If I’ve learned one thing while traveling, it’s this: it’s a lot more enjoyable if you go with the flow.

That’s not to say you can’t have a plan. I love plans – a lot. Back home my friends used to call me “The Planner.” But sometimes most of the time, things won’t go according to your plan. And if you get super annoyed and stressed out about it, it’ll ruin your good attitude, your happiness, and eventually your trip.

Unfortunately it was time to say goodbye to Christen. She was headed back home to the U.S., and I needed to head back to Bali to see a doctor about my ear.

Side note – I haven’t mentioned my ear much in my posts because it’s only been a moderate annoyance. It started when I went scuba diving and couldn’t equalize my ears well. My left ear was a bit fuzzy with hearing, but it eventually got better. But when I went snorkeling, my ear progressively got worse. Eventually I could barely hear out of it, and it left a dull throbbing ache. So that wasn’t cool.

That meant I needed to check out of my hotel, grab a horse-drawn buggie to Gili Air’s dock, and take a ferry to Bali.

I asked my horse-drawn buggie driver to drop me off at my ferry’s office. I checked in and loaded my ferry when it was time. I booked a shuttle to Kuta on the ferry, and I found my driver at the port (in the chaos of other taxi and shuttle drivers trying to persuade me to book with them).

I didn’t know what the heck I was doing, but I just had a totally chill attitude towards the whole thing. And you know what? It made my travel day not so bad, ear infection and all.

One thing I didn’t plan well? Packing food for the trip. So here’s my breakfast and lunch:

The shuttle took me to the clinic I researched via Google. And that was that – five hours later, my travel day was complete.

I chose a clinic called International SOS based solely on Google reviews that I read. They were listed as clean, organized, and friendly. They were also known to cater to English travelers. All of those things sounded great to me.

I barely had to wait for a doctor to visit with me. He looked in my ear and concluded that I did, indeed, have an ear infection. Luckily for me, it wasn’t too bad, and they didn’t need to drain my ear of puss (*gag* yuck). He prescribed me antibiotics and steroids, I paid my perfectly reasonable bill, and I headed on my way to Canggu.

Fingers crossed my ear gets better soon because right now I’m like an 80 year-old woman.

“What?? What did you say??”