Posted by CaliforniaRoy on Saturday, 31. October 1998 at 10:05 Bali Time:
We got back from Bali last Sunday and had the time of our lives!
As background (to see if our advice will suit you): we're active, outdoorsy, mostly vegetarian Northern Californians. No kids but we got engaged in Bali (!). Mid-30s.
We found that the best way to enjoy Bali was to get as far from the tourist industry as possible. In places like Kuta people are mainly interested in your money (it's a rat race, you're the cheese), whereas on the north coast (our favorite) everyone says hello, has a smile and is genuinely interested in meeting you. In this respect Ubud is halfway between and an OK place to be based since it's central and has all the art and dance.
We rented a house in Ubud and got decent but poorly maintained mountain bikes from downtown for about $0.50 (all prices in US$, 10000R/$ when we arrived, 7000 when we left) a day. Asking price was $1.50, the usual 3x starting point for most bargaining. Then we hired transport to take us to the top of the mountains (one time Lake Bratan, the other time Batur, about $7 each time) and coasted down the north side to the shore. One time we headed east to Amed the other west to Lovina and then back up over the mountain (uphill mostly by bemo, $0.60) to Tabanan.
Biking along the coast was easy, beautiful and a super way to meet lots of local people. It felt like running an urban 10K - every 100 meters someone shouts "Hellogoodmorningwhereyougo?!". We stopped every half hour for water (carried bottled Aqua for $0.35/liter) and 100% of the time people appeared to meet us and practice English. We stayed in simple cottages on the shore at Yet Saneh, Tulamben, Amed and Lovina costing from $3-8 a night for 2 with breakfast. Snorkel equipment was usually another $1 per person per day. We tended to stay at the smaller places next to or just farther out of town than the main ones. For example, for its simple charm we really liked Tara at Yet Saneh (036226575) though the Lonely Planet sort of pushes you to the larger place just west where the natural water smimming pool is. Ditto Agus (036241202) west of Lovina, the last cottages on the way out of town. Calling ahead is not a good way to get a good price, you just show up and haggle; bungalow haggling is more of a 10-40% range not 3x.
All the snorkeling was good and at each place we swam late afternoon, early morning, and after breakfast before biking on. At different places the best swim was at different times with a lot of variation so we can see how controversy arises over where the best snorkeling is. We'd give the nod to Tulamben because it's spooky to see the ship (USS Liberty) but everywhere was fun. 99% of the coral is dead everywhere, you just see occasional flashes of bright color, but the fish are great. We heard several times that the best snorkeling is out at the very west tip- we'll try that next time. BTW the guide books recommend hiring a boat at Lovina to see the reef but its probably a doable swim with fins especially since the shoreline is shallow 2/3d of the way to the reef. We hired a boat there ($8 including snorkel gear) to take us out to see the dolphins and then back to snorkeling. We had a "bad" dolphin day, only dozens, but the tourists staying there longer said hundreds really was normal. Still fun though we did start to wonder if the dolphins aren't being harrased by all this attention.
Of course as we biked we stopped at waterfalls, temples, monkey forests and warungs. Bali is densly settled (our main misconception before we started researching the trip was of a deserted tropical island) so there's always some scenic rice paddy, diversion or eatery for a break. We rented a jeep the last two days (small Suzuki $8/day) to shop at the more outlying art spots and really noticed how the local fabric of life flashes by unnoticed in a car.
Things go wrong on any vacation but in Bali there's always someone around to help out if you let them. We lost our keys (to the bike locks) at the GitGit waterfalls. It was our first day on bikes, we were in the middle of nowhere, and it was kind of a drag. One of the kids from the "parking lot" came down unbid and looked along with us and found them in a pile of leaves. Later that same day we got to the bottom of the mountain (Singaraja) and my rear wheel was pretzeling- two broken spokes and lots of loose ones. We stopped at the first motor scooter repair place and one of the guys lead us (on his scooter) 2K down the road to the Paris Bike Shop where all four wheels were trimmed and the spokes replaced in 20 minutes for $0.68. (A five year old kid watching laughed at us and said we'd been robbed, the going price was 40 cents) Etc. etc. etc.
