The Chicago Tribune
Bali: Bargains on the far side
By Phil Marty
Tribune staff reporter
BALI, Indonesia — OK, there’s something we need to get straight right from the get-go: If all you’re looking for is a beach, go to Florida. Or Jamaica. Or Baja. They’re close. They have sand. They have sun.
Bali’s not close–not by a very long, long shot. How not close is it? Let’s just say that when I left my hotel in Bali for the airport, my face was looking pretty sunburned. When I walked into work the day after I got back, everyone said, “Man, you really got a nice tan!”
So, no, you don’t want to go that far for just sun and sand. What you do want to go that far for is an extremely exotic culture. And people who are genuinely friendly–not we-want-your-tourist-dollars friendly–and who are eager to tell you about their island home. And those lovely green, terraced rice paddies that seem to be everywhere (even the golf course at my hotel). And street peddlers who, for the most part, understand that “no, thank you” means “no, thank you.” And crafts that will have you wishing you’d brought a bigger suitcase. And the chance to view a culture where the religion (they’re 95 percent Hindu) is a lifestyle that’s out there in full view 24 hours a day, not just at Sunday goin’-to-meetin’ time. And temples–my God do they have a ton of temples (and a gaggle of gods).
And, oh, did I mention it’s cheap? After all, that’s what this is all about, isn’t it? Of course my opinion of cheap, with the Tribune paying the bills, and your opinion, with you paying the bills, might not square. But I think they will. How’s this: I got round-trip air from Chicago to Bali on Singapore Airlines (I love ’em–even in Coach); airport transfers; seven nights lodging at Le Meridien’s Nirwana Golf & Spa Resort (a five-star property that I guarantee won’t disappoint); an international breakfast buffet every morning, and a full-day tour with guide and driver in an air-conditioned mini-van for–drum roll, please–$1,550. And that was paying the single supplement. If I’d had a traveling companion, the total would have been bumped up by only about $1,000 more.
Because Bali is halfway around the world (about 11,000 miles on the route I flew–Chicago-Newark-Amsterdam-Singapore-Bali), Coach-Class air fares alone can typically start at $1,100 or $1,200. So you really don’t have to haul out the calculator to see a package to Bali usually makes the most sense from a dollar and convenience standpoint.
But, of course, there are drawbacks. And convenience figures in here too. Le Meridien Nirwana, one of only two hotel options in my package deal, is a terrific resort–beautiful, nice-sized rooms; good selection of restaurants; recreational facilities that include four free-form pools that flow one into another, set on spectacularly landscaped grounds. There’s also tennis, a full-service spa and a golf course that includes those rice terraces and has been rated one of the top links in the Far East. Just offshore (and wadeable at low tide) is Tanah Lot temple, reputedly the most photographed temple in Bali.
But if you must have a beach to lie on, it’s not there. There is a black sand beach just below the resort property, but it’s pounded by surf much of the time. Of more consequence is the resort’s location. It’s somewhat isolated, a word that made Mark Griffiths, the resort’s general manager, cringe when I used it as we talked during a cocktail reception he held one night for guests.
Le Meridien is about a 50-minute drive from the airport and the frenetic Kuta scene, where you can get a beach massage for three bucks, an American breakfast for less than a buck and a quarter, and enough large Bintang beers at $1.50 or so a pop to lull you into thinking this is the real Bali.
To get to Ubud, an also lively but more arty village, is at least a half hour from the hotel.
On the plus side, though, the hotel offers free shuttles to both areas, and the friendly folks at the concierge desk are only too happy to help you book outings for things such as dinner/dance performances (roughly $35) or sportfishing ($70) that include transportation.
Missing is the spontaneity of the more densely populated villages where you can step out of your hotel and find motorbikes filling main drags lined with restaurants, bars, Internet cafes, textile shops and crafts stalls. And hopeful local entrepreneurs who lean against their cars talking among themselves in a variety of dialects, but never missing the chance to ask a passing tourist, “Transport?” (This, by the way, is always accompanied by outstretched arms moving like they’re steering a car.)
Out away from the resorts is where you find out how inexpensive Bali really is. Balinese delight in bargaining. (In fact, a taxi driver seemed disappointed when I accepted his first offer of 125,000 rupiah–about $15–for the 50-minute ride back to Le Meridien after a long, hot, sweaty day in Kuta. “I bargain,” he implored.)
At a market in the central mountains, I haggled for a T-shirt that would have cost probably $15 somewhere like Jamaica. I paid $3.
