If I had been asked a few months ago what came to my mind about Bali, I probably would have answered: "tourists and garbage". I would never have thought that I would end up in Bali that fast. But in the search for a suitable destination to escape the coming winter cold, we finally chose Bali.
During the 2 weeks on this Indonesian island I could overcome a lot of my prejudices. We experienced an island on which much was very well organized, on which the culture is still celebrated like hardly anywhere else and on incredibly friendly inhabitants. We were able to test our skills in chaotic traffic and learned that it is not that complicated if you just go with the flow. Here are my experiences.
Even if the flight time is quite long (6h to Dubai, 9h to Bali), we had a comfortable flight with Emirates and landed in Denpasar in the late evening. A taxi brought us to our airport hotel in Kuta. We stayed just for one night and the next day ordered a taxi via the app "Grab", which is comparable with Uber (private drivers) and very cheap. As we learned later, this app is not very welcome and partly even forbidden. This for the same reasons as with Uber. We heard about real street fights and a taximafia, which caused us later to take only official taxis. Also these are not expensive and we had wonderful conversations and language lessons with our drivers.
Since we wanted to avoid the tourist stronghold Kuta, we drove on the second day along the coast in east direction up to Amed. We were lucky and were upgraded in the first hotel, so that we could spend the first few nights in a bungalow with sea view. We liked it so much that we could have spent our 2 weeks here (hotel tip in Amed: Bali Dream House --> Link). The amazing thing was that the hotel had a reef just in front of the houses, so we spent several hours exploring the fascinating underwater world by snorkeling.
Even if our "Bali Dream House" was cozy enought to spent our days by snorkeling and sunbathing, we wanted to explore the city. In every hotel that we were in, there was the possibility to rent a scooter for less that 10 dollars per day. The first few minutes were a bit strange because of the left-hand-traffic and also because there seemed to be no rules (overtaking left and right), but we found out that it's actually quite easy to drive if you just "go with the flow".
On the way with our Scooter named Scoopy we saw first rice fields (many would follow!)...
... ... and visited the first temple recommended to us - the Tirta Gangga Water Palace. This was built in 1946 for a Raja, later destroyed by volcanic eruptions and then rebuilt . Today it is surrounded by a huge garden and waters with Koi fish, which are just waiting to be fed by tourists. Here we became aware for the first time how many tourists there are in Bali (we know that we also belonged to it!). Everywhere there was posing for Selfies and probably already one or the other time a Koi fish was surprised by a tourist who had lost his balance in search of the perfect pose... It seemed a quite ridiculous scene and and lessened our desire to stay longer in this place. As we learned later, it wasn't better in other places and it wasn't easy to find a place to escape the insta hype.
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| What instagram doesn't tell you... |
But one thing the other people didn't realize: it is possible to take a swim in the palace's pools! For a litte fee you can jump into the cold water of the pools, surrounded by the beautiful gardens.
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| Little Swiss in big Raja pool |
Another temple that we visited on our tour was Pura Lempuyang, one of the most important temples in Eastern Bali. The temple really is beautiful, but also here we were surrounded by a lot of other tourists. And to our horror we even got a number for our Selfie between the two columns of the big entrance gate of the temple.
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| No, it's not us. We didn't have the patience to wait for the photo |
Of course we didn't want to stand in line for minutes until we could shoot our Selfie, so we walked up the hill to the next temple, where there were much fewer people, but some of our animal fellows:
Of course we wanted to see as much of the island as possible, which is why we headed west the next day. In Les we made a stop and had a wonderful lunch in the "Warung Tasik", directly at the sea.
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| Jackfruit tree |
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| Beautiful temple in the hills |
As always we checked on the maps.me-App (definitely my permanent travel companion!) what there was to see in this area and came across a waterfall. There we were actually the only visitors, parked our scooter and walked for about 15 minutes through lush green before we reached the waterfall. Because it was so hot, it didn't take long and we stood under the waterfall and let the water rain down on us. If the waterfall had been bigger, it would have been quite painful, but here it was more like a strong massage. Very refreshing!
This evening we enjoyed Amed, a very nice town with a relaxing atmosphere. Well... how could you not be relaxed when in almost every restaurant and bar the music of Bob Marley is played? :-)
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| A sacrifice. You can see them everywhere in Bali |
After our wonderful stay in Amed we went on to the centre - to the heart of Bali - to Ubud. Probably our taxi driver was sponsored, because he wanted to let us taste the famous Luwak coffee for which Bali is famous. This type of coffee, also called "cat coffee", is made from half-digested coffee beans in excrements of civets.
We were only moderately enthusiastic about a guided tour through a coffee farm, but nevertheless took part in a tea and coffee tasting, where the "Kopi Luwak" (Luwak coffee) should be the big highlight. Since my boyfriend is not a coffeedrinker and I had heard too many negative things about the Luwak coffee in advance (cruelty to animals and other things), we went along, but let the purchase of the completely overpriced and in my opinion overvalued cat coffee remain. No cat-poo-cino for us, so to say.
Our accommodation in Ubud was located in the middle of a large rice field, which was a great experience. It just seemed a bit strange to us when we watched the workers on the field doing their (hard!!) work while we were having breakfast. We no longer wanted to do nothing, so we rented a scooter again and continued to explore Bali.
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| Not sure if these guys are workers or work-destroyers. |
Our next stop was Jatiluwih, famous for its ricefields. We were impressed by the huge green area and the well working watering-system and enjoyed our walk along the ricefields.
