Travelling Bali Tips and Experience
I am sorry that you might notice that some post for few months have been lost due to WordPress upgrade. I don’t usually do back up before upgrade, now I learn how important to do back up regularly. Now back to the story, we are now have moved to Bali. Just for information if anyone doesn’t know, Bali is in Indonesia, part of Indonesian province. Many of my friends in Australia thought Bali is a country.
We have been living here for almost 6 months now, and yet we are still haven’t really get used with the custom here. There are still something new everyday, the custom, culture, and many more. If you never been here and plan to travel to Bali, here are some tips that might be useful:
Vaccination
This is the first thing I usually did every time I go to any Asian country. Except Japan, the standard of hygiene in Asian countries is quite low. I always get Hepatitis A and Typhoid Vaccination every year. Especially Bali, you might want to get a Rabies Vaccination. Bali is one of major Rabies infected area in the country, there are quite high cases people get bitten by wild dogs, which are many infected with Rabies. Wild dogs are almost everywhere here, stay away from them. You ca notice them a wild dog if he doesn’t have collar. A dog with collar means someone owns it. Be careful if you go to monkey forests, monkeys can carry Rabies too.
Food
A part from a lower standard of hygiene, Balinese food are very spicy, even Indonesians who like spicy food think Balinese food is very hot. If you don’t like spicy, ask for no chilly at all! Not spicy is still hot because they still put chilly on it.
Crossing
You your common sense when you are crossing the road even if you at the crossing line. The crossings are useless here, no one will stop and let you cross. They really do not respect pedestrians at all, well, almost!. Sometimes vehicles even did not stop at the red light. They seems they don’t know the rules because getting a driving license is very easy here. I got a friend from UK who works here and want to get Motorbike License and he also never drove one before in UK. He came to the police station and apply for a motorbike license, then the police asked him ” Do you know how a ride a motor bike?”
My friend said ” No”. Guess what the police did say, “Well, Don’t worry, it is very easy. Here is the accelerator, that one is the brake, and the bottom one is the clutch. there you go” and my friend got his license.
If you find a policemen near by, ask them to help you, they are more than happy to help you.
Drugs
Do not bring any illegal drugs to Bali, seriously, or else you will get really big trouble if caught! Heroin, Cocaine, Marijuana and ecstasy are considered illegal drugs, and they impose severe penalty for anyone who brings them to the country, in any quantity! So don’t bring it at all. Even if you are just a user, you are considered trafficking.
Learn from Bali Nine who got a death penalty. If anyone told you that you can bribe the police in Indonesia, don’t believe them. You can not bribe the police here, well at least in Bali. There are already too many Australian and other Westerners in Bali Jail because of drugs, don’t add more in it.
Bargain
Always bargain when you do shopping here, from street stalls to five stars hotels. Yes, even for 5 stars hotel you still can bargain. In Bali, there are three different pricing in practice, for local Balinese, for locals other than Balinese, and for tourists.
Price for Balinese is always cheap, but forget it, you can’t get it, period. The other locals are anyone who stay in Bali, regardless you are Indonesians, Chinese Indonesians, Black or White people. They can get quite cheaper price compared to tourists. Even if you are a white European and cannot speak Indonesian, just ask for Domestic Price if you want to buy anything. Bali is a multicultural province there are many expats and Westerners live and work here, so don’t worry they won’t know. The difference between Domestic price and tourist price is quite a lot. For instance Bali Zoo, domestic entrance fee is Rp. 80,000 ($9) compared to tourist price $20. You can save at least half of a tourist price. Almost in every tourist attractions, they usually have domestic price and tourist price.
Buying Artworks
If you are art lovers, you can be wrong, Bali is the right place to shop. There are so many of them and very fine arts everywhere. Every Balinese is an artist. Most of artworks are done by ordinary Balinese, school leavers, and school students. Almost every Balinese family have skills to do artworks such as carving, painting, handcrafting, etc. They have been doing it in many generations. All those skills are also taught in schools. Ubud Market and Sukawati market are the place to start, those place are best for buying crafts, paintings, sculptures and other artworks.
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