The thing to avoid are the people who are in the business of helping you as a tourist, the middle men who arrange transport, (just go to the main road and find it yourself), the art galleries (go to the artists homes), even the bemo driver who wants to show you his "special" batik shop.
The one contrary example was the shipper we picked (Pt. Amertha in Ubud 0361973121, though I guess many others are also goood and we don't have our stuff yet). It's true the furniture place he recommended belonged to his brother in law (of course) but the opening prices were 25% below what I got walking in off the street elsewhere and we haggled another 25%. I think I promised not to quote prices but would recommend Loris furniture (361 977723) if you want reasonable teak outdoor stuff. Amerta helped us by picking up all the stone carvings we bought, giving us lifts up the street to our house occasionally and recommending other good places to shop. You can haggle shipping prices too, but not much. Expect to pay $120-150 per cubic meter to the US depending on whether you're going to a major port (LA) or a land hop (San Francisco), 20% more if you only ship one cubic meter.
Other things we enjoyed: We took an overnight trip by bemo to Sideman, hoping to hike Mt. Agung early in the am, but that got rained out, the only time rain interfered with our plans (Oct 5-24). We stayed at Pondok Wisata Losman (Rice Paddy View Homestay) (36624183) almost as nice as the wonderful Sideman Homestay with maybe a better view at 1/3d the price ($10). Walked through the rice paddies and had a mind-blowing banana at a very remote warung. Sidemen is where the best rice (Bali Padi) and high end produce are grown and it's gorgeous, too. The white herons in Petulu outside Ubud at sunset are amazing, thousands of them, but don't stand under a tree! We thought this place ought to be mobbed by tourists but it's either unknown or the bird droppings scare people off. We saved it for our last evening and were glad.
Shopping for art is an adventure in itself. Get off the main streets and try to find the better craftsmen- they're all cottage industries and most are happy to sell direct. We bought stone carvings along the main road to Denpasar, wood carvings at Indra Jaya (361977118 in Mas), paintings from several artists in Pengosekan (the best place we found), shadow puppets and barong outfits (won the company Halloween costume contest today) at Dharma Yasa (361 299475 in Puaya), and amazing kites at Jaya Sai Ram ( 361 461562 just south of Ubud).
The quality of food is inversely proportional to what you pay. One of THE most disappointing meals we had was at the Amandari Hotel. Nice pool but the food tasted like the Indonesian special at Denny's. The second best meal we had was a nasi campour urab at a warung outside Amed. The best was probably the dirty duck at the Dirty Duck Diner in Ubud, though we liked all the usual spots, Wayan, Luna, Lotus and even, yes, Poppies in Kuta.
Speaking of nice pools we often hit the nicer resorts during the day for a $1 swim. The best in Ubud was the Tjammpuhan Hotel (sp?) just past the bridge at the west end of the main road. Take a close look a the monkey carvings above the pool if you go and be prepared to answer questions if you bring kids... The Alamanda in Sembreting (North coast) also had a nice pool but we wouldn't spend $30 to stay the night when the cottages nearby are as nice and so cheap.
The next time we go we won't arrange housing in advance. We'll grab a bemo to Ubud and walk the side streets to find a losman for a couple of nights. Then we'll go into town, pick up the Bali Advertiser and ask around for who's got a house rental that's empty. If the currency stays at 7000 (it won't) we expect a very nice place can be had for $400-500/month or $150/week. It is great to have a home base when you're camping out on the bikes, so we'd do that again.
The main question now is whether to return to Bali for our honeymoon or broaden our horizens. Right now our plan is to pick up all the Lonely Planet Guides (essential equipment for Bali), pick someplace that looks good, and spend a few weeks there, then end up in Bali to wind down.