Bali, Pura Ulun Danu Bratan temple

For us, Bali has been the gate to Indonesia. We landed in Bali in July 2018 from Singapore, and one month later, left Indonesia to Papua New Guinea, after a long and intense hopping through 24 islands.

The roadmap of a trip in Indonesia

(click to make it bigger)

We have visited Bali, Flores, three islands in Komodo National park, West Timor, Sulawesi, Maluku islands (Ambon, three islands in Aru archipelago, Ternate and Tidore), eight islands in Raja Ampat including the main island Waigeo, Biak, Owi (tiny island in the Schouten islands), plus the region of West Papua. Also, Adriano had been in Java and Sumatra some years ago. Probably we could say, that we have seen quite a lot, but Indonesia is the fourth largest country in the world, inhabited by 264 million people in around 17.000 islands (yes, 17.000!). It would take way more than a month to explore it exhaustively.

Bali

We arrived in Bali in the late afternoon of the 15th of July, 2018. First of all, I was surprised how big, modern and tidy the airport was. Hundreds of people were shouting and grabbing us by the hand to offer taxis, shuttle buses, tours, hotels and travel agency services. Later, at the exit, I was shocked by the vast quantity of shiny white taxi cars, the drivers trying to speed up the incoming tourists.

During the drive to our hotel, we felt anxiety and stress in the air, as if it was a megapolis business city. Cars were continuously alarming in the streets, while stuck in the middle of the traffic; one Starbucks on the right, another on the left, McDonalds in front, some smiley face on the advertisement poster inviting to some other American fast-food chain a few hundred metres away; and we saw all this repeating without interruptions until our arrival to Ubud. Just after our first steps into Bali, I was thinking “what the hell? Are we in Miami by mistake?”. It was very far from the postcards and my expectation of a remote exotic place.

I will experience a few more times during this World Tour that the marketing of popular tourism destinations tends to set very wrong expectations (good job, guys, but well.. too good). I have to remind myself one the very important travel values we have set from the beginning – a “Blank page” rule to cancel all your expectations before the entrance and accept things as they are, with no judgment, and no presuppositions.

Bali, Uluwatu dance show and overcrowded audience

It is what it is – tourism booklets don’t tell you that, but Bali is a super mega touristic destination. We are not fans of such overcrowded touristic places, however, I would not cross it out off the map completely. We did our mistakes too – July is the peak season, and we stayed in Ubud, and later in Uluwatu, which are the peak centres of all tourists in Bali. Avoid the three and you will probably have a much more pleasant experience.

First (very European) evening in Bali

The first evening, after a walk in Ubud town, we mingled among European hipsters and settled in one of their bars to watch World Football Championship finals. Besides the staff, in an overcrowded bar, there was not even one local person around. Just as in all other restaurants in Ubud. I had my first Rendang, a typical Indonesian stew of spicy meat, and one of the last glass of beer (many other islands in Indonesia were Muslim and, in general, alcohol seemed not existing in the rest of Indonesia).

We were a bit tired after the flight, but excited and happy to start a long Indonesian tour. The first evening, while very far from Europe and at the same time feeling exactly like in Europe, we celebrated the French Gold in Bali. Merci beaucoup!

With the dancer after Uluwatu dance show, Bali

Temples

Bali is a very unique island among all. Nowhere else in Indonesia we saw so many temples and outstanding architecture. The rest of Indonesia is Muslim or Catholic, while Bali is Hinduist. The commercial part of touristic towns might distract you, but you ought to watch the buildings above all the shops and restaurants on the ground floor, enter the inner yards and get away to the country roads surrounded by banana trees and rice terraces. This is where Bali’s beauty is hidden.

