Getting to Bali was somewhat of a nightmare. It took us 39 hours of travelling door to door from Wellington, New Zealand to Kuta, Bali. This meant very little sleep for us which affected the first couple of days in Bali.
Bali is an island belonging to Indonesia. We were surprised to learn that Indonesia is home to over 200 million people. 80% of the population is Muslim. Bali is home to some of the world's best surfing.
Accommodations
Our first accommodation was at a bare bones hostel away from the lively part of Kuta. It was down a dismal, quiet road and there were really no amenities nearby, although breakfast was included. We did however get our own private room by chance due to them overbooking. The private room itself was like staying in an old attic. There was no bathroom attached, and the room had only a bed and a single chair. The first night we arrived, we didn't even have a sheet to cover ourselves with and the sheet on the bed barely covered the ratty mattress. But at least the room had air conditioning. Needless to say we were set on finding a nicer place to stay.
The 2nd day we were in Bali we went looking for other accommodations. We did some research and came up with a list of places to visit. We decided on a place called Pop! for the days leading up to Jeff's friend Jon's arrival. Pop! has to be one of the most cheaply made hotels we have encountered. The lobby felt like a school cafeteria, and the room was a cross between a spaceship and a hospital room, but it was bright and clean, the bed was amazingly comfy; all in all it was a solid place to stay for a couple of days.
The day Jon arrived, we checked into the nicest hotel we have stayed at during our entire trip. It reminded us a lot of the fancy hotel we got upgraded to in Puerto Vallarta a few years back when we felt like we won the lottery. Okay it wasn't quite that nice, but this place was outstanding for the price. It was $58 a night but was located right on the main drag of Kuta. The pool on the roof overlooked the lively main street called "Legian" below, there was a bar/restaurant also on the roof and the rooms were spacious, tasteful, cozy, and clean. The place just had a great atmosphere and we thought it was a good choice for our time with Jon.
City Vibe
We were expecting Kuta to be similar to Aunang Beach in Thailand, but it was quite different. Kuta, although very tourist friendly, had a lot more rustic charm, and their prices for everything are far less inflated than Thailand's. Besides KFC and the fancy mall there were no signs of western commercialism in Kuta, and that was definitely refreshing.
Taxis actually use their meters in Bali! There are taxis everywhere, but the roads are largely filled with motorcycles. The infrastructure in Bali does not accommodate the population and furthermore the traffic. There were regular traffic jams, and we were alarmed to learn that 8 people die in traffic accidents everyday on the island of Bali. We have a feeling a bulk of those incidents are due to tourists trying to make their way around the island on their own with no previous motorcycle driving experience.
Bali is like a sauna where weather and temperatures are concerned. It was between 30-35 degrees and humid every single day we were in Bali. It didn't rain once though. A couple times throughout the day we would find it necessary to retreat to our cozy room for some much needed AC action and then we'd venture back out into the sauna-like conditions. None of the restaurants or bars offer AC but oddly they all offer wifi access.
We arrived in Bali in the shoulder tourist season which was pretty good for us. It was reasonably lively without the high-season prices. Weekdays were slow though. Somedays Kuta's main drag looked sad and lonely with only a few people out and about. Later in the week things picked up and the streets starting filling up too.
Activities
Surfing
Our first full day with Jon we decided to try our hand at surfing. Let's just say some of us were more naturally gifted than others. We paid $15 each for the lessons and the surf board rental. Jeff went on his own with the chubby Balinese instructor and Jon and I got the ripped, tanned, and younger instructor, which I was okay with. I was reminded of the scene in the movie "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" where Paul Rudd plays a surf instructor. All he keeps telling the main character during the surf lesson is that "you're doing too much... do less". There's no real concrete, tangible, or specific advice on successfully balancing yourself on a surf board. Our instructor's advice to us was... "just relax".
