9 random facts about daily life in Bali
After spending almost 30 days in Bali our visas were running out and it was time to move on to another country. With a little dose of sentiment we took a look back at what became our reality for almost a month: laundry lottery, surfer’s chocolate and our beloved motorbike.
We stayed in Ubud and drove all around the southern part of the island: from Jimbaran, through Balangan to Bingin. Since we took it pretty easy and took our time in almost every place, at the end of the stay we felt a little bit like locals giving hints about the road to other tourists and even having our favourite chocolate bars. During our lazy hours we have had quite a few conversations about the differences between the daily life in Bali and our life back in Europe and what makes daily Bali Bali.
Here are some random facts we filtered out from the last month’s experiences:
1: Traffic is king
Although it is such a small island (5.780 km2), there is no way around the transportation topic in Bali. Petrol is extremely cheap hence public transportation is basically non-existent and everybody is using a car or a motorbike to come from A to B. And when I say “everybody” I mean everybody including a 12 years old kid (yeah, we saw one driving with his two younger sisters as passengers), schoolgirls, surfers and western looking grandmas. Almost every homestay is renting motorbikes and walking is not really a thing. Actually it is almost dangerous as there are basically no walking paths. If you try walking, you can count on somebody wanting to give you a lift within 5 minutes.
Traffic rules are treated more like loose indications. We saw one western guy who stopped his motorbike in the middle of a busy round-about to check Google maps. Every route takes much longer than you thought as the traffic is just insane. Airport to Ubud— a 30km route took us 1h 15min.
You ever made fun of Asians coming to Europe wearing masks? Well, stop. After driving a motorbike in Ubud we have full understanding for the reasons — you really don’t want to be breathing in all that fumes every day. We got masks and felt much better although we looked like we are about to rob a bank.
2: Weather forecast is a lie
I was a little bit nervous when checking the weather forecast for Bali back in Berlin. Clouds and thunders for weeks and weeks to come. Not. If it rains, it stops after maximum 2 hours and it rains mostly at night. Apart from that it’s sunshine and heat all the time. Yeah. It seems to be an SE-Asia wide phenomenon: there is basically no reliable weather forecast to be found.
3: There is no Twix but there is Surfer’s chocolate
There are no sections for chocolate in supermarkets. Biscuits yes, chocolate no. There are some western-made chocolate bars here and there but rather scattered around markets than systematically responding to a real need. In addition, it is an impossible task to find the Twix bar. I looked everywhere, believe me. There is something special though: the Surfer’s chocolate. Beautifully designed, produced in Bali, it tastes just awesome and a testimonial on their website claims it helps you loose weight (we ate quite a lot of it, can’t confirm, can’t deny).
4: People never get angry
Balinese people are the nicest! We have never seen them getting angry or screaming, even in the insane traffic of the island. Although of course taking chances to sell stuff, always smiling and eager to help. Another thing is that this help might sometimes be a bit difficult since the English level of most people we dealt with, was, let’s say, level A at best. One night when we were caught at night in a heavy rain and needed some road indications Tiago ended up in a conversation that went something like this:
“Where is the nearest supermarket?”
“Ah, supermarket. Go like this”
“So is it left or right?”
“Yes”.
But we learned pretty quickly to communicate in a non-verbal way or to just let it go. And, we felt safe at all times. It is really hard to imagine any of these lovely people would do you any harm.
5: Who lives where
Bali is not really a backpacker island and it doesn’t have the same vibe as for example, Thailand. It is packed with resorts with the purpose to indulge your senses and make you feel like a God if you have between 100 and 3.000 EUR to spend for a night. These places are really mostly paradise-like and picture perfect, giving really few incentives to leave them at all, with huts roofs made of hay (good like in case of fire btw), infinity pools and staff smiling at your every wish. We went to do yoga in one and we had difficulties to leave (in fact, we blended in and stayed for a kindl read and a swim in the pool).
There is also some more budget accommodation alternatives, homestays around 30–40 EUR (the one we went for) with the banana pancake for breakfast. And finally, there are a few bungalow- style accommodation choices at the beach, mostly really cheap, rundown places occupied by surfers who don’t give a shit.
And then there are the homes of the Balinese, so different from everything offered to tourists. Mostly very humble and extremely basic, making the clash between the resorts and the local houses almost shocking and certainly saddening. While there were whole “resort cities” with perfectly asphalted roads, the roads around the parts where there were less or no resorts but mostly poor local huts were not renovated and full of holes. No tourists, nobody cares.