Another stall in the market perfumed the air with the smell of all types of spices–among them, saffron, the most expensive spice in the world, which at home can cost $50 for a quarter-ounce. For $3 I took home about a quarter-pound of it.
Just walking through the market was priceless–and free.
I engaged in the expected bargaining game one day with the smiling woman who ran a stall on a quiet country road where I stopped for a bottle of water. But in the back of my mind my conscience protested dickering over whether to pay 30 cents or 35 cents for a bottle of water in a place where the average monthly income is well under a hundred dollars.
But, it’s not uncommon to find bargains even without haggling. At a fixed-price crafts shop in Ubud I bought a beautiful, delicately woven scarf for two-and-a-half bucks.
Though a place like Le Meridien is isolated from many of the tourist hot spots, being out in the countryside does have some advantages. My last morning in Bali, I walked a half mile or so out to the two-lane main road for a last look at what I consider the real Bali. Like most roads I’d seen, this one was flanked by ditches a few feet wide that, in this case, had tiles laid over the top to form a sidewalk. The ditches collect rainwater that’s used to flood the bright green rice paddies that cover the landscape, separated here and there by stands of palms.
Not far down the road, I stopped and watched a group of men, wearing the traditional conical straw hats I think of as coolie hats (which probably isn’t politically correct), chipping away at large rocks and forming them into a stone wall.
I detoured down a narrower side road and within a quarter mile or so found myself standing amid a small grove of trees, which shaded the hodgepodge of buildings, walls and open structures and altars that make up a temple. A half mile or so away, I knew, a section of the main road was dotted with food stalls, shops and peddlers selling postcards, tchotchkes, textiles, baskets and what have you to the tourists who flock to Tanah Lot temple. But here at the Luhur Pakendungan temple, I shared the moment with just a few birds and brightly colored butterflies that flitted around the moss-covered, centuries-old stone structures.
Heading back to the main road, I watched as a farmer cut wood with a machete and stacked it next to his small house. A couple of cows, normally used for plowing the rice paddies, rested in the shade in a small fenced area. The scene wouldn’t have been much different hundreds of years ago.
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About 65 percent of Bali’s 2 1/2-million people earn their living as farmers, with rice as the main crop (it’s all consumed on the island), and their planting and harvesting methods echo what’s been going on for generation after generation. A few days earlier while headed to the central mountains region with my guide, Gus, and our driver, we saw this over and over.
It takes about four months to get a rice crop from planting to harvest, Gus told me, resulting in three crops a year. But, despite major advancements in farming technology elsewhere, here virtually all of the work still is done by hand.
At one spot along the road to Candikuning, I saw a group of farmers taking a break while a team of cows hooked to a plow stood in ankle-deep mud and water in a paddy as it was prepared for planting and reflooding.
At another, I saw a lone worker bent over as he beat hand-cut rice stalks against the ground to shake loose the grains of rice.
And, at the edge of a village, two men walked slowly back and forth across a large tarp that was covered with rice, swirling the grains around with their bare feet to aid in the drying process.
But though Bali has at least one foot planted firmly in the past, it wrestles with problems of the present and the future.
On another day, Gus took me to the village of Kintamani, a stop popular on guided tours because of 5,633-foot Gunung Batur, an active volcano in the northeast part of the island whose most recent major eruption was in 1963. My guided tour that day, part of the package deal, included lunch at the Pita Loka restaurant, whose front windows give a good view of the volcano.
Only a few minutes before we got into Kintamani, I’d seen a boy taking a bath in the roadside ditch and a woman doing her laundry in another ditch. A foot in the past, I thought. So I was a little taken aback when Temon, my waiter, asked where I was from and, hearing Chicago as the answer, replied with the universal, “Chicago Bulls–Michael Jordan!”
Temon, as I found with many hotel and restaurant workers, was eager to talk about his country and the staggering blow its vital tourism industry was dealt by the terrorist bombing in October 2002 that killed some 200 people, mostly tourists, at a Kuta disco.
When I visited early last December, things were picking up, though at Le Meridien, as an example, only about a fourth of the 270 rooms were occupied.
Wid, another waiter, joined our conversation, and he and Temon told me how they constantly work to improve their English so they can communicate better with visitors to the island. Both got their basic English-speaking skills in public schools. (Bali has had compulsory public education for ages 6 to 15 for only about the past 10 years.) Temon has also attended a government-run hotel and tourism training school, and Wid hopes to do the same after he finishes high school.