Jon and I are not sure but we think the chubby instructor gave Jeff some kind of magic surfing potion because he transformed into a graceful surfing penguin his first day on the surf board.... seriously.... Jeff was cruising on waves within the first hour of our lesson. I on the other hand was pulling out my wedgies and lifting up my horrible bikini top the ENTIRE lesson. I tell myself that my poor surfing skills were largely a result of the focus required to keep my bathing suit on me and not in the ocean. But honestly, I don't think I'd be much good at surfing anyway, but all three of us had a great time anyway. I wiped out countless times. Jeff and Jon both made fun of me for plugging my nose before wiping out each time, as if I was already convinced of my inevitable wipe-out.
We returned to the waves a couple days later, although I decided to sit this one out. Jeff and Jon hit the waves for a couple of hours until Jon pulled a muscle in his calf and was done for the day. They were out there for about 1.5 hours and seemed to enjoy themselves. I don't think Jon got any better. Jeff didn't seem too pleased with his improvement either, although he did mention he would like to surf again.
Rice terraces and temples
A couple days after Jon arrived, we rented a taxi for the day and ventured into the centre of Bali. Our first stop was the "city" of Ubud, which is actually just the sum of a bunch of small villages. We ate suckling pig at a restaurant recommended in Lonely Planet and it was pretty decent. The restaurant was a popular place. It was at the very least extremely well priced.
Our first stop after lunch was a place called Monkey Forest, which is essentially just a sanctuary for monkeys that have lost all fear of humans. I bought some bananas near the entrance and was immediately assaulted by no less than four or five monkeys. In no time, all the bananas were gone and Jeff and Jon were laughing at me because we hadn't even gotten a picture of me giving a banana to a monkey. So, we bought some more bananas and this time Jeff carried the bananas. Jeff started handing out the bananas to the monkeys and we got some good pictures. At one point, a rather large monkey approached Jeff and actually had his hand on Jeff's leg. Oddly, Jeff didn't seem to mind much. He calmly handed the banana over to the monkey and he walked away, apparently satisfied. The rest of the walk was pretty nice and we saw a lot of cute monkeys doing some pretty cute things. Like one monkey who was trying to hold down a smaller monkey to clean him, but the small monkey kept trying to run away, but couldn't because the bigger monkey was holding onto his leg. The amusement didn't go away after several minutes of watching.
After leaving Monkey Forest, our taxi driver tried to convince us that there would not be enough time to make it to the rice terraces, so we went to a place called the Elephant Cave, which is believed to have been a Buddhist hermitage. This was a bit of a letdown. There wasn't much to see, aside from some carvings outside of a small cave. We stayed only for about 15 minutes before jumping back into the car.
Our next stop was going to be Gunung Kawi, which is a group of stone shrines cut into cliffs on either side of the Pakrisan River valley, but it started raining really hard as soon as we arrived, so we cut our losses and hopped back into the car. At this point, we had a feeling that the driver wasn't being completely honest about driving times, so we asked him to take us to some rice terraces.
In about 45 minutes, not the three hours our driver had originally estimated, we arrived at some rice terraces just north of Ubud. The roadway overlooked a small valley lined with rice terraces. They were nothing compared to the scale of the terraces in China, but were beautiful because of how lush everything was. It had stopped raining by this time, and we very timidly began walking down a path along the terraces. We thought about turning back a couple times, but were very glad we didn't. We had a really nice hour-long walk that took us to the other side of the valley, where we met an older man selling coconuts. He bargained pretty hard with us, but we ended up drinking the best coconut water I've ever had. He then cut open the coconuts and we ate some of the inside. It was a pretty surreal experience.
After we were back at the taxi, it was time to head back to the hotel.
Spas
There are tons of places to get massages, pedicures, manicures, etc., in Bali and most are incredibly inexpensive. I would say the average for an hour-long massage was about $5.
