Bali conjures up images of Heaven on Earth for virtually every single person I know, including the ones who have never been there, and will possibly never visit any time soon. Read the travel forums, and you will see people raving about it and placing it on top of the list of possible destinations of the world. I think this is a serious misrepresentation, and I think Bali is one of the most overrated destinations of the world. Read more below to see my reasons.
I was full of expectations and excitement when I was planning my stay in Bali. I originally thought I could spend a month or two on the island, even though I had read that prices are somewhat higher than elsewhere in the region. But I said to myself, living in Paradise is worth the extra money. I could already feel the “extra” part when I looked at accommodation prices and when my Ubud hotel said they could arrange a taxi for me from the airport for 350.000 rupees, which seemed a little steep. But little did I know that time, that this much money could seem like a fortune for a LOT of people in Indonesia – and, to be honest, it is not very little for myself either, being not fortunate enough to earn Australian, North-American or West-European salaries.
When I arrived in Ubud, and I had the unexpected feeling that I didn’t like the place that much. A kind of disappointment perhaps, but I was sure that the feeling was only due to this terribly long flight, which included a sleepless night at Don Mueang Airport in Bangkok. Because it is impossible, I thought, that Bali is not only not Paradise, but an awful tourist ghetto, where the locals display fake smiles, if at all, and generally, the atmosphere is something inexplicably weird.
Not feeling rich enough for most of the restaurant prices that were displayed, I walked around quite a bit (a thing I will do in a new place regardless of the prices anyway, although this time I was awfully tired), and found a place where I could have some very simple food for at least 4 times the price that I later paid in other parts of Indonesia. Ice cream cost double or even triple the price that I used to pay in the very centre of my hometown, Budapest.
Although it is not only the prices that made me feel uncomfortable, a large part of it must have been related to money: it is a cliché to say that in touristic places you are treated as a walking wallet, but Bali was the only place that I could literally feel this. On my way to Ubud from the airport, I talked to the taxi driver. At one point, I asked him if Grab was available on the island, and when he said yes, I asked him if he was also working as a Grab driver, too.
He was unwilling to give me a clear answer, even when I asked him if Grab was available in Bali or Ubud. This was the driver that my hotel arranged for me, a nice guy, except that he was not giving me clear answers. But then I realized he was perhaps feeling a little… embarrassed? uncomfortable? ashamed? because of the situation that the answer could have entailed. So, is Grab available in Ubud? The answer is yes and no. Officially yes. But then there are the local unofficial drivers, millions of them, it seemed to me. But without exaggeration, you cannot walk more than 2 minutes without being offered a ride by the men sitting on the pavement, usually holding a notice board or a piece of cardboard or paper offering taxi services. Most of them did not look very reliable to me, but it was only a gut feeling, and I seldom used their services, paying exorbitant prices. But then why don’t people use Grab? Because of what you can see in this photo:
This was taken in the centre of Bali. So basically, Grab is banned by the local people, along with other so-called “online taxis”, which practically means official, tax-paying and meter using taxis, including Indonesia’s perhaps largest taxi company, Bluebird, which was founded by Indonesians many decades ago, is run by Indonesians and supposedly also employs Indonesians. Bluebird is actually so famous in Indonesia, that many private “taxis” imitate its name, design and appearance, hoping that some tourists will fall in their traps.
The prices alone would not make me not like a place – after all, my favourite places around the world include cities like Paris, Stockholm or Zurich, which could hardly be regarded cheap –, but when I don’t see one single natural smile, when I feel that everyone is obsessed with getting as much money out of a tourist as possible, then I cannot appreciate even the authentic looking elements that I will write about in other posts about Bali. But for the most part, you will see a tourist ghetto with very few natural gestures from locals.
Who wants to work with the rice fields?
I was staying in a small family run hotel in the centre of Ubud. It was a quite large area with only a few small buildings as guest rooms. Spacious rooms, nice place, and not too expensive by Bali standards.
I once talked to the owner of the hotel, a woman in her fifties. She told me that the whole “garden” (in fact an ugly piece of land) was hers, but it is not used now, although she is planning to build some further buildings there, to expand the hotel, but she doesn’t have enough money for it at the moment. She also told me, that almost ten years ago, not only that piece of land, but all the area here, including the neighbouring houses (also hotels) used to be rice fields, and there were only a few very modest houses here. The place looked very different back then. Bot now, she added after a little pause, no-one wants to deal with rice paddies here. Tourism is much more profitable.
The famous beaches – a major disappointment
As far as the beaches are concerned, I only spent a short time there, since I am not a beach person at all. But sometimes I do enjoy a bit of beaching, like I did at some other places in the world. Now Bali’s beaches didn’t impress me at all either. Some are rather dirty, and most of them feel just another beach, that you can find anywhere. When I saw that, I understood it even less why people love Bali beaches so much.
I walked along the beaches of Kuta, Legian and Seminyak, including Double Six. I was really surprised to see absolutely no difference at all, because when I was preparing for this trip, I saw people on travel forums talking about which beach is good for what, which is the favourite of some and which other is preferred by others – but for God’s sake: they are one and the same beach, it is only the name than changes, you can actually walk all the way, and you will see the same things. Even the city behind them look really the same, after all, it is a very short distance: 3 kilometres from Kuta to Seminyak (just measured it on Google Maps).
If you are in Southeast Asia, I recommend any of the beaches in Thailand, in Vietnam or even in Cambodia and Malaysia (the latter two are not really famous for their beaches). And if you are in Europe, choose the Côte d’Azur in France or one of the Canary islands – they are so much more fun and so much more beautiful.
And if you are in Indonesia, and want to see the local culture, want to meet nice and helpful people, go anywhere but Bali. Read my post about why I loved Yogjakarta, for example.
