Rough Guide to Bali

Penjor

"Hey I am coming to Bali, can you recommend me things to do?"

I got that question a lot. I get it, I live in Bali so people would think that I master everything about Bali. Well... 50:50. I happened to travel around Bali since 2017. So it wasn't wrong to assume me knowing Bali. But I am also a lazy traveler so I don't always do many things in one place. 

That is why we will call this a rough guide to Bali. 

First thing first, define your style of traveling. Because we all know that Bali is an island. Not a city. So it is quite big, you know. You can not explore all of it in two weeks. Well you might be able to do so, but probably not immersing enough of it. 

So... what is your style of traveling? Bali offers you some cultures, quiet normal life, party hotspots, quiet beaches, busy beaches, temples, and so on. 

Mt Batur

West part of Bali (Canggu, Seminyak, Kuta)

If you enjoy partying, you might want to spend your time more in the west part of Bali like Canggu, Kuta, Seminyak, because they have more nightclubs than other part of Bali. Clubs literally located next to each other. Normal clubs, gay clubs, whatever you can find. Yes, I call these west part of Bali.

Although Canggu is also dominated by gyms lately. Apart from fancy and cutey cafes around it. I am not a fan of Canggu but stayed there a week to prove a point that I don't like it. From what I experienced, it will be little bit hard to order local food in Canggu. Their dominant food are typical acai bowl and western food. I mean, it's fine and nice. But to get really local food, you have to really ask local people there. 

Kuta used to be very busy, but now they moved to Canggu. Kuta has many local tourists because it's like a centerpoint of visiting Bali. Lots of restaurants, cafes, clubs, shops, and drunk tourists at 6PM. Yea, even at midday they already drunk enough to hold their Bintang Beer. 

Seminyak is flooded with stores. They have many stores. That's that. 

Beaches in these area are usually busy with surfers because they have big waves unlike Sanur. Places on these three area seems to open 24/7.

Good point of this part is they have AMAZING sunsets by the beach. Any beach you go to, as long as it's on the west part, then it will be amazing. Yep, because the sun is still setting on the west. Thank god. 

East part of Bali

This is my favorite. Well... I am talking about Sanur area, not East Bali yet. Sanur area is so kids/family friendly. No night clubs definitely. Lots of cafes/restaurants, grandpa grandma pensioner living there too. So it's basically a quiet area with no rush and hassle. But since they built a mall right in the center of Sanur (which is dumb idea but it happened anyway), expect some heavy traffics especially on the weekends. 

Sanur

Lumpia

Super calm that makes businesses in Sanur close up at 9PM. Time to go home baby. Although most restaurants will close up around 10-12 PM. That's the whole point why I like it lol. 

So this part is amazing for sunrise. They offers some water sports like driving that water jet (whatever that called), sunbathing (well you can swim there as the beach is so quiet with almost no waves). Some places will have diving shops that will offer you diving trips. If you go from Sanur, you will usually take a boat to Nusa Penida (with crazy waves, they made me puke everytime I go). But underwater is amazing. You should ask diving shops if you like it. Snorkeling is included, whichever you fancy. 

Sunrise in Sanur

Technically Sanur is part of Denpasar ;)

Denpasar (the capital city)

Well... the capital city offers historical spots all over Denpasar. It has museums, old spots you can walk on, local food definitely because locals mostly live here. So it's just like any other city with almost no tourist. It's where I live. If you want to see how locals live, then you must explore Denpasar. It may be not touristy but it offers some wisdom too, you know. It can be messy and fun as well. 

Southern part of Bali

To be honest I have never been to the southern part of Bali. Maybe to Nusa Dua and Jimbaran, even then it was for passport and visa appointment. But I can assure you, Nusa Dua offers quiet and resorts. Of course not all of them are only for the riches. Some part is still affordable for normal people. I can't tell much about these part of Bali. Sorry :)

Oh they have Kecak dance performed somewhere close to the beach, during sunset. So the performance is usually amazing combination. 

Ubud Area

It is where you can see lots of traditional dances performed in different temples. They have schedule of which dance is performed where. It cost maybe IDR 150.000 per person to watch. You can definitely watch the dances. Choose one or do all of them ;)

Apart from dances, Ubud is rich with culture. Ceremonies are always big here because the king's family is still big there. They open the palace for visit. So you can see and learn a thing or two about it there. Then what's the other thing that is really big there? RESTAURANTS! I always go to Ubud with my husband and we always cafes/restaurants hopping. I think we tried many of them already. So you can ask me for restaurant recommendation ;)

Tabanan has some famous temple, some easy relaxing hotels and some quiet beaches. 

West Bali

We are talking about Karangasem, Sidemen, Tejakula, and around it. Karangasem has a well known palace where you can see Lombok island. You can see how locals live. They have temples/places to visit for tourists too but usually they come for a quick trip instead of exploring Karangasem itself. 

Mt Agung from Amed

Sidemen is very quiet place, to be honest has nothing much to do there. We usually stop there to stay overnight before continuing the trip. It's mostly hotels in the middle of nowhere and that's that. I am not saying it's bad, it's just very quiet. I like it. 

