Bali

 

 Morning sunrise over Phuket, Thailand.

On my 6:20am flight I was able to see the sunrise from the air. It was beautiful. I was feeling a mix of sadness and excitement.  I wasn’t ready to leave Thailand, but then again I’d probably feel that way after 3 months in Thailand too. Bali should be fun.

My first glimpse. Notice those ominous clouds!

Upon arriving at Bali, I realized I had 0 plan besides go to Ubud. And then I realized I had done no research on my options of even how to get there.  I just assumed there’d be a bus like in Thailand. Realizing my error, I started talking to people in line around me at customs. I met a nice gentleman from New Zealand who was moving to Bali, and he gave me great advise. The Taxi mafia has more or less complete control of the airport in Denpasar. If you can find 8 people going to the same route as you are you may be able to charter a shuttle van, but otherwise it’s the Taxis. There is no negotiating in this monopoly, and fees are exorbitant for Bali. My acquaintance suggested that I hire a taxi into Kuta, the biggest tourist hole in Bali, and hire a metered taxi further for the hour trip to Ubud. I paid 55,000Rp ($6) to be driven 10 minutes to Kuta.

 Snapshot of the free-for-all that is Balinese driving.

I've seen a family of 5 on one of those motorbikes!

The first thing I noticed in Bali was the heat. It's sweltering and humid. Nothing seems to quite dry all the way here, either. Arriving in Kuta, it seemed an overrun tourist Mecca. I spied a coffee shop that advertised free internet café so I went inside to do some research. Seeing a foreigner like me at the station by my side, I decided to ask him if he knew of a good way to get to Ubud. Turns out, this was the best question I could have asked to the right person. His name is Steven, and not only does he have a home-stay available in Ubud where he lives with his Indonesian wife, but he walked me to the bus station, helped me get the best deal, and set me up with an inexpensive driver to transport me to the place from the bus stop, just outside of central Ubud!  I took the deal seeing the pictures of the place online and it is lovely. 

 Steven

 The waiting area of the bus stop. 

Bali is a mixture of humble surroundings and gorgeousness, 

each comes upon you without warning.

The streets of Kuta.

The bus ride was an hour long and super entertaining. The driver certainly showed up any Thai drivers I've seen. The streets are small, and this bus was big. He owned the road. It seems that might makes right on the streets of Bali. At one point he needed to make a U-turn and there were no openings. So what did he do? Start driving. He stopped 4 lanes of traffic (2 each way) on this highway to make his u-turn. Everyone else just had to stop when he chose to go. I was laughing pretty hard, but that's because I was in the bus.

By the way, it's monsoon season here. It's still hot all the time, and mostly overcast or sunny, but there are flash storms that don't just rain, or pour, they dump. I witnessed my bus ride going from dry to flooded streets in the space of 30 minutes. I think we were going through a particularly poorly designed street for runoff, but still. Our bus leaked, and we all got a little wet. Then after 45 minutes had gone by, that's it, it was over. From what I hear, this is a usual occurrence in the evenings here during monsoon.

Cars kept trying to go through the deep waters before breaking down.

Finally we were going to make it through a clearing, then an impatient driver behind the stopped bus who couldn't see around floored it around us right into the flood and broke down... sigh.

We got stuck behind these drivers for a while.

Despite some watery traffic, we arrived safely and my driver was there to shuttle me home as promised. So here I am, living in luxury for $11/night. I have a computer, internet, webcam, beautiful surroundings, a bug zapper, water cooler and heater, hot water shower, private bathroom, a huge window with a view to a backyard jungle, flatscreen TV with a drawer full of DVD's, fridge, a lady who will clean my room, and Balinese artwork on the walls. All my neighbors are locals.  It is the most amazing thing that I ever could have hoped to find, and it just flew into my lap. Namaste Bali!