September 2022
What an incredible place Bali is! We spent a beautiful 10 days in September 2022 with a group of similar minded travellers on an Intrepid trek around Bali. If you are not familiar with Intrepid they are a Bcorp travel company who run small group trips around the world. These trips vary in length, how basic or plush they are, how adventurous they are etc. Whilst this was our first experience with Intrepid, we have used similar companies before. In my early twenties I spent 3 weeks touring with Explore around Mexico, Guatamala and Belize and the year before that, went rafting down the Dordogne river in France with them. Intrepid also run 18 – 25 year old versions of the trips with slightly more basic accomodation, a younger travel group, lower cost and probably more activities which our middle child joined when he went to Vietnam last summer.
We had chosen a 7 day active trip that saw us staying in a range of hotels from budget to mid end and all were pretty good. We travelled by van which is pretty much the only way to travel around Bali as a group as there is no rail system or internal flights as it is a small island. If you are just a couple, you might consider a moped. The roads were not too bad, perhaps very twisty in the central region, but for you Brits out there…it’s a left hand country so at least you haven’t that extra thing to navigate. Interestingly when we were in Thailand, we were advised to NEVER hire your own car or moped as you will not get insurance and thus…however in Indonesia and Malaysia, we’ve been told that it is quite common place. To be fair, I’ve not investigated this, so always do your research.
In terms of money and prices, most places, food particularly, was pretty cheap. Obviously if you are to hang out in the very touristic areas, prices are elevated, but on the whole we found that we could get a good meal for two of us for around £20. If you enjoy eating local cuisine when you travel, we loved Nasi Goreng which is on every menu and is a fried rice dish with veggies and topped with a fried egg. We have tried to replicate it back home with varying degrees of sucess. Transport prices around are very low. We only needed to use a taxi a couple of times. If you download the ‘Grab’ app, something our son told us about, this gives you the equivalent of Uber for SE Asia.
Bali is such a diverse island for flora, fauna and landscapes. The image that came to my mind prior to our trip was that of white sandy beaches and blue sea. Well that is correct in the southern part of the island, but in the north, much of the coast line is blacker sand from the volcanic geology and then there are the lush mountains and forests.
During the 7 days we moved around the island we saw rice paddies (many rice paddies!), climbed Mount Batur at 3am for the sunrise, visited temples and a family for a tea ceremony and trawled the incredible shops of Ubud, which, for an old hippy like me…I was in my element with all the incense and tie dye, wooden carvings and silver jewellery. At the end of the 7 days, some of our group went across to Gilli Island wherein they saw and sent us the turtle picture, then they extended further to Lombok.
As we’d not got the physical time due to work restrictions (and the fact we’d already been to Morroco earlier in the year!) to do this section, we decided to add on three days at a hotel in Nusa Dua which is on the little peninsular on the south of the island.
In hindsight, I wish we had added on the extra section, to see the turtles would have been exhilarating even if the crossing to get to Gilli Island is by boat and hideously choppy. One of the group then went off on his own, extending his stay in Bali further still and landed up on Komodo Island and saw some of the incredible namesakes of this remote island in the crossway where the Pacific meets the Indian Ocean. What an experience!
Bali imprinted a huge mark on my heart. There are few places in the world that I feel I would like to return to as time is short and there are lots of places on my list, but certainly if I were that way again, I wouldn’t hesitate to return.
So my top tips would be:
- Pack less and pack light. Bali is hot. Even when it rains, you don’t want heavy clothing drying.
- Download ‘Grab’
- Do carry lots of loose change for tips, the Indonesian culture is a tipping culture.
- Don’t worry about squat loos. Loos are sometimes a little more basic off the beaten track, but I only saw 1 squat loo.
- Leave space in your rucksack for the awesome handicrafts.
- Don’t just go and sit on the beach!
