Amazing Ceking rice terraces outside Ubud

A combination of cheap tickets and tales of some of the best diving in the world brought Carrie and I to Bali for a 12 day stint from May 5 – May 17. Our time here was marred with both amazing experiences and epic frustrations, so for something fun this entry I will rate everything as a Bali Hai (which technically means hello, but not here, as well as being a beer brand) or Bali Low.

First let me start by saying that it is extremely tough to sum up a culture after spending a mere 12 days in the most touristic part of the country. All observations in this entry are based strictly on Bali and not Indonesia as a whole. That said, while the locals work hard to maintain their cultural identity, and many do, the entire island is completely dedicated to making foreigners happy. This is wonderful for travelers on a short vacation or with an unlimited budget, but makes life tough for backpackers who want to get a local experience at a local price.

• Photos for this entry
• Carrie’s Travelpod for Bali

A bemo. the local public bus

It didn’t take long for us to realize that Bali was unlike any place we’ve ever traveled before, in that it is nearly impossible to use public transportation. As always, after arriving at the airport we were greeted by scores of taxi drivers. And as always, we politely refused and said that we wanted to take public transportation. After finding another pair of backpackers and getting information on how to make the 50 minute journey to Ubud, we walked out of the airport towards the bus stand.

Public buses in Bali (called bemos) are actually little vans with bench or bus style seating. They do not go long distances and getting across the country can be done only by using multiple bemos for each little leg of the trip. Each bemo ride should not cost more than 5,000 rupia (50 cents) per person and should drop us off at either a bus stop or terminal where the next bemo should be waiting or on its way.

The inside of a bemo...the Bali public bus

For locals in Bali, this is exactly how it works. However, as we quickly found out after leaving the airport, the reality is quite different for tourists. We had to haggle hard with every single driver  we encountered to get even close to the fair price and often drivers would just flat out refuse anything less  than 20,000 rupia per person to go even a short distance. Most told us that there were no more bemos to Ubud that day and we should just give them large sums of money to take us.

“But aren’t you a bemo?” we would ask the drivers. The answer was always the same: “yes, but this is a private bemo.” We would later learn that all bemos spend some time doing trips for locals but most just wait around and use their vehicle as a private transport for foreigners, as it makes them far more money. Very few public bemos were even willing to stop for us, as the system in place is designed to frustrate foreigners to the point that they throw their hands up and accept whatever price the private ones ask for.

The epilogue to our airport to Ubud story is that we finally made it there: four hours and four bemos later. We spent God knows how much time haggling and saying no to absurd prices and even despite our best work the trip wound up only being $9 cheaper than it would have been to have a 50 minute long AC cab ride from the airport to our hotel. At that point we too threw up our hands and decided no more bemos!

The shuttle that took us from Ubud to Lovina for $13 per person and charged us extra to stop and take photos

After a few days in Ubud, we decided to try out the other cheap option for travelers in Bali: the shuttle service. For anywhere between $5 and $20 per person, a private car will pick up as many people as it can cram in. Reservations are required, but last-minute additions are welcomed. Regardless of how many people are in the car, the per person cost remains the same. We were lucky enough to have our first one be for just us, but we have heard horror stories from other travelers.

While the shuttle service is ok, they only operate in major destinations. Other times, there is no choice but to pay a driver to go wherever we need to go. This is the most obnoxious of all, as they know you are lost without them and charge between $20 and $30 for a quick drive anywhere. We contemplated going back to bemos, but the odds of those working out in our favor were slim so we just sucked it up.

Next we come to the public and private taxis. In big towns like Kuta and Denpensar (the capital), iit is not hard to find a normal metered taxi. However, once you get out of these places the taxis are just more private drivers. As we learned, actual taxis are only allowed in a select few cities. Everywhere else, anyone with a car is welcome to line the streets and hawk out their vehicle for a ride. This results in the most commonly heard things on the streets of a town like Ubud being, “hello taxi? Yes, taxi? You want taxi? Taxi? No? Maybe tomorrow?” It gets quite overwhelming with more drivers than tourists and becomes something of a joke for all travelers.

