My Bali – this is not a holiday!
Our decision to start our GAP year in Bali was quite deliberate; we were looking for a soft start, a cheap destination and somewhere close to home in case we bailed on the whole idea. We have visited Bali before but our experience was hardly authentic;
Our prearranged driver met us at the airport, delivered us to our 5 Star villa complete with house maids, a security guard and chef to prepare meals on cue. A daily massage and flower filled bath had to be wedged in amongst our routine of cocktail drinking, shopping and pool time. On the spur of a moment our driver would take us anywhere we wanted to go in the comfort of his air-conditioned car. Returning home with a new stamp in our passport, freshly manicured nails, beads in our hair and suitcases filled with cheap sarongs and leather shoes we believed we had experienced Bali.
This time our budget and objective was much different; I felt such as snob balking at an Air Asia flight and the anxiety I was feeling about landing in a foreign country without a plan in place was uncontrollable. To soften the blow we contacted Jack our driver friend to pick us up from Denpasar Airport and we pre booked one week in a nice 3 star villa in Ubud. We promised ourselves that we would toughen up and learn to be real backpackers quickly
There were many firsts for us in Bali, we approached every day thinking ‘what would Shane do’ (our travel guru friend) and can we afford this! Firstly the driver had to go, as much as we wanted to support local employment we were not on a holiday and couldn’t afford such luxury. Secondly there was no room in our budget for fancy restaurants and cafes, after all we didn’t eat out at home every day! We had to eat where the locals ate. A terrifying thought for someone who had never eaten from a street cart in a third world country before.
I’ll never forget our first meal of street food, we were sitting in a Warong on a busy street in Ubud watching the world go by, we had no intention of eating there but enjoying the serenity and free Wi-Fi we settled in. Like a couple of wide-eyed country kids in a new world we watched a skinny old man pushing a cart up and down, stopping randomly, to serve up his brew. We watched him for a long time, he looked busy and the locals swarmed from doorways to buy from him as if this was a daily occurrence. His scrawly hand written sign read “Bakso Ayam”. We were both starving and decided to give it a go. I remembered thinking, how did I get to 50 years old and have never eaten street food.
We casually wandered up pretending we had done this a thousand times before, looking nervous and naive no doubt. With our little steaming bowls of broth and unidentifiable meat balls we perched ourselves on the closest window sill and awkwardly ate our dinner with chopsticks and slurped up the broth straight from the bowl. I think it cost us twice as much as the locals but nevertheless only $2 for dinner that day. A local lady nearby who could speak English nestled in beside us for a chat and before you know it we were donating the rest of our daily budget to the ‘Dogs of Bali’!
Wandering back to our accommodation with the waft of incense never far away, amongst the chaos and constant horn honking we both felt proud of our little achievement although we felt sure we would end up with food poisoning during the night.
Fairly quickly we adapted to the local way of life; our transport was a scooter, riding was realistically the only way to get around. We learnt fast the rules of the road;
- There are no rules.
- Do not look backwards only forwards.
- Do not stop at traffic lights unless the person in front of you does.
- Beeping the horn is compulsory, it’s a polite way of announcing your presence.
- There are no limits to how many people can ride on a scooter at once.
After our first week of mastering busy roads, eating street food, politely but aggressively saying no to hawkers who constantly hounded us and learning a few basic phrases to get by we confidently made our way to less known regions of Bali, away from the holiday makers and the chaos.
The choices for accommodation at our budget level limited us to backpacker dorms and homestays. I can honestly say I haven’t slept in a dorm since primary school and that wasn’t a mixed dorm. My mind was full of scenarios that were somewhat disturbing; drunken, snoring, farting, partying 20 year olds seeking sex and a good time and then there’s me tucked up in my bed hopeful for a solid 8 hours sleep. There are many things I can compromise on but sleep is definitely not one of them, so homestays became our choice. To our surprise many of these places were actually cheaper than a dorm so it felt less like a cop out, although Shane would be disappointed we didn’t give it a go!
Rightly or wrongly we had become accustomed to our creature comforts back home so you can imagine the feeling of dread when we opened the door on our accommodation and the bed had wrinkled mixed matched sheets, the pillows were lumpy and greyish, there was dirt gathering in the corners. Hanging from the roof was a mosquito net full of holes and the windows and doors didn’t shut tight. The bathroom was missing the hot water tap and the toilet was a squat variety.
