Bali: a place to avoid!

Colorful Ubud market (flowerleaves), Bali

Bali schoolkids

From Colombo, Sri Lanka, to Denpasar, Bali. For all you fans of ‘Eat, pray, love’, whether it be book or movie, please forget the romantic picture you have in your head. Forget about Ubud, for this place really destroys whatever good vibes you have in your body! Surely the result of the worldwide success of ‘Eat, pray, love’. What I experienced was: an overload of female tourists –most of them over fifty- eager to find the perfect massage, detox treatment or creepy healer. In short: Ubud is an overcrowded, loud and expensive place. Too many restaurants, too many pubs, too much of everything and sure, large alarm bells were ringing constantly in my ears: get out of here, get out of here, get ouououououououououououououououout! But as I’ve always been rather stubborn and slow in understanding, I kept on hanging around. 

Bali woman cutting up chickens in market place

Me cooking Balinese food (Cooking course, Ubud)

 

A small summary of what I did: I paid way too much for the taxi ride from the airport, I paid enormous amounts of money for a Balinese cooking course, for a semi-professional full body massage, for a room with an unnecessary double bed and a cold shower, and for food and drinks. Okay, an example to give you an idea: 1 piece of pineapple will cost you 10.000 rupiah in Bali (if you bargain, you'll get it for 5000), in Java you get 3 (!) for only 2000. I think I made myself clear?

So I was told

Ubud is the place to be for yoga and meditation, so I was told. But during my short stay, the ‘Bali Yoga Festival’ was on, so this meant NO regular yoga lessons, unless I would pay for a festival ticket. But again, you don’t want to know the amount of dollars I would have needed for the special workshops.

Boat from Bali to Lombok: 4 hours of sleeping!

Indonesian ferry services:-)

So I decided to move on. I asked around for ‘quiet places’. Go to the Gili-Islands, so I was told. Okay, I thought, the Gili-islands, why not? Why not? Why not? Because: wrong again. The boat driver dropped me on the most terrible, loud and crowded little island you can imagine. Positive side to it: I met a Canadian girl, Julia, with whom I shared a room for some nights. The two of us had some fun (read: beach & party) on the island, but in general, no … not my cup of tea. The population of Gili Trawangan is of the smoking (marihuana), drinking (cocktails) and ‘happy mushroom’ eating kind… and I wasn't in the mood for this kind of happy shit.

Boat from Lombok to Gili Trawangan

Gili Trawangan beach (far end)

Gili Trawangan

Gili Trawangan

Added to all this: rainy days (instead of lovely sunny beaches, the pictures on this blog count for 1 sunny afternoon:-), mud and cold. After four days I quit, gave in, resigned, put my head down, had enough of it. I jumped onto the tiniest boat back to Lombok, and from Lombok the 4-hour boat brought me back into Bali again (sounds easy, but count a full day, it’s a long travel). In Bali I stayed a few days in Padangbai, hoping for the sun to shine so I could enjoy the (lovely&hidden&silent!) beach of Padangbai, but nope, no luck.  

So I decided to head for Java and dive into real city life...