Our rental car in bali, a Feroza that cost us $9 a day

Finally we come to the most economical way to get around that, unfortunately, we didn’t realize and take advantage of until the end of our trip: rental cars. For $9 per day we rented a Feroza, which is a Jeep-like bucket of bolts with a very wide turning radius, speed and gas gauges that don’t work and very little pickup. In order to rent it all we had to do was fill out a simple form with our name, address in the USA and passport number, but they didn’t verify any of it and I easily could have put down any info and still gotten the car.

As I can barely drive stick on the right side of the road, Carrie was our driver and did an amazing job navigating driving on the left side of the road and shifting gears with her left hand. We got lost a few times due to terrible signage in the country, but all in all the rental car was the best way to travel and we wish we had done it from the start…it would have alleviated much stress, hassle and wasted money.

Rating: Bali Low (except for the rental car)

Bakso - chicken ball soup with noodles and sometimes other meats

Food in Bali consists of a large variety of meat and fish, though not much of it is true Indonesian. Most restaurants serve western style foods rather than traditional dishes, though this is also partly because of the fact that all our time was spent in touristy areas. We did, however,  manage to find a few that we liked.

Bakso: This is my favorite dish in Bali. It’s really just a soup with chicken broth, some noodles, a few bits of veggies, spices and weird meatballs made of chicken. The chickenballs are kind of rubbery and sometimes have ground up bits of bone still in them. However, as gross as this may sound, it’s absolutely delicious, cheap (if you find it on the street outside of a main tourist spot) and somewhat filling.

Special Nasi Campur Balina - tofu, chicken satay, green beans, fried egg, fried fish, fried corn thing, cucumber, tomato

Nasi Campur: I had this dish twice…once it was amazing, the other time not so much. Regardless, it is the most common dish in Bali and consists of rice topped with chicken satay, veggies, an egg and fried shrimp chips.

Gado Gado: Leave it to the vegetarian to find my second favorite dish, as I never would have tried it on my own. The plate has tofu, bean sprouts, peanut sauce, some other sauce that is like a sweet soy sauce, chili (not for Carrie) and compressed rice. The rice is boiled then cooled while wrapped in a banana leaf, so it has the consistency of tofu rather than of normal rice. When combined, the result is scrumptious.

A few other traditional foods that I liked a bit less included nasi goreng (fried rice with veggies, chicken and egg) and mie goreng (fried rice with veggies, chicken and egg). I really don’t have anything specific against them other than that they seem more like something I would expect in any Asian country and not Bali-specific.

Verdict:
The Dishes Described Above: Bali Hai
The Rest of Bali Food: Bali Low

The inside of a typical local house in Bali

In every town across Bali we saw stonework of the most exquisite quality. Towns were filled with shops carving and selling statues, pillars and more all with intricate Buddha heads, animals, flowers, nature scenes and more. The pieces are occasionally sold to tourists but usually are bought by locals for use in homes, temples, parks or any other area under construction or renovation.

Our favorite places to see these carvings in place were the houses in Bali: many of which we stumbled upon during a walk through Ubud. According to Inyoman, a new couchsurfing friend, traditional Balinese home architecture is designed to mimic that of both Hindu and even more ancient temples in the region. There is no house in the traditional sense of the word. Rather, a series of rooms each standing as an individual structure surrounding a central courtyard.

The inside of a typical local house in Bali

One of these rooms, the first one built, is only partially walled and open to all who pass by. It is used for sitting and, when needed, placing the casket of recently deceased family members for viewings and mourning. Another staple of all traditional homes in Bali is a temple, which is usually in the back of the property. These range in size and grandeur depending on the budget but are always in place before the family or families move in.

