Considering a trip to Bali. Is it worth it and any recommendations

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>>1205616
Went years ago. First time overseas and ended up doing all the tourist rackets. Some were good others were a total scam. Legitimately enjoyed the fire dance at uluwatu temple. Monkey forest was kinda cool but monkeys are dicks.

Avoid nusa dua and turtle island. Kuta is fun for a visit to watch all the fuckwit bogans and buy knick knacks, would not stay there though.

Elephant ride was kinda weird. Probably wouldn't recommend unless you are really into elephants.

Ubud was fucking beautiful. Running barefoot through rice fields hopping creeks and navigating little jungle paths.

I'm going again in a couple weeks. Staying a little outside of ubud. No plans just gonna wing it. Feel like I have a better idea about how it operates and what to avoid.

Will let you know how it goes.

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Ubud

Went to Indonesia past summer. Visited Lombok for a small two weeks and Bali for two weeks as well.

About Bali:

The south is the most turistic part. Kuta is mostly western looking, not too much to do, it's fun to visit the multiple malls, explore the side streets a bit and eat a lot. Food is really varied, from western type meals to warungs where people are surprised that you're gonna eat there as a westerner (ate goat leg soup somewhere for instance and that was delicious)

Jimbaran is really worth a visit, but only if you like seafood. Avoid the northern part, taxi drivers will drive you there if you're not specific enough, restaurants there are extremely expensive, it's a tourist trap, I dined at the middle part, really good prizes there for really good food. Nice people around there.

A little bit up north is Denpasar, the administrative centre. If you're interested in history and culture it's worth a visit. Unfortunately I couldn't explore much there, but we visited a giant supermarket with all types of food. Also visited the Balinese museum there. Really not turistic at all. People will be surprised to see you there.

Ubud is also a bit in the centre. Beautiful city, lots of art and culture, hidden rice fields in side streets. Lots to see and do, especially Monkey Forest is recommended. Really turistic though, bunches of Chinese people. Lots of space for adventure and things.

(1/3)

After visiting these places we got to Lovina in the north. Lovina itself is not really that interesting, but it's a great hub, since there's a lot of stuff around there to do and see and you can reach everything by scooter. In the north you have the twin lakes which are beautiful, the view from the hills is crazy, one of the best moments of my life was just standing there and looking miles and miles away. There's even a restaurant called The View out there, we asked the owner if we could come in just to take some pictures and they were really happy to welcome us, even when we're not going to spend money there. The view there is breathtaking.

Lovina is slightly turistic, mostly bars for older people with pleasure women. The black beaches there are great, we even played soccer with the kids out there (which was funny because I towered over them all, they all wanted me as a striker immediately)

From Lovina we went to the hot springs very nearby, which weren't really hot, except for the part where the water was coming out, was really relaxing though. There is also a waterfall nearby but we couldn't find it.

Singaraja is a city next to Lovina, one of the bigger cities in Bali, no tourists there, locals there are very friendly. Had some conversations with people there who aren't really used to see foreigners outside of Lovina, also had some great and cheap food along the road and at a local food market.

In the west there's a national park, outside of the Bali starlet which is really hard to spot, there's not much to see there. Safari there is rough, because you need to go by scooter. Despite all that, I loved to go there, took some hours to travel but I just loved going around, seeing the area, seeing locals and beautiful places and all that.

Haven't visited the Nusa places myself, but I heard Nusa Lembongan is absolutely terrible, so avoid that.

(2/3)

If you have some extra time and money I would definitely recommend Lombok as well. There's less qt girls because of Islam out there, but people are really friendly and not used to white people. They will treat you like you're a famous actor or something, asking for pictures and everything. Lots of great beaches in Lombok as well, maybe more beautiful than in Bali. Also recommend hiking Mt. Rinjani, although our experience was very rainy and therefore not always that pleasant.

As for tips in general:

Ignore all guides and people that tell you what to see and do, they only want to make money and do not care about your experience. If you want to do a special trip or something, tell the people at the 'tourist centres'. They might be shady and underpay the people that work for them, but when you've negotiated a decent price, they will make sure that everything will be organized well.

As for my favorite streetfood: Terang Bulan. Sort of a thick pancake filled with chocolate springs, butter, crushed peanuts, condensed milk and cheese. My god I almost get teary eyed thinking about it again. You should absolutely try that.

The only thing I regret about my travels in Indonesia was not really meeting any locals and travelling around a bit with them, except for riding the scooter to search far-away and hard to reach beaches and places, we stayed a bit too much in our comfort zone maybe. But it's definitely worth it to visit Bali.

This was a little more than I wanted to write at first, but I hope you can use this information.

>>1206234
Not OP but thanks for sharing that.

>>1206234
>There's less qt girls because of Islam out there, but people are really friendly and not used to white people.

Still like that? Cool. I went like 15yrs ago. First place I ever felt like a rockstar. Women threw themselves at me, in a platonic fashion.

>>1206282
No problem mate, if anyone has any further questions about Bali and Lombok I'll answer them (also been to Kuala Lumpur for a few days and to the Gili islands, but the latter is not that memorable)
>>1206286
Yeah that was pretty funny. We went with three guys, all really different looking. I'm a tall white guy, one friend is a tall Arab looking guy and the third one is tall to their standards, but has a really pale skin. It was really funny to see how different kinds of people there are interested in one of the three. For example, my white friend was approached by 10-12 muslim ladies to get on a picture with them, like it was his harem or something. One of them came to us and said 'he is very handsome'. She almost wanted to marry him on the spot.

