Bali

Bali requires no introduction! Those who have visited Bali, will have their personal ‘best of Bali’, with a list of must-try for their next visit; and those planning their first visit, will easily be able to find a lot of info about Bali (thanks to all the travel content and personal experiences available on internet).

However, here is a short version of ‘My Bali’, combining experiences from two previous trips. Hopefully this is useful for those who are still discovering their options. This is one of the few holiday destinations where you could travel alone or with family / friends, for a long weekend, a week or even stay for several weeks. I’m pretty sure that you will not get bored of the island. Quite obviously, you must be ready to spend few millions (1 US$ was ~16 000 Indonesian Rupiah)!

With so many good locations, where to stay in Bali could be one of the most common questions for travelers like me. Based on my experience, I would stay closer to the places I want to visit & activities I have planned. Roads in Bali, especially towards the mountains, are narrow and can easily get congested with heavy traffic. If you do not want spend few hours every day on the road, pick a stay closer to your travel destinations, even if it means splitting your stay at different locations during your stay in Bali. During my last visit with family, we stayed first few nights in Ubud and the last 3 nights at Nusa Dua. I felt that was a lot more convenient and practical.

For getting around, especially if you are traveling with family, book yourselves a vehicle with driver for those days. It is extremely practical (don’t have to worry about routes / traffic / parking) and reasonable cost (~US$ 50) for a decent air-conditioned vehicle (commonly MPV) with an english speaking driver for a day (approx. 10 hours). I had hired (online booking) a car for airport pickup. Since the car and driver were okay, we ended up using the same car and driver (Juni) for our entire stay; until he dropped us off at airport for our return flight. Having a local driver helps us understand a lot more about the place from a local’s perspective and has other benefits too; for example, we were a bit late in the evening, by the time we reached the beach in Benoa, known for water activities like jet skiing and parasailing. Even though such activity centres were closed for the day, our driver had ‘local contacts’ to let us experience those past their opening hours.

Remember to check visa requirements prior to travel. For passport holders of several countries, Indonesia offers visa on arrival (approx. US$ 35)

Ubud: Gateway to Balinese Nature & Culture

To me, Ubud represents the traditional part of Bali, while beachside locations like Nusa Dua, Kuta, Seminyak and Jimbaran represent the trendy part of tourism. Ubud is a town to the north of Bali airport, uphill the tropical rainforests, with rice fields / terraces and beautiful water falls. There are several famous Hindu temples, shrines and holy sites in and around Ubud. To explore such attractions, we decided to stay at Ubud for the first half of our trip.

There were too many stay options (with great reviews) in Bali across all budgets, which was another point of confusion for us. We chose to experience staying at a villa (preferable one with a pool facing the paddy fields). For our travel dates, there weren’t many such farm villas available which had direct access to cars. Most villas (as visible on google maps street view) required us to get off the car and walk couple of hundred meters through narrow lanes to reach the Villa. Finally, after spending significant time googling, we booked our stay in a family villa at ARMA Resorts and Museum.

Drive to the resort in Ubud town took about 80 minutes from the airport (during peak hours in the evening). ARMA resort was wonderful and by itself gave us a ‘Bali in a nutshell’ experience, with their own rice fields, cultural performances, variety of art & craft activities and their own museum. Kecak dance was a unique experience with many artists performing a dance drama based on the epic Ramayana, without using any musical instruments; definitely worth watching. Even though the villa we stayed didn’t have an ‘infinity’ pool overlooking the rice fields, we completely enjoyed our stay at ARMA, their activities and the hospitality.

Hindu temples in Bali are several centuries old and interesting to observe very few similarities with Hindu temples in other parts of the world. I’m not surprised at such diversity in traditions at Hindu temples, as it is quite evident in the temples across India; from architecture, dress code, ways of worshipping and even appearance of deities.

Nusa Dua & Bali’s Beaches

South Bali is primarily known for its beaches, water sports and nightlife; few popular historic attractions also in the area (e.g., Uluwatu and Tanah Lot). Doing some internet research helped to understand various beach locations and suitability for different individuals / travel groups.

We chose Nusa Dua for being a comparatively quieter neighbourhood, in addition to its popularity among family travelers and beaches with water sports. One place our kids enjoyed while driving from Ubud to Nusa Dua was AeroXSpace Adventure, an indoor adventure park; perfect place to spend a hot afternoon while keeping kids busy and happy.

In the last few years, islands around Bali are becoming popular among the tourists. Most of these islands have scheduled day trip packages from Bali. We visited an island called Nusa Penida which has heavily gained popularity through social media, for its picturesque cliffs, pristine beaches and snorkelling spots. Day trip package to the island costed us about US$ 100, which included two way boat transfer from Bali (Sanur harbour), half day tour of the island in a private car with driver, a simple lunch from a local restaurant, followed by few hours of snorkelling at various spots around the island before catching the return ferry to Bali.

Nusa Penida is a beautiful island with tourism as its primary activity these days. Our driver was very friendly and spoke decent english. Being a native of that island, he explained how the island transformed into a popular tourist location, from being a normal island with its residents depending on fishing and agriculture for livelihood. Government and private players are investing increasingly to improve the infrastructure, facilities and hotels & resorts for boosting tourism, which is (hopefully) benefitting the locals too. In general, the road conditions were quite bad with bumpy rides in most parts of the island; construction and development still in progress. Also, be prepared for the scorching sun and heat; there were limited sheltered areas at the tourist locations / parking.

Snorkelling at four different spots during second half of the day, included a location where we spotted manta rays and dolphins. Even though the sites were not exotic, it had live coral reefs and colourful sea life which amateur snorkelers would definitely enjoy.

Overall, it was a memorable day trip to Nusa Penida; except the long wait and chaos while boarding the ferry both ways. Ferry from Bali wasn’t very crowded when we boarded early; but by the time of departure, it was FULL. On the return ferry, we secured comfortable seats at the wheel house deck by agreeing to buy F&B onboard. Highly recommended, if you are willing to spend a bit extra for drinks and snacks to avoid the cramped & crowded seating inside the ferry, when it gets full.

There is still a lot more for us to explore and experience in Bali; the journey hopefully continues…