Understandably, it costs a lot of money to build a traditional Balinese home. This means that while it is the preferred way to live on the island and very common in touristy areas, it is not how the majority exist. Once we left Ubud and headed to the mountains, we saw that there are still tons of normal houses, shanty shacks and poverty: a fact which Bali tries hard to keep off the tourist trail.

Verdict: Bali Hai

Whether it's fun puppets like these in Ubud, transportation or anything else, getting a fair price is very tough in Bali

As I mentioned earlier, one of our biggest frustrations in Bali was trying to get a fair price. A typical negotiation would usually go something like:

Us: Hi, we are interested in a room, meal, item in your store, etc. How much?
Them: What is your country?
Us: USA
Them: (eyes light up) Ahhh, very rich country. Your price is…[insert price at least double or triple what locals pay]

Sometimes we would try to avoid telling them our country but we never got a price until we said something. Other times they would just know from our accents. A few times we joked that we should go into a place separately and ask for the same thing. I would say I’m from the USA, Carrie would say from Czech Republic or some other country that they have no idea what to do with and see what happens. Maybe next time. All we know is thank goodness we’re not Japanese, as they pay nearly double what Americans do.

Verdict: Bali Way Low

Intricate Shiva statue at an intersection in Ubud

The majority of our time in Bali was spent in the town of Ubud, which is known as the most traditional Balinese area of the island. I would agree with that statement and add that it is, at least in the area we stayed, also completely fake and designed to appease tourists. Within a few block radius, hundreds of foreigners walk down the streets looking in stores, eating at restaurants, soaking in the culture and enjoying what appears to be a true Bali experience.

The reality of Ubud is that it is a fabricated reality run by locals to get every penny they can out o0f tourists. That said, traditional Bali no longer exists as it used to and Ubud really is one of the last places that at least FEELS authentic. Sure it’s guilty of rampant commercialism, but so are dozens of other towns we’ve visited in our travels and despite the negative start to this post, I actually had a very nice time there.

Every street in the touristic part of Ubud is filled with guesthouses, family homes and temples, all in the traditional style I wrote about earlier. All locals are dressed in Balinese clothing and look like they are on their way to a religious ceremony. Doorsteps and streets are adorned with little offering baskets filled with flowers, candies and presents to the Gods. The streets are narrow and the shops are quite chic.

Right next to the heart of town are local neighborhoods with normal cement houses and more of the third-world feel that is hiding behind the glitz of the center. Carrie and I spent a lovely day wandering around exploring these less-polished areas and got a great feel for the town.

Carrie and I dressed up for a religious celebration with Inyoman, our new couchsurfing friend

Another evening was spent with Inyoman, our latest couchsurfing friend, who invited us along with his family to attend a traditional Balinese religious celebration.. After picking us up in his car, he took us to his house, fed us some snacks and then loaned us the Balinese religious clothing required to attend the celebration. Carrie had to put on a corset, vail-like shirt, dress and sash while I had to wear two layers of sarongs (beautiful sheets) around my waist, a sash and a head covering.

Our first stop was a temple where we waited for nearly an hour for other locals to arrive from further away. Carrie and I were pretty much stared at the whole time and we heard the words “American” used a few times in the midst of their foreign tongue. Finally, the rest of the gang arrived and I watched as they took out beautifully decorated boxes and a dragon the likes of which one would expect to see in a Chinese New Year parade. Dozens of men helped load these onto the back of a pickup for transportation to the temple.

And that’s where the story ends. Carrie was not feeling well so we had to call it an early night with hopes of a speedy recovery and rejoining the celebration on the third and final night. Sadly, the conclusion of the celebration was never in the cards, as she spent pretty much the rest of our time in Bali recovering.

It rained every day in Ubud and the storm was usually fierce and short

Our final activity before leaving Ubud was to finally treat ourselves to a day at the spa, after the idea was ingrained in our head by countless hawkers saying “hello, massage?” to us every time we walked down the street. So, for $23 per person we went in for four hours of massage, manicure, pedicure, facial and hair cream bath (you can laugh now or later at the though of me getting a hair cream bath).