Temon and Wid and their enthusiasm for improving their lives and their island were one of the things I liked most about Bali.
And Gus, who was eager to share his exhaustive knowledge of his homeland and who talked of Hindu tooth-filing ceremonies and arranged marriages, but who assured me he married “for l-o-o-o-ve.”
And Suwandra, an employee of a luxury resort who commutes to work on his motorbike six days a week so he can live in his home village and continue to try to master the art of woodcarving, something he’s worked at for more than 10 years–nearly a third of his life.
One night at the hotel, the piano player launched into “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” and, as I looked around the sparsely populated dining room, it got me to thinking about the troubled waters the people of Bali were tossed into by that cowardly bombing in Kuta.
People like Temon and Wid . . . and Gus . . . and Suwandra have seen their livelihoods threatened and their dreams tarnished. But when you talk to them, you realize their spirit remains strong, and their smiles tell you the terrorists haven’t won anything.
Bali is worth a trip if for no other reason than that.
THE BOTTOM LINE
A week in Bali in a five-star resort:
Air/hotel/transfer package (for two) … $2,540
Air/hotel/transfer package (for one) … $1,550
Meals (per person) ………………….. $306
Guide/driver/taxi ……………………. $95
Total for couple ………………….. $3,247
Total for single ………………….. $1,951
Meals include several dinners at Le Meridien, which made the total higher than it might have been with access to other restaurants.
IF YOU GO GETTING THERE
There’s no quick and easy way to get somewhere that’s halfway around the world. From Chicago you’re going to fly either to the East Coast, then Europe, then a Far East hub, then Denpasar (Bali); or, to Los Angeles, then the Far East Hub, etc. Any way you do it, you’re going to be in transit well over 24 hours. However, it’s usually not that expensive to lay over a couple of nights at one or two of your transfer points to make the trip more manageable. For my Bali Dream package from Asian Affair Holidays (800-742-3133; www.asianaffairholidays.com) I could have added on a two-night stopover at a five-star hotel in Singapore for just $140.
Asian Affair Holidays is part of Singapore Airlines, so from New York/Newark or L.A. you fly Singapore, which is consistently rated as one of the top airlines in the world–and for good reason. Coach seats aren’t any wider and don’t have more legroom than some of the other airlines. But, the trip is made almost fun by outstanding food, no charge for beer and wine with meals, and seatback TV monitors and controllers that give you access to roughly 20 movies (you control when they start and stop, like with a VCR), more than 50 CD albums, 10 audio channels, 35 Nintendo games and other features.
Asian Affair Holidays offers other Bali packages, and, of course, prices may vary from what I paid ($1,550 as a single). I also found packages from Cathay Pacific Holidays (800-233-2742; www.cathaypacific.com/chl/eng) and Go-Today.com (www.go-today.com).
LODGING
If I had booked my stay at Le Meridien Nirwana (011-62-361-815900; 800-543-4300; www.lemeridien.com/indonesia/bali/hotel(underscore)id1660.shtml) separate from a package, I could have gotten an Internet rate of $89 a night. For the backpacker and extreme budget crowd, it’s possible to find beds at losmens (small hotels) starting at about $9 a night (try www.youth-hostels-in.com/bali-hostels.htm). And there are plenty of hotels in places like Kuta advertising rates as low as $26 for an air-conditioned room.
On the other end of the spectrum, when money’s no object, a place like Amanresorts’ Amankila (800-477-9180; www.amanresorts.com) starts at $650 a night for a free-standing suite and ranges to $2,600.
p align=”justify”>DINING
Much of the food here is Chinese-influenced or Indonesian, and you can eat very well and very cheaply. At a restaurant or warung (food stall) in Kuta, for instance, you might find nasi curry (chicken curry with rice) for just 78 cents. Or at a slightly more upscale restaurant in Candikuning, ayam goreng kecap (spicy marinated deep-fried chicken mixed with vegetables and sweet soy sauce and served with steamed rice) for just under $3. Even at Le Meridien, prices were modest for a five-star resort: $23 for a prix fixe dinner in the fine-dining Nirwana restaurant featuring Balinese foods, or $10 for ikan rica rica (a medallion of tuna marinated with Sumatrese spices, and hot sour eggplant).
WHEN TO GO
My trip coincided with the rainy season–October to March–but weather wasn’t a major problem during my seven days. While there were some rains that were real gully-washers, they seldom lasted more than 10 or 15 minutes and were usually followed by sunny skies.