6: Don’t trust the Wi-Fi
In fact, don’t trust anything that is supposed to work. From the Wi-Fi to electricity and water (these two are often connected), everything can fail at any moment and it will take a blurry amount of time for it to work again. It’s good to take it easy but be prepared. We quickly learned to charge our phones whenever possible and were really happy about our head-flashlight when the power went off at night in several places we stayed at.
7: Everyone’s a service provider
In Bali nothing is a real problem as you can pay anybody to do any kind of service (within reason, obviously). Life seems to be built around tourists: everybody offers or knows somebody that offers what you need. The price is always negotiable. Ordinary Balinese people see tourists as opportunities to make business and never get tired of asking if you need anything. And I mean, literally: one boy on Bingin beach kept asking us almost every day “Something?”, indicating he can just make about everything happen. Massage, laundry, sarong, tour guide, motorbike, coconut?
In Ubud random cars would stop when the driver saw as walking, asking if we needed a taxi. During our time at the beach a guy just knocked at the door claiming that the terrace blinds needed to be repaired. Our host wasn’t there so we sent him away. Later we found out that this entrepreneurial guy walked in just from the street, proactively looking to make money, as he saw that the blinds might be improved.
8: Uber not welcome
Speaking of service. The taxi driver who brought us from the airport to Ubud on our first day was called Ketut but you can add him on Facebook as Marco — that is the easy name for tourists. Ketut was only one name of five different ones he has but he likes it since it’s just like Ketut from “Eat Pray Love” who made Bali so famous. But for our Ketut life is more like “Eat Sleep Drive”, no time for anything else, 12 hours of driving a day. Mostly transporting crazy Australians who come to surf and get drunk in Kuta. Does he surf himself? Nah, driving all the time. He is 33, with a 12 years old son but looks like 21. Good mood keeps him in shape. And driving.
We asked Ketut about Uber — the app shows many cars around but the drivers just don’t accept the drives. Ketut explained that they are scared: it happened many times that Taxi drivers have beaten them up as they don’t want cheaper competition. Ketut didn’t like them either. Later, especially in touristy places, we saw many signs with logo crossed through: “No Uber”.
Finally on the way from Ubud to the south we managed to book a driver with the app. Once he was approaching he texted us to please keep quiet and don’t look at our mobiles while getting into a car. If somebody asked we should say it’s our friend picking us up. The drive was two times cheaper as per a taxi.
9: Take pictures of your laundry
We like to change our underwear every day so at some point we had to use the laundry service. It turned out to be a bit of a clothing lottery. Usually it is being taken from your homestay or hotel to the bigger laundry points somewhere down the road. We passed by these places. There are tones of clothes and naturally — they get mixed up. On our first we got an extra blouse back that clearly wasn’t ours. We started to take pictures of our clothes before sending them on a laundry journey. A great, great idea.
That’s it, folks! Next stories: Kuala Lumpur and then off we go with Thailand!
Where we stayed, what we ate, where we hipstered
For Ubud, see the end of the story about Ubud.
Istana Hypso — this place became our true home for more than a week. We loved everything about it: the straight-forward but warmhearted host Mia (originally from Borneo), the French dog Hypso and the cat Istana, the perfect pool and garden and the absolutely amazing villas. The breakfast was great and the common area made us feel like it’s our own house.
At Bob’s loft — at the Bingin Beach we stayed semi-privately at a loft of a guy from California. Read about it here and if you are interested, shoot us an email, we can put you in touch with him.
La Rosin Warung — a must visit if you are around. The place is a extremely well run orphanage and all the profit from the delicious food goes to supporting the kids. The kids came to greet us with big smiles on their faces and the atmosphere is really unforgettable. Just as the Club Sandwich (with ciabatta bread!).
Kafein Cafe (Balangan) — just next to where we stayed, it turned out to be a great breakfast and coffee place with chilled atmosphere, good WiFi and friendly staff. A bit in the middle of nowhere, it offers all a hipster heart craves for including funny and motivational sentences all over the walls.
Om Burger — you haven’t tried such a burger in your life, guaranteed! We went there several times and each time it was a feast. Coconut, Beetroot and Spinach buns..all feels healthy, organic and blabla, shut up and just give me this beautiful burger already! The place will satisfy your need for hipstery, for proper meat and for treat-yourself-well mood. Run by a local older lady (!) with lots of entrepreneurial spirit.
Can’t get enough? We committed to post one picture a day to Instagram.