I guess you get what you pay for. The massage was very nice, as was the facial. However, the manicure and pedicure basically consisted of some dude clipping my nails and scrubbing my feet with a brush. Carrie at least got her nails did, but she tells me that part of a normal mani-pedi is a full hand and leg massage. Then, the hair cream bath involved the same guy washing my hear and giving me the most painful head massage ever…he basically just applied pressure to my skull and temples for 30 minutes. Ouch! I’m still willing to give more cheapo massages a chance, but thus far on this trip they are 0 for 3..

Verdict:
Ubud: Bali Hai
Carrie being sick: Bali low
Massage: Bali better luck next time

A walk through the back streets of Ubud next to a chicken coup

Geese walk through the street in Ubud

Getting ready for a religious celebration in Ubud

Menjangan National Park where we scuba dived and ate lunch (taken by Carrie)

Our time in Ubud was actually broken into two segments. After a couple of days, we headed north to the black sand beach town of Lovina to do what we came here to do: scuba dive! Our first two dives were off the northwest coast next to the Menjangan islands in the Bali Baratnational park. While the big fish were few and far between, we saw some breathtaking coral that we have never seen before on any dive. We were a bit worried that it had been effected by the tsunami, but no problemo.

The only problem we had was our first dive was going against the current, so imagine spending an hour kicking with all your strength just to keep up with the group. Personally, I do not like swimming or the ocean. I love scuba diving because it usually isn’t much work and I find it extremely peaceful and tranquil. This was not. Oh well, at least the sights were amazing and our second dive there was perfect. We even saw a beautiful gigantic sea turtle just hanging out right by our head.

The dolphin statue in Lovina

As for Lovina, I can only hope it does well during the high season because it was pretty much abandoned when we got there. Walking down the black sand beach was hilarious, as the local women selling shells, posters, nick nacks and other junk would follow us every time we went down there. They even knew Carrie by name, as she was too nice to tell them to buzz off, and would flock to her saying “now are you ready to buy?” One time a vendor was waiting for us by our clothes after he saw us leaving the ocean to grab our stuff. Like, ok guy, this is a little creepy.

Our second set of dives took us to the wreck of the USS Liberty in Tulumben, which sunk off the coast during World War II. Today the ship is covered in coral and surrounded by fish…and other divers. For the first time in our diving history, we did not take a boat out. Rather, the ship is very close to shore so we literally geared up and walked into the water for a few dozen feet before the bottom dropped out and we went down.

Menjangan National Park where we scuba dived and ate lunch

For two dives we swam around and through the massive wreck of the ship, playing with corals and clams, taking our time and really observing everything around us. Highlights included a giant barracuda that was just hovering a few feet above us and a few massive schools of fish that, for some unknown reason, were forming a giant cyclone shape by circling around in the water. Amazing.

Verdicts:
Diving: Bali Hai
Lovina: Bali Hai
Tulumben: Bali Low

Typical Balinese dance at a restaurant in Lovina

Carrie and I in front of Mt Batur.

After scuba diving, we spent the night in Tulumben trying to find a cheap local way to get to Mt. Batur: an active volcano that we wanted to hike for the sunrise. Despite our best efforts, we had no choice but to pay top dollar for a driver to take us there, as the buses were indirect and would take a day of haggling, lots of effort and offer no guarantee that we would even get there. So, two hours and one comfortable drive later we checked into a dingy moldy smelling room at the base of the volcano with two Christmas lights as the only bulbs in the room and booked our guide for the 4am hike up.

Our guide up the volcano was Guday (pronounced like Crocodile Dundee says g’day mate), a 19 year old kid with dreams of working on a cruise ship to save money to start his own business in Bali. He was very kind and patient, as I had a splitting headache and Carrie was having some problems of her own on the walk up. However, after an hour and a half, we reached the top and sat down with all the other hikers from other groups in a covered wood shack for tea, a small breakfast and the sunrise.

