Bali

Transport

Getting anywhere on Bali is horrendously slow – it takes a good ninety minutes to two hours to travel 50km. The roads are bad, and there are often traffic jams in the towns. On Nusa Penida the roads are even worse than on the main island of Bali – I’ve never seen anything that bad in my life, it was appalling. I’d say for that reason that you should always hire a driver, but a motorbike is also an option. It may be faster, but a car is more comfortable. Still, I wouldn’t rent a car and drive it on Bali if they paid me to. 😊

If you can find a driver who speaks English then it’s even better, because not only can he take you to all the sights, but also tell you interesting facts about the culture and habits of the Balinese.
This may go without saying, but there is no public transport on Bali. You can use the Grab app, but not in Ubud, where it’s been banned to support the local taxi drivers. In Legian we called a Grab driver, and a 20-25-minute journey cost us just a couple of dollars. There were three of us, so per head we’re talking the smallest of small change. Grab works similarly to Uber, but the good thing about it is you pay with cash at the end of the journey, instead of having the amount deducted from your card. This protects you, because if for any reason your trip is cancelled you don’t have to pay anything, whereas Uber will still deduct a certain amount from your card.

Travelling in Bali with a driver

We spent seven full days on Bali, and had a driver for four of them (the plan had been five, but it rained one day and in the end we cancelled). Our main driver was Putu Yan, who was recommended to us by a lot of tourist groups. He was a really friendly guy, and told us a lot about Bali.

There were two occasions when he couldn’t drive us, and someone else from his team was sent instead. We were very satisfied with one of them – he spoke great English, and told us lots of interesting things about the island. The other replacement driver didn’t speak such good English, but it didn’t bother us – we weren’t really in the mood for conversation that day ourselves. 😊

When I looked Putu up on Facebook, I asked him what he’d recommend we see during five days in Bali. He sent us a list of recommended sights and activities, and we selected those we wanted to see (in the end we missed out on four temples, but no big deal, we’ll catch them next time). He helped us plan our trip, and always answered very promptly on Facebook. The prices were always upfront, with no hidden costs.

Depending on the distance, and on how many different sights he was taking us to from Ubud or Legian, the daily cost of a driver was between 500-750 rupiah. This isn’t expensive at all, especially given that we were dividing it three ways, and everything was included – there were no extra fuel costs. Each day we’d give the driver a tip of about three dollars. (Agnes, 2020)

Destination in brief

Bali is an island in Indonesia, near the southern end of the much larger island of Java. The shortest distance between the two islands is only 3.5 km (2,1 mi).

Size: 5 780 km²  (2 232 mi²)

Provincial capital city: Denpasar

Population (2020): 5.1 million

Language: Balinese or simply Bali is the most common language on the island - The official languages of Bali are Balinese and Inndonesian. Balinese is the native language of Bali and the Indonesian a common language of whole Indonesia. Most Balinese speakers also speak Indonesian. Balinese is mostly used in informal communication. About one-third of the island's population does not speak or use Balinese.

Religions: 85% of Bali residents follow the faith of Hinduism (more precisely, it is a local version of practicing Hinduism), while 87% of the Indonesian population is Muslim

Average net mountly salary (in 2020): 220 USD - (Indonesia's average: 300 USD)

Most common surname: Gede 

Climate

“Regarding the monsoon rains, you can generally rely on the ancient maxim: when you feel the first drop, the rest is soon to follow. It’s very rare to have a quick shower and then nothing. The minute a raindrop hits your crash helmet visor, put on your rain gear and make sure all your packs have a waterproof covering – it’s worth the trouble!

We love the fact that when it’s the dry season it’s really dry! Not a single drop of rain. Getting dressed in the morning is easy, and you can safely make plans. It even starts to get boring when our stargazing app sends us a notification every day at midday to tell us that ‘the weather will be clear tonight – perfect for observing the night sky’ 😊
P.S. When it rains you wear exactly the same clothes, just with a raincoat over the top. (2019)”

Ubud

Bali – Ubud

“Long drives, even over short distances, no longer came as any surprise. From the Denpasar airport, which is located in the south of the small island, we were taken to Ubud, twenty or so kilometers away, where we booked accommodation for twice the price of a taxi in Jakarta (350,000 rupiahs).
We didn't want to go to the coastal villages and beaches (in many places the coast is not very pleasant, and swimming can even be dangerous), so we decided to head to the island's cultural capital instead.
Here, as in many places in the country, the hotel did not look very promising on the outside, but it did look good on the inside: we were put up in a separate bungalow, with a spacious room, wardrobe, bathroom, outdoor kitchen, large hall, and terrace, with a pool just 15 meters away.
Since we had organized our six-day trips to Bali with a private driver from home, by using local contacts, we were confident that a person would be there on time to take us. But it didn't happen that way. He at least arranged the airport transfer with the help of a friend, but after that, we were left to fend for ourselves.

For want of a better option, we set out the next day to at least explore the city on foot. The Our first stops included the Puri Saren palace, the Pura Saraswati church, and the bustling main street, Jalan Raya, where we had coffee and lunch sitting on bar stools overlooking the street, (there was also beer here!) and in the afternoon we visited the beautiful, professionally built Monkey Forest Park. (2022)


Bali – Ubud – Shopping

"You have to be careful with money changers because they tend to rip you off. We ran into this sort of situation yesterday, but luckily we were alert, so they couldn't fool us.
In Ubud, we wanted to exchange 100 dollars at a small money changer’s stall on the corner of Pengosekan and Nyuh Kuning streets, so the guy counted 1.5 M IDR into piles of 200,000 IDR and then asked us for 23,000, because that would make the change from the total, 1,477,000.
We gave it to him and he gathered the piles together, then handed it over and said there, we are done.
But we counted it in front of him and found that it was only 1.3M, so while he was gathering them together, somehow, 200,000 had disappeared...
We said that this was no good. We had him count it too. He counted it, but of course, the math didn't work out. Then he nervously returned the $100 bill and said that he had to go now – we should find another bill of exchange. 🤣
We said OK and turned to go, then immediately remembered that we had also given the guy 23,000 IDR, so we went after him to see if we could get him to return it.
Fortunately, he didn't object and handed it back right away, so we came away from the adventure without any financial loss.
So we can only advise everyone to be careful and use the larger currency exchanges. Also, avoid this exchange location.” (béem, 2022)