Bali, Pura Taman Ayun temple

Some of not very usual traditions

We were driving in the fields when we noticed groups of local people gathering. When we asked what was happening, they said that it was the preparation to burn a corpse in a few hours. The place was visible from the road (and I am afraid to think about what would have been the view a few hours later). This Hinduist tradition in Bali is called Ngaben, and such open-air cremation most often happens the same day when a person dies. The sooner it is arranged the better, meaning that the soul gets released from the dead body and can reincarnate sooner.

I always liked the idea of reincarnation. To my deep disappointment, it involves watching relatives burn; also, man is believed to be the highest level of reincarnation, which I personally do not find very interesting to reborn as a human again 🙂

Food in Indonesia

Rendang, a typical Indonesian dish of spicy meat

During our Indonesian tour, I found food to be better in Bali. But I am afraid it was also the least original, being adapted to Europeans’ taste.

Based on my experience, most of meat and fish dishes in Indonesia are sweet, though Adriano does not get tired to add to my comment, that he had a very different experience in Sumatra some years ago, where according to him the food was great and better to what we have experienced during this trip. He says, that in Sumatra, it was not so sweet and there were many more choices. For instance, Adriano says that he experienced real Rendang in Padang, Sumatra, and it did not had a sugary sauce added as the one I had in Bali. We do not like the sugar on meat or fish, but maybe other westerners prefer it this way. Bali tends to do anything to adapt and please the tourists.

It is interesting, that almost all traditional Indonesian dishes come from Sumatra and they are split into two major branches of Indonesian cuisine: “Padang food”, from West Sumatra (influenced by Chinese cuisine) and “Palembang food”, from East Sumatra (influenced by Indians, this cuisine is known for being much spicier).

There are many European looking restaurants in Bali, while on the other islands the most popular places to eat are little kiosks, with just a few tables inside or outside, called Warung. Usually, Warungs have displays on the window of the dishes they sell, and everything is already precooked. Every Warung would specialise in Padang or Palembang Indonesian food. Though, travelling towards East as we did, you find only Padang cuisine.

Warungs usually prepare some fish and meat stew in the morning, serve them cold on top of lots of hot rice. Every traditional dish which starts with ‘Nasi’ means a rice dish (for example Nasi Goreng, Nasi Padang, Nasi Uduk, etc.), but not limited to. Rice is the main ingredient in the local diet.

Pros and cons to go to Bali

To be fair, tourism brings certain advantages: people speak fluent English; it is very easy to find information; Bali offers an incomparable vast choice of nice restaurants and hotels for relaxing holidays. We stayed at Rama House hotel in Ubud and Batu Kandik in Uluwatu (Batu Kandik hotel prebooked us the Uluwatu dance show and temple tickets which was very convenient).

Rama House hotel in Ubud, the last European-like breakfast

Compared to the rest of the islands, which we have visited during this trip, Bali was by far the cleanest to the rest of urban areas in Indonesia.

Unfortunately, Bali is very much spoiled by Western tourists. It often looked fake, overcrowded and expensive (compared to other Indonesian islands), charging for every little detail, which was more natural and free everywhere else. But while every hotel in Bali has a catalogue of available tours for you, in the rest of Indonesia you have to build up your route yourself.  Some young European hipsters would still tell you that they live the most challenging adventure and spiritual experience there. I am happy for them but, honestly, there is zero challenge to travel in Bali, and once you are in a queue to enter another overcrowded temple, it is hard not to smile to this “spiritual experience”.

After one month and twenty other islands in Indonesia, I think that with its cons and pros, there is almost nothing in common between Bali and the rest of Indonesia. If you wonder, where is the best to go or where else you can see the same, but without masses of the tourists, I don’t know what to suggest. Indonesia is wonderful to explore, there are many interesting and beautiful islands to see, but they are very different from each other. It is like many little countries with a different history, different religion and different interests under one Indonesian umbrella. My personal favourite was Raja Ampat due to natural beauty, little tourists, relaxing atmosphere and underwater experience, but the architecture without doubts is the greatest in Bali. With all its ups and downs, there is just one Bali in Indonesia.

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