In the mould speckled shower with black hairs dangling over the smelly drain I lost my sense of adventure. Dear God I did not sign up for this, what happened to the excellent reviews I had been reading about on TripAdvisor!
To my surprise, mixed matched sheets, lumpy pillows and a bit of mould didn’t kill us! The essence of the place along with many others we stayed in was about the people and the location. We discovered the next day we were perched high up on a hill with the most amazing green view over the local village and rice paddies. Our host family prepared us the most delicious feast and directed us to a picturesque walk through spice fields and coffee plantations to a hidden waterfall. Along the way we stumbled across a local lady preparing offerings, there were little bark huts with fresh fruit for sale and a few eager travellers following the same mud map as us to the most beautiful hidden waterfall to cool off in.
Over the next few weeks my Bali emerged into a kaleidoscope of sacred temples, Hindu ceremonies, daily rituals, cool waterfalls, hours spent wandering through rice paddies, meeting the locals in fishing villages, snorkelling, beach combing, mountain walks and cheeky monkeys. Unlike our first visit we discovered the authentic Bali by expanding our curiosity, travelling slowly and wandering away from the well-worn tourist trail.
My Favourite Bali Experiences;
Ubud – Campuhan Ridge Walk for sunrise and a breakfast treat at Karsa Cafe. Wandering amongst the quintessential Balinese rice paddies with lush views of the surrounding tropics made the early start well worthwhile. Campuhan Ridge Walk is located close to downtown Ubud, about one kilometre west from Ubud Palace. The way to the walk is marked with signs.
Munduk – The village of Munduk is a quiet mountain retreat in the centre of Bali. Ask a local for a mud map on the hidden waterfall, be prepared to get lost and found again amongst the tropical landscape of spice fields and coffee plantations.
Tegallalang Rice Terraces – Not exactly off the tourist trail but a stunning example of rice terracing and less touristy than the famous Jatiluwih Rice Terraces. We wandered for hours through the fields watching the farmers and appreciating the architecture. I purchased my gorgeous bamboo Balinese hat from a hawker nearby. Testing out my bartering skills, I walked away feeling like I had a bargain.
Pemuteran – An oasis in the far northwest corner of Bali. A perfect beach getaway with some of the best snorkelling at Menjangan Island. The village of Pemuteran is set between the mountains and the beach. If you’re looking for a peaceful location, without frills or fuss and incredibly friendly locals you will love Pemuteran. Check out the coral restoration work being done at Biorock http://www.biorock-indonesia.com/
Sidemen – Our highlight in Indonesia was the village of Sidemen and surrounding area. No mosques, no roosters, no traffic, no hawkers, no mass tourism just wide open spaces and beautiful people. We stayed at Embang Homestay , what a gem of a find, one of the best places we have stayed in and the view was breathtaking. Luxury on a budget – who would have thought that was possible.
Pura Lempuyang Luhur – Is one of Bali’s oldest and most highly regarded Hindu temples. Situated on the peak of Mount Lempuyang and at 1.175m above sea level we dragged ourselves up the 1700 steps to appreciate this most beautiful place.
Sanur – Very touristy but with a clean white beach it’s easy to see why. If you’re looking for an up market resort stay, lots of funky cafes, great shopping all with a little less hustle and bustle check out Sanur. We treated ourselves over Christmas at Sudamala Villas.
Amed – A coastal road trip between Sanur and Amed we explored fishing villages, coves and beaches stopping off to snorkel a few well known Japanese ship wrecks along the way.
Tanah Lot – Jack invited us to meet him at Tanah Lot as he wanted to introduce us to his temple and his family. We considered ourselves incredibly lucky to be offered this experience, it was a real honour to meet Jack’s mother and learn more about the complexities of their family life and culture.
After spending 6 weeks in Bali we were starting to look and feel like real backpackers after all!
Tenderfoot Travel 
2 Responses to “My Bali – this is not a holiday!”
Love these blog posts. They are really interesting to read. And this one makes me smile – most people go from backpacker and built up to luxury travel but I love how you’ve done this in reverse and written about it!
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Build I mean! Not built.
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