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Bali Update II

Saturday April 29, 2006

Posted In: Indonesia | Comments: 7 | Written By: Kai Conragan

Fisherman at sunset. Bingin, Bali.

We’ve spent the last week back on the Bukit Peninsula. A solid run of swells has delivered us with a week of great surf. For all that Bali has to offer, it is ultimately the waves that drew me out here so I must admit I’ve been doing little more than eating, sleeping, and surfing as of late. Our run of swells will come to a close by the end of the month, at which time Julie and I plan to head to the east coast of Bali. Back in Ubud we met a Scottish man – a doctor turned veterinarian – who lives in Germany with his wife but spends three months each year in Bali. He invited us to to meet him in Candidasa, where he promised us a tour of some of the better beaches and diving spots on his boat in exchange for a few beers.

Julie at Uluwatu beach

We’ve been staying at Bingin, which is a beach centrally located between all of the great surf spots of this area. Our accommodations are at the Pondok Indah (which means beautiful house ), which is a small collection of bungalows owned and operated by the wonderful Lynie and her husband Gung. Lynie is an extraordinary host and her kindness and hospitality has led the place to be commonly known as Lynie’s. A good sign of any accommodation: nearly all of the guests at Lynie’s are return visitors.

Bingin, and indeed the whole peninsula, is very isolated. This offers a welcome respite from the constant hustling of the Kuta area. However, it also means that everything is hard to get to. The roads are bad and there are very few cab drivers in the area, which makes getting around by hired driver both time consuming and expensive. If you do decide to use a hired driver, agree on a price before you get into the vehicle. We had one driver who tried to charge us nearly double after we had arrived at our destination, using the bad roads as an excuse.

I think it’s safe to say that if you plan on spending any amount of time in Bali, it’s best to get your own transportation. Driving can admittedly be nerve wracking: for westerners, driving on the left-hand side of the road is awkward, and the constant traffic can be unsettling. In fact, driving in downtown Kuta or Denpasar can be downright frightening. To start with, the lines painted on the road indicating lanes are really more of a suggestion than a boundary. As are traffic signals. Cars and scooters drive in either lane or against traffic at whim. If a guy on a scooter needs to go a mile up the road, it’s perfectly reasonable for him to drive on the wrong side of the road for that mile instead of having to pull out across traffic into the correct lane. If you are making a right-hand turn (the equivalent of a left-hand turn across traffic at home), cars and scooters will pass you on the right while you are trying to turn. Essentially, there is an unwritten rule while driving in Bali that says the driver is responsible for whatever gets in front of his/her bumper. If a car pulls out in front you (they never actually look to see if a car is coming), it is your responsibility to not hit the other car. Ultimately, when driving in Bali, you have to ignore all the rules you learned at home and just go with the flow of traffic. However, the payoff is much more freedom to explore the island at your leisure. You don’t have to deal with bargaining with hired drivers or worry that they are taking you to a place where they receive a commission.

With all of this in consideration, Julie and I decided it was time to get our own transportation. We started with a motor scooter, which we rented for about $4 US a day. Motor scooters are by far the most popular – and practical – form of transportation on the island. The maze of roads and amount of traffic make driving a car an ordeal, whereas on a scooter you can just zip through the traffic and down the side roads. Fortunately, there is very little traffic at Bingin and the surrounding area, so Julie and I found that we were often the only ones on the road, and we could drive the country roads at a slow and enjoyable pace. Indeed, I think it’s safe to say, my dear friends and family, that I’ve peddled my mountain bike uphill faster than I drove the scooter, so fear not.

Kai and Julie looking goofie on a scooter.

The scooter was nice, but neither Julie or I wanted to take it back into the Kuta where the traffic and roads are much more demanding. As such, we traded in the scooter for a car. We rented a Suzuki Katana, and were able to negotiate a very reasonable price of $65,000 rupiah/day, or about $7 US/day. I hadn’t driven a car on the left-hand side of the road since we were in New Zealand, so it took a little while to get used to shifting the manual transmission with my left hand instead of right, but all in all it has worked out just fine. I’m happy to say that Julie has done very well driving on the opposite side of the road as well, and she has taken several trips into Kuta and Denpasar on her own.

As mentioned, we’ll be heading to the east coast of Bali in a few days. Before that, however, on May 3, Bali will hold a large religious celebration. Julie and I have been invited to attend with the family with which we are staying. The ceremony we’ll be visiting will be at the temple at Uluwatu. After that our plans are tentative at best. Our 30-day tourist visas expire on May 12. We’ve purchased tickets to Singapore for May 10, where we can go and then return to Bali to renew our visa. The tickets we purchased to Singapore cost us $200 a piece through Singapore Airlines (more than we had anticipated paying), but they allow us to stay in Singapore for up to two weeks. Essentially, we can decide which day we want to return to Bali within a 14 day window. If we are enjoying Singapore, we’ll likely stay for a week or so. If not, we’ll simply get on a flight back to Bali, where we plan to stay for one more month before we begin making our way up to Thailand.

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