Bali Tour

When we arrived in Bali, our first impression was: culture shock!
Not only the heat of humid 30 degrees, but also the dozens of taxi drivers in the airport lobby who promised a "cheap" taxi ride overwhelmed us at first. The traffic, the condition of the roads/sidewalks, and all the garbage lying around were also overwhelming.

Since it was our first time in Asia, in a developing country, we had to get used to the local conditions. However, it turned out that this was mainly due to the area of Kuta, which we had heard a lot of negative things about. Kuta is generally known as a party town and "Ballerman" for Australians.

During the 2-week tour of Bali, we changed accommodations about every 2 days and had a lot of activities to explore the island as best as possible.

Therefore, we will not go into detail about every single place and let the pictures speak for themselves. To be able to follow the travel route as best as possible, we have recorded it and numbered our accommodations according to the order.

In total, we had 8 accommodations in Bali in Kuta, Jimbaran, Canggu, Ubud, Munduk, Lovina, Tulamben, and Sidemen.

From there, we mostly took scooter trips made.
In the end, it would have been a bit smarter to look for fewer accommodations and instead make larger day trips, because while taxis are relatively cheap, riding a scooter is even cheaper. The disadvantage is, of course, that you cannot get to know as many accommodations, places, and people as we ultimately did.

Because the Balinese are very friendly, even if they always want to make a profit from a tourist. However, this can be understood against the background that the tourism sector is the main source of income for the Balinese.

In general, we liked Bali very much, especially the north and east, as these parts are somewhat cleaner and less touristy.

Our highlights are:

1. The touristy Ubud, with the big market and the large cultural offer

2. The rice terraces in Sidemen and Jatiluwih, the coffee plantations in Munduk (but also because of the expensive 1a hotel there)'

3. The temples: Tanah Lot, Pura Ulun Danu Beratan, and Pura Lempuyang (Doors of Heaven)

4. The Nyang Nyang Beach (despite the long walk there)

Of course, there were many other beautiful things to see, but these are the highlights that we remembered in retrospect.

This also includes Balinese/ Indonesian food, which is very delicious and incredibly cheap.

The only negative thing, as mentioned before, is the waste problem that can be found everywhere in Bali. It dramatically represents the negative side of mass tourism. In a conversation with the hotel owner in Sidemen, he explained to us that it had taken him months to organize a garbage truck that collects the garbage from the surrounding hotels every week.

The locals, on the other hand, solve their waste problem by simply burning the garbage, so when riding a scooter, you not only drive through car exhaust fumes but also through small stinking, ignited landfills.

Right now, we are on the Gili Islands at Lombok, specifically on Gili Air.
We are enjoying the last 2 days there before pictures and another blog post follow ;)