With Bali chocolates to Bali

Natives

This just goes to show, how friendly natives are toward tourists. They’re all nice and always smiling. But above all they don’t take offence. The’ll always smiling. We even saw a traffic accident with a car hitting a cyclist. I was surprised to see the man go out of the car and help the cyclist get up and she was smilling and nodding, thanked him for helping and went on, without any drama. You’d never see that happen back home.

The only thing that’s unfair are the prices – unless they’re written down (on rare occasions they are) they’ll set a price much higher than it’s really worth. But you learn to haggle qquite fast. Never accept the first price they offer. Always haggle, regarthless what the service is. You do that in a market, at taxies, at hotel rooms and even in restaurants! If you’re not good at it, you loose a lot of money. Once you start it becomes a habbit, even if it’s only for 5000 rupees (1€ was 14.000 rupees at that time). It’s not right to take advantage of you, just because you’re a tourist.

Prices

Like I said, the prices are not high. For 4€ you’ll get complete lunch and a beer. A room (with AC and hot water) is 15-25€ a night for two people (depending on the season, you cen get ti cheaper). Motorbike rental is 2,5€ a day and the fuel is about 1€ per 3 liters. Like I said, you can try out your haggling skills here.

Transport

Once we got to Jakarta (a lot of noise, dirt, stink… don’t stay there once you see all you want to see there) we saw for the first time what the traffic is like. They are driving on the left, but there are many motorists who don’t comply to any rules. They also don’t care about traffic signals. And I’m not talking about an occasional driver, but hundreds of them. They’re also taking over just about everywhere. We became the same after some time, because there’s just no other way to go around the place. That’s why a motorbike is the most handy way of transport, although you can’t have much luggage on it, although the natives use them to transport just about anything on them. And it’s even worse if you’re cought on a motorbike during a storm, but it’s still the most practical way of getting around. They have a bemo, a sort of a van, that drives around without any real stops, you just tell them where to take you.. They have no schedule and it’s best to ask ahead in which direction they’re going and then start to haggle and get a nice prize and also meet interesting people.

Sea

Classis. The beaches close to the hotels are nice, the rest of them not so much. The island is a meka for surfers. In Kuta (the tourist city with most parties) are ideal for learning. You’ll find surfer rentals and teachers. You pay for two lessons and the teacher is there only for one lesson, nd has other students there too. But you get to try it. The south of the island is mostly for professionals, because the rocks and waves can be dangerous for beginners. And there’s a life guard warning you if you get to far away from the safe zone.

Markets

There are many markets on Bali, offering traditional clothes, hand craft, food, souvenirs… the biggest is in Denpasary (the island capital). A big one is also in Ubud, where’s the Monkey forest – which you have to see if you want to see the monkeys, which are cute, but not afraid of people. Usually tourists who come from the forest complain because monkeys attack them.

Orientation

Don’t worry about getting lost, if you have a map of the island. The roads have signs, but sometimes they’re covered by branches. But you can always ask any passer-by. But be careful to pronounce the name of the place correctly . But you’ll always meet natives, willing to help you, to get to your destination. But they do expect to get payed for it. You can also make a deal and they’ll be your guides for some time, showing you the temples, traditional dances, parks, hand shops…

Suroundings

Bali is deffinetly an island worth to explore. But I was really bothered by their lack of environment. They’re throwing litter just about everywhere, just not trash bins. The beaches that are not a part of a hotel are filthy. You can also see many things floating in the sea: clothes, plastic, furniture… They don’t even care for dangerous substances, which they leave wherever and we even saw people dumping gas tanks on a beach full of people, to put them on a boat at some time.

Peace?

It’s a small and densly populated island, with natives and tourists, and many season workers. All together 5.632 people for a square kilometer. Kuta, Legian, Denpasar, Sanur, Nusa Dua (the most prestigious tourist towns) are completely full. If you want some peace go to the north part of the island, over the rice fields and mountains and beautiful lakes. Or take the boat to a small island of Nusa Lembogan, with the most beautiful beaches on Bali (at least for my taste) You’ll have your peace there and the island is small enough to drive over it in two hours. There you’ll find wooden cottages, covered with straw. The prices are higher, for all the supplies are brought there from Bali.

Try, look out…

• Durian fruit – either you love or hate it (for it's specific smell and taste)
• Dragonfruit – a purple fruit that makes you intestens work faster
• Seafood – try the lobster (10€ for a 350g portion of it).
• Surfing lessons
• Snorkle diving on the coral reefs, to see the marine life
• See the unique animal - komodo
• Be careful when exchanging curencies
• Hide sunglasses, bottles, has, in front of the monkeys, for they'll try to steal them
• Drink a lot of fluids and don't get exposed tot he sun
• If you like chocolate, take your own with you, theirs suck
• Natives are glad to get anything. Sometimes you'll buy more then you'll be able to carry with you (small prices, large selection, suvenirs, watches, shades…), so you might have to leave some of them there. So why not give them to a native?