Bali is very famous for its traditions. I have never been to a place where traditions and rituals are more alive than in Bali. Everywhere you see people making sacrifices, there are colorful wedding ceremonies and marches through the city, all wearing wonderful, colorful clothes. And then there are the famous dances. One evening we had the opportunity to watch a Kecak dance in a temple, far away from the big tourist stream. I was quite fascinated when suddenly about 60 men came out of the temple, all wrapped in a sarong and singing. It was a mythical moment. As we learned, almost the whole village is involved in this performance. The men sang and accompanied the artistic dance of the beautifully decorated women. From time to time figures in masks appeared. I still don't know what it was about, but it was impressive!
On another day we decided to do some island hopping and so we started a trip to Nusa Penida. Fast boats start from Sanur and reach the island in about 45 minutes. What was listed as an insider tip in my travel guide published last year did not deserve this designation anymore, the beach where the boats started was crowded and full of tourist groups. A rather funny picture resulted when getting into the boats, because there was no jetty yet, so that all tourists had to wade through the knee-high water and climb up a ladder to get into the boat.
Arriving at Nusa Penida we were greeted by wonderful beaches and a rather Caribbean feeling. Once again we rented a scooter and started to explore the island. Probably the island was overrun by tourism in the last few years, because the roads are still in a pretty desolate condition and we passed three accidents on our scooter tour.
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| A typical gasoline station |
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| Hello, Bali! |
In Ubud there was another activity on our list - the Monkey Forest! We had heard a lot about the Ubud Monkey Forest in advance, especially about the high number of visitors and the very aggressive monkeys. How good that we found an alternative through the maps.me app: the somewhat remote and smaller Sangeh Monkey Forest. At the entrance we bought bananas and nuts for the monkeys. Immediately a personal guide was assigned to us, who led us through the forest and gave the monkeys the food in such a way that they jumped on our shoulders or on our heads, in order to eat their catch comfortably from up there. Here the monkeys were very peaceful and not aggressive, but maybe this was due to the fact that the guide always had his slingshot handy.
As a long-time monkey fan, I was of course thrilled by the experience and disappointed that it was over after less than an hour and that the guide only had the final picture in mind (which off course cost). Nevertheless it was really funny and I would have liked to take one of the macaques with me!
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| Monkey taking care of my dry hair with a banana peeling |
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| Sunset over a ricefield on our way back |
Ubud itself is a very cool town. We were a bit shocked at first as it is very crowded and loud, but we started to like it as soon as we strolled around and found all the cosy restaurants, little shops, massage studios etc. It's a funny mix of old temples and buildings and new and trendy ones. Its very possible to see a traditional procession along the high street here!
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| A temple, decorated for a wedding |
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| The bazar in Ubud |
After Ubud, our journey continued southwards and we stayed in a beautiful resort near Tanah Lot. Again, we were very lucky and stayed in a bungalow with a private pool and open-air-bathroom (homepage of the resort: --> Link). We were so happy!
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| Off course I had to try it! :-) |
A very cool place to be is Canggu, famous for surfing, partying and sunsets. It's a very cool town with a lot of modern shops, restaurants and tattoo studios. Here we spent several hours relaxing, drinking, eating, shopping - oh, and tattooing! :-)
On our last day in Bali, we visited one of the probably most photographed temples in Bali: the Tanah Lot temple. It is often seen on postcards or as a cover picture on travel guides, as it is completely surrounded by water at high tide. No wonder, then, that the parking lot here was filled with coaches as well. We took a few photos, but then quickly looked for a quiet and shady place again.
After two weeks in summery Bali we had to go back to the cold Switzerland. These 2 weeks were very exciting, we saw and experienced a lot, especially on our tours on the scooter. I experienced Bali as a quite progressive, but above all very friendly country with an interesting mix of old traditions and new things. If you prepare for not being the only tourist on the island, Bali is definitely worth a trip!
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A few recommendations for your trip to Bali:
How to move around: The most used means of transport for tourists in Bali is the taxi. For little money you can rent a taxi for a whole day. This is probably the most comfortable way to explore the island. Public buses exist, but we never met them. There is also the possibility of renting cars, but we were happy, we had a scooter, so you are much more flexible and faster. The scooter rental is very cheap (less than 10 dollars a day), you only need an international driver's license. The traffic needs some getting used to and some courage, but we found it a super cool experience and got off without an accident.
Where and what to eat: In Bali there is a "Warung" on every street corner, a small improvised restaurant that can be run by anyone. Here you pay very little for a simple but good meal and a cool beer, so the warungs have always been our first choice. In addition there is the contact to the locals, which we appreciated very much here. Oh yes: We never had stomach problems - was that luck?
Hotels:
It's hard to choose where to stay in Bali because the offer is huge. You can get beautiful hotels for very low budget, as we did. Here are two very affordable and recommendable options:
- Bali Dream House in Amed. A little paradise with only a few bungalows, directly at the beach and with a reef just in front of the bungalows. Great for snorkeling. Very friendly stuff and near a lot of restaurants and shops. Our favourite hotel during the trip! --> Link
- De Moksha eco-friendly resort and spa: A beautiful resort next to Tanah Lot temple. We had a luxurious bungalow with a private pool and open-air-bathroom. It was just perfect! Friendly staff, good food, yoga lessons and several public pools. --> Link