Tejakula is famous with its salt production. Same as Kusamba. Their salt, ughhhh the best! I love their seasalt. I was once bought a kg of salt and had to share it with others because I can't finish it myself. 

Amed and Tulamben are famous for diving spot. They have this shipwreck spot which was good, I got deep to 28 m but came out with heavy headache. Well I was (and still am) a beginner-diver. These two places always busy with divers. 

Nusa Penida area

Northern Bali 

Singaraja is famous with their Lovina beach, the beach where you can see dolphins there. Lots of it. Singaraja is also famous with some old Dutch buildings. There's not much for touristy there but you can see the snippet of how locals live there. 

National Park West Bali

Menjangan has national park. You can surely explore there. They also have diving/snorkeling spots and diving school there. To reach this place is usually not easy unless you drive yourself or rent a car with driver there. Hard to reach using public transportation. 

These that I mentioned are only places that I have been, roughly. I surely haven't explore all of places in Bali but some spots all over the island. So I can tell a bit of this and that. People tend to focus around western and southern part of Bali. Well I call this the tail of Bali, if you see the map, these are located on the tailbone of the island. Anyway...

If you want to taste the real Bali life, I mean the lives where people just surrounded by locals and less tourist, you should try to explore outside the west and southern part of Bali. 

Best to get around with Grab and/or Gojek. You just need to instal these two and use it interchangeably. Take note that some places ban these two to pick up passengers due to the local competitions. But you'll know where 😉

If you can drive scooter, you can rent them for $4 - $10 per day and drive it yourself. Please don't drive them to the beach or swimming pool. I'd say driving scooter is easy peasy, but you need to get use to it because we drive on our left side and we have so many holes on the streets, and many people drive like a*hole so just take care you know. Driving scooter is the easiest and fun way to explore Bali to be honest. 

The other way to get around if you have very limited time and don't know how to drive scooter and wanna cover as much as tourist places you want in Bali, rent a car with the driver. They will give you 8-12 hours price. Normally that would be around $30 - $80 depending on what services you get. This is easy to find, if you don't know where and who just ask your hotel. They will recommend you some drivers they know. They usually work together. Mind you this might be the easiest way but since the streets in Bali are mostly narrow, expect some traffics in some small areas. 

WE know foreigners who just coming for a few weeks or people who lives there longer than 6 months from the way what they wear when driving scooter. Bali is very humid and locals usually wear jackets or long sleeves and long pants when driving scooter to avoid the sunburn. Yes it may look like crazy for you but trust me you don't want to look like a boiled shrimp. Unless that's the reason you come to Bali. 

Well... we have light sarongs and light shirt to cover the skin while being outside. So it is not hot at all wearing those. Those are light and breezy. 

Exchanging money should be done in banks or money changers that's inside a building. Avoid exchanging money in random stalls along the streets. Some of them are scamming you, though many are fine. Legit money changer will ask you for your ID when exchanging money. 

SIM Card is a bit tricky but can still be done. Do not worry. You will see a lot of them at the airport with bright red, blue, green color. Biggest internet providers are Telkomsel, M3 or Indosat, XL. Prices at the airport is higher but they can guarantee that you can use the internet. Because if you have phone bought from abroad, you must register their IMEI in Indonesia. Such a hassle for sure but they take care of it. Or try eSIM if you like. It should work just fine. 

Food Prices are cheap if you eat locally like in the warungs or where the locals also go. But prices in the restaurant may vary, probably $3 - $15 per portion. Surely if you eat Indonesian food, it will be cheap. But if you eat western food, it will be expensive because western stuff like cheese is not cheap. 

Bali belly... I actually don't understand this. Is this the beer belly you are going to have after drinking a crate of Bintang in a day or diarrhea because you got food poisoning or just masuk angin? I must tell you, my husband never get food poisoning when he eats in warung. But he got most of food poisoning were usually from the fancy restaurants 😂 He's a bit traumatic going to the fancy restaurants. Mind you he's been eating Indonesian food for at least 10 years, never once got food poisoning from the dirtiest warung that I won't even buy from. 

But if you get masuk angin with symptoms usually nauseous, wanna puke, gassy, little bit of cold, we have the most effective herbal medicine called TOLAK ANGIN. This is definitely not sponsored but it's loved by Indonesians. You can find this anywhere and it's cheap. It's actually tasty. 

We have only two seasons in Indonesia, dry and wet. June-July are the coldest month in Bali. What I mean by coldest is around 24-27 degrees eh. It's a bit windy. Just remember when it is winter in Australia, then it's relatively cool in Bali. When it is summer in Australia then it's pretty humid and hotter in Bali. 

Is there a flood? Oh yes, there is. Mostly in packed areas like Canggu 😅 It happens when the raining hard. 

There will always ceremonies happening in Bali. You will never know when. At least every month they have ceremonies during full moon and new moon. These two are pretty "simple" one. But you will never know when you will get trapped in a traffic waiting for them to march the street to the beach for Ngaben. You can't really do anything about it, so better be surrender and enjoy the ceremonies. 

Remember, you will learn a lot on how to slow down and surrender in Bali. If you are a big city person, it might be hard for you. But isn't that why you travel? To learn a thing or two 😉

Bali is more than a party island. Enjoy your trip to Bali. I hope you like it 💚