Our Mt Batur sunrise

Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other ideas about our plans. The fog had started about halfway through our hike up and only got denser as the hours passed. Shortly before sunrise the downpour began and we just sat there watching as the sky went from dark to light. No ball of fire, no color changing, just light behind the wall of white.

I slept sitting up for a bit while Carrie talked to some other travelers and finally, after about two hours of shivering, the rain seemed to stop. We almost called it a day and went down, but decided to keep going on anyway and take a chance. Man are we glad we did!

The view from atop Mt Batur

The rest of our hike, another three hours, was spent without rain watching as the fog came and went providing spectacular views over Lake Batur and the surrounding mountains. It never got hot out, we took lots of breaks and I took about a million photos. We saw smoldering craters, a temple inside a cave, the Lucky Temple at the foot of the volcano that managed to avoid any damage from constant eruptions, lava ash fields and more. On the way down we literally skied with our shoes on through a beach of ash. In total, our hike lasted eight hours (it should have been five but we had the rain delay) and we traveled a bit over 8km. Good times.

Verdict: Bali Hai

Fun at the Waterbom waterpark in Kuta

After Mt Batur we went back to Ubud for a few days during which Carrie got sick. While there we stayed at the same hote as Angie, our new Scottish friend who we met at Batur. She wound up coming with us when Carrie felt better and we headed south to Kuta, the resort town and party capital of Bali. Out transport this time: a rental car for $9 a day (too bad we didn’t come up with this money-saving idea earlier).

Imagine everything I wrote about Phuket last time but in a much smaller area. The streets are lined with shops and young people, many of which are Australian, walk around drinking beer at all hours of the day. It’s a party atmosphere 24/7, though we tried to go out one night and found that there was not much doing.

My favorite part, though it irritated me sometimes, was walking the gauntlet of shopkeepers on the side streets. Every single one would try and get me to come in and look at and buy their goods ranging from stickers to teeshirts, beer coozies, statues, hats, sunglasses, nick nacks and more. They all called me their friend and told me they had a very special price just for me. Frequently heard phrases were, “yes hello!, you come look, hello my friend, only look no buy, looking is free.” Also, every five feet were the people offering transport or massages. “Yes, hello transport? You want massage?”

When not walking or avoiding the gauntlet, our other big activity in Kuta was the Waterbom water park. For six hours the three of us slid and tubed our way through 16 different slides and down the lazy river. Typical us, we were amongst the final people to leave the park.

Verdict: Bali Hai

Walking down the shopping gauntlet in Kuta

Walking the gauntlet again and haggling down a teeny sticker from $7.50 to 50 cents…long but funny

Videos from Waterbom Waterpark:
Carrie and Greg race at the Waterbom water park in Bali

I go down the toilet bowl slide at the Waterbom park in Bali

Scores of tourists all over the beach at Tanah Lot

Our final stop before the airport was the most famous temple in Bali: Tanah Lot. Situated on the ocean, it is a pilgram location for tourists and locals alike and also has the title of the most photographed spot on the island. Nothing could have prepared us for what awaited us. We thought the gauntlet in Kuta and Phuket was intense.

Before entering the Tanah Lot grounds, visitors have to walk through a quarter mile strip to the main entrance. Both sides of this narrow street are filled with shops and street vendors all packed in like sardines. There is nowhere to go except to follow the crowd or to stop and buy something. I would rate the experience as a claustrophobic person’s worst nightmare. Considering it’s the #1 tourist destination in the country, you can imagine the scene…or you can watch the video below

Scores of people walk through the Tanah Lot gauntlet of shops

Once inside the gates, the scene was more of the same. The beach was lined with tourists all snapping away, posing, clowning around and taking it in. Fortunately the tide was out so people couldn’t get to the temple itself, or it too would be crawling. I can’t figure out another place that I’ve ever been to that is quite like that. Regardless, the temple itself was beautiful and worth the trek to get to.

Verdict: Bali too damned crowded to be a Bali Hai

Scores of tourists swarm the beach of Tanah Lot