So yeah I thought it was really enjoyable, since in the west you're basically anonymous anywhere and in Lombok people were just surprised and really happy to see you visiting their country.

Anyone ever rented a car in Bali? I was thinking about getting one for convenience and being able to just go where I want. Just curious as to what driving there is actually like? Will I run over some poor kid on a moto and end up in Bali prison forever?

>>1206769
Fuck getting a car. It's not that you'll probably kill some kid (you will) but you'll just feel your sense of freedom sucked away as driving gets so stressful you won't want to venture anywhere.
Motorbike is the way to go.

>>1206769
Roads are terrible, especially in the mountains. The Balinese also drive like mad men, I would recommend to rent a scooter. Scooter rent costs literally nothing. We even got a flat tire and fixed that for a few euros/dollars.

>>1207245
What's it like to get around on a motorbike? Is it easy to get from one side of the island to the other?

>>1207309
On a scooter? not a fucking chance, they're fun around town in Bali about it.

Not Ops in this thread, but I've also been to lombok and you can ride a scooter around there side to side. Traffic and roads so much better than Bali.

Rent a driver in Bali for about $30 bucks a day unlimited travel, just do that.

I'm heading back in June, staying in Seminyak, it's where I always stay just a nicer classier area. Awesome villas, avoids kuta, great food. And easy day trips out to ubud still or up the coast a bit on the scooter.

Don't go in the wet season (winter). The beaches are covered in trash brought in by the sea. Funny how surfers still surf ... wading and then swimming trhough trash to get to the waves.

I stayed for one day and flew straight out (to Flores).

Also, don't exchange money in Kuta. Too many scams. I tried two separate places that were running two different scams (told them to fuck themselves), then just withdrew from an ATM

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>>1207345
>trash on the beach
this is how it looks. (Not my pic, but I saw the same shit this last december)

>>1207309
If you're feeling adventurous. We went from Lovina to the National Park which is a 2-3 hour ride. Roads were pretty decent.

We also went from Kuta Lombok to the almost hidden Pink Beach which was around a three hour ride. Roads were beyond terrible the last part. It was just huge random blocks laying next to each other. It made a fun experience though.

I don't think if I would recommend taking huge trips on the scooter when cabs are really cheap on Bali. At least if you negotiate a bit.

Bumping this. Leaving in just over a week.

>>1207349
Cabs are metered in bali don't negotiate just insist on using the meter for the best price

>>1207778
Not everywhere. In Ubud the metered cab organization is even banned.

>>1207895
There's a powerful taxi cartel in Ubud. You have to do a lot of legwork and arguing to get a fair price.

I just got back from Bali. My highlights:
-chartering a catamaran to sail around the mangrove forests in Bali Barat Nat'l Park
-Snorkelling the WWII shipwrecks on the north coast (best natural reef I saw was in Pemuteran)
-Exploring rice terraces around Munduk, and watching the sunsets from an open-air cafe there.
-Motorbiking one of the breakneck roads from the north coast up to the mountaintop town of Kintamani

Disappointments:
-Food was good, but didn't blow my mind
-Not as cheap as I'd hoped
-Alcohol costs the same as in America, wtf
-Suffered pretty bad Paris Syndrome in Ubud
-The temples and stuff were awesome, but almost everything is less than 100 years old. Some of the most significant architecture was designed by German/Dutch architects

I don't plan to ever return, but I'm glad I went because now I know what all the fuss is about. Very interested in exploring more of Indonesia, because I like Muslim countries.

>>1207925
>chartered a boat
>went snorkeling

>hurr durr it's not cheap

>complain about expensive alcohol
>went to Hindu island
>liked Hindu temples

>hurr durr I like Muslim countries

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Last page bump.

Been looking at getting over to lombok while I'm there. Probably fast boat it or fly. No point wasting 7 hours on the public ferry.

Anyone ever been to lombok? Probably will climb Gunung Rinjani while I'm there... Any other stand out sights?

Pic related.

>>1208835
Rinjani is great, definitely recommended to go there. Remember that you can get really soaked hiking, because you're passing through a rainforest. I wasn't prepared for that when I did it.

Furthermore, Lombok doesn't have the grand sights that Bali has, but is way more modest, which makes it fun. The south has multiple fantastic beaches. We travelled to Pink Beach in the southeastern part of the island. It's really far away and quite a hassle to reach and it isn't really pink (except for very early in the morning), but it is really worth going there because it's so silent and peaceful. People don't expect tourists being daring enough to go there.

We didn't see the eastern part of the island, so I don't know about that, We only really went to Mataram, Kuta Lombok and Rinjani. Mataram is totally non turistic as well, which makes it fun. Try using Tinder when you're there, got some conversations with qt girls there, but couldn't meet up because of time constraints. Food is really good there.

Kuta Lombok is really turistic, only sleep and eat there, but travel to other parts of the island during the day.

We also went to Gili Nanggu for snorkeling, which was actually a pretty nice snorkeling spot. Water was clear and the fish were beautiful.

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>>1208996
Hey thanks anon.

I just read that they close Rinjani Jan-March every year so no climbing for me. Hoping I can still at least get up Agung on Bali instead.

Based on your recs I'll be making a trip to Lombok in April then. Thanks for the knowledge.