Bali, part of the Indonesian archipelago between the South Pacific and Indian Ocean, is just 8 degrees south of the equator and, rainy season or not, you can expect temps in the mid-80s and humidity to match year-round.
GETTING AROUND
Yes, you can rent a car or motorbike here. No, you don’t want to. Why not? I found in my first few somewhat hair-raising days in Bali that the most important pieces of gear on any motor vehicle, in order of usage, are: 1. the accelerator, 2. the horn, 3. the brake, 4. the seat belt, if there is one.
Drivers, of both two-wheel and four-wheel vehicles, pass–a lot. Even when other vehicles are coming. And mini-van/truck drivers just assume that any oncoming motorbike can squeeze by when they’re passing another vehicle. Oh, and driving is on the left too.
That’s why you’re better off letting someone else drive, and closing your eyes. Many hotels in less-populated areas have shuttles to popular towns like Ubud and Kuta.
Hiring a car and driver for outings is money well spent because it relieves you of the driving chores and, hopefully, gives you a knowledgeable local who likes to talk about his island. Many of the guys you see on the street in towns like Ubud and Kuta can be hired for a day for probably $10 to $15. But, you may find their English-speaking skills are limited.
Instead, I decided to go with Gus of Bali Harapan Utama Tours (011-62-361-262395; www.bhutours.com), who picked me up at the airport and transferred me to my hotel when I first arrived. I paid him and our driver $80 for a full day of touring, with me calling the shots as to where we went.
DON’T MISS
Ubud: This village north of the capital city of Denpasar has the reputation of being a center of the arts. Here you’ll find lots of crafts, galleries, restaurants and a market in the village center. Pura Taman Saraswati is a gorgeous temple behind Cafe Lotus, where I ate lunch ($10 including two beers and tip). Sacred Monkey Forest is home to a band of macaques that charm tourists.
Kuta: You’ll probably love it or hate it, but you still have to see it. If you want the beach, this is it–a long, arcing stretch of sand where, among other things, you can get your hair braided, rent a surf board, or get a massage (really more like a back rub) for three bucks. A hodgepodge of shops, stalls, restaurants and bars lines the meandering streets here, and you’ll be accosted by more peddlers than you ever knew existed. This also is Party Central and a favorite for young Aussies, for whom flying to Bali is akin to us flying to Florida or California. It’s also the only place in Bali where someone tried to sell me drugs. And the only place where I was approached by a prostitute–right next to the memorial for the disco that was bombed in October 2002.
Craft villages: The Balinese rightfully take a lot of pride in their crafts, and a specific village will be noted for a specific craft. In Mas, for instance, wood and mask carving rules. In Batubulan, it’s stone sculptures. Silver and goldsmithing in Celuk.
Barong or other dance: Elaborate, brightly colored costumes, mysterious music from a gamelan band and a good old-fashioned duel of good vs. evil featuring both delightful- and sinister-looking masks provides a terrific view of the role of Hinduism in everyday life here. Many of my favorite photos from Bali are from the one-hour Barong dance that was part of my one-day guided tour.
SAFETY
I never ever felt in danger in Bali–not while standing and reading the names of the bombing victims at the memorial in Kuta, not while browsing in the crowded market in Ubud, not while walking alone on the backroads. Could Bali be bombed again? Sure. But anyplace–even Chicago–could be a target.
PRACTICALITIES
Money: Bali uses the Indonesian rupiah, and a U.S. dollar typically is worth about 8,400 rupiah. ATMs aren’t hard to find in towns like Ubud and Kuta and will give you as good an exchange rate as anywhere.
Health: Stick to bottled water, available everywhere, and follow the usual precautions for food in any Third World destination. The Centers for Disease Control (877-FYI-TRIP; www.cdc.gov/travel) or a clinic specializing in travel medicine, like The Travel Medicine & Immunization Center at Northwestern Hospital (312-695-1888; www.nmff.org/travelmedicine), can advise on needed inoculations.
Clothing: It’s hot and it’s humid, so you know what you need. But while T-shirt and shorts might be fine for wandering Kuta or Ubud, they may not be appropriate at temples. Rules vary from temple to temple, but it’s not uncommon to have to drape bare legs with a sarong or to have to tie a temple scarf around your waist. They can often be rented at temple entrances for a few thousand rupiah. Or, buy one for a couple bucks and carry it in your backpack.
Visas: Indonesia requires visitors from the U.S. and 20 other countries to obtain a visa on arrival ($25 for 30 days, $10 for three days).