We all got two massages while in Kuta. The first time we went we were told that one of us would have to be massaged by a guy. When the guy went up to Jon and asked him if it would be OK if he gave Jon a massage, Jon pointed at Jeff and said Jeff would take him. The two of them had a good laugh about that, although Jeff was kind of annoyed. Anyway, karma came back to bite Jon in the butt because the girl who ended up giving him a massage completely annihilated his calves and he could barely walk after the massage. Jeff mocked him quite a bit for this. Actually, I think Jeff ended up getting the best massage out of the three of us!
The second time we went for a massage, poor Jeff got stuck with the guy again! This time, however, Jon and I were raving about our massages, while Jeff just thought his was OK.
We also went for pedicures and manicures, which only cost $3 each! I got both, Jeff got a pedicure, and Jon can a manicure. At first we tried to convince Jon to get a colour for his nails, but when that didn't work, we did convince him to get the clear polish, which we neglected to tell him would cause his nails to look shiny. After this manicure, Jeff and I were making fun of his shiny nails and he eventually asked for the polish to be removed. We had a good laugh over that.
Nightlife
The nightlife in Kuta was somewhat interesting. There are so many bars and pubs lining the main street in Kuta that it's hard to know where to go. We went to a place called Sky Garden twice, which is a multi-level bar where most of the foreigners seem to tend to go. There are what we assume to be prostitutes walking around everywhere at night and they are in all the bars and pubs. That was different.
We checked out the nightlife in Seminyak, a town just north of Kuta, but it was very disappointing. Everything was basically just more expensive and less fun. We checked out one popular hangout spot, bought three very expensive drinks, and then got the heck out of there. It did have a very cool location right on the beach, but the atmosphere was too laid back and boring.
Food
You can basically get any kind of food you want in Bali. Mexican, Italian, German, Chinese, Thai, Balinese...anything. Prices are higher for foreign food than local food, but not too much higher. In general, the food was pretty tasty, especially the fruit juices and shakes. Jeff and I had a great Italian meal near the beach one of our first nights there. There was a live singer most of the time we were there that was really good and the food was excellent. In terms of eating, we did most of our eating off the main strip where prices are about 25% lower.
Our first hostel provided breakfast for free so we got to try a typical Balinese breakfast one morning. It was a noodle dish that was quite tasty. Our second hotel also provided free breakfasts and they served a rice dish with some chicken and spicy sauce served in banana leaves. This was also quite tasty.
We tried some local food at a night market with Jon one evening that was pretty good. We tried some frog legs, which were interesting, though I don't think any of us will be ordering them again. The food was decent and very inexpensive. It's possible to eat very cheaply in Bali if you know the right places!
People
We found the people in Bali to be extremely friendly and helpful. The first people we met were at our first hostel. They were excellent hosts and helped us out with anything we needed. One of the staff was heading to Lombok, an island we were thinking of going to, and he said if we made it there we should get in touch with him and he could show us around. Unfortunately, we never made it to Lombok, but it was an extremely friendly gesture.
Of course, it was awesome and completely random to see Jeff's good friend Jon in Bali. We spent about five days or so together and had a lot of fun. He is doing his MBA at Oxford in England at the moment, but had a couple weeks to do some traveling in Asia. Before Bali, he had spent time in Hong Kong and Singapore. Apparently Singapore is a really nice place. It's unfortunate that we decided we just didn't have time to see it!
It was all fun and games with the Balinese people though. One night when we were walking to a club, we were approached by three grown women and two small children. They were selling some bracelets and small things like that, and while they were talking to Jon, they managed to steals phone right out of his pocket! Fortunately, he realized his phone was missing only seconds later and demanded they give it back. He opened up his wallet and began showing them his money and then miraculously his phone appeared on the ground. He grabbed his phone and put most of his money away and gave them a dollar or so and then we moved on. It was a sad experience though because of how the children were acting. It's sad that they will grow up with such poor role models and will probably end up just like those women. They were not nice people.
