of Lombok, Balis neighboring island. This place had the most amazing parties! Great food and no motor vehicles, just bicycles and unfortunately what seemed to be mistreated horses. I didn't ride the horses. Some of the greatest snorkling/scubadiving in the world, got to swim with so many different kinds of fish and also giant turtles. Although this place was beautiful, it's also known to be a party island, the reason there are few photos of the seven day stay.

After our amazing time at the Gilli islands, we came back to Ubud and hiked to catch the sunset from the summit of an active volcano, Mount Batur. The top of the volcano was inhabited with more sneaky monkey families.

There are many pictures and stories that did not make my blog, this trip was an experience of a lifetime. I leave you with the picture of one the many beautiful plants Bali has to offer, with a cool looking local grasshopper.