Bali - one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world

Bali gets a lot of hype these days from everyone. Guidebooks praise its varied landscape of waterfalls, beautiful beaches, picturesque rice terraces and scenic volcano panoramas. They even say that it is like a paradise for cultural and spiritual travelers.

The Indonesian island with tropical warm climate lies east of Java and is home to around 4 million people. It receives more than 5 million visitors each year. For each travel style, you can find a destination in Bali. You have Canggu for the hipsters, Ubud in the heart of Bali for the spiritual travelers, Kuta & Seminyak for the partygoers or Sanur for the families and you also find a lot of surf spots around the island. Unlike the mainly Muslim Indonesia, Bali is strongly influenced by Hinduism. Everywhere you see flower-petal offerings lying.

Surround by the taxi mafia

My last night in Jakarta meant relatively little sleep and so I arrived in Bali rather overtired. When I left the airport, thousands of ravenous taxi drivers surrounded me. My Indonesian friends had already warned me about these fraudsters, who in the end ask for much more than they actually agreed on. I tried twice unsuccessfully to order a grave to the airport. Normally I always book an online taxi from the airport, because it is much cheaper and the taxi drivers can't cheat you. But the taxi mafia organized here in Bali forbids these online taxis.

So I tried again and again without success to order such a taxi online. The taxi drivers were standing next to me the whole time and told me dozens of times that they could get me to my destination for the same price as an online taxi. The online taxi drivers kept saying that they were on their way, but in the end they never came. Apparently they were afraid of the normal taxi drivers. In the end I ignored all the stupid taxi drivers and walked from the airport to the hostel, which took me about 45 minutes at a brisk pace.

Nice rock bars on the beach

My hostel, the Cara Cara Inn, in the district of Kuta was nice but quite anonymous. I put down my things and visited a vegan restaurant, which has the simple name "Vegan Bali" and is located in a small side street. The nice thing about Bali is that there are many vegan restaurants that make great veggie food or fruity juices.

I met an Azerbaijani woman with whom I took a little night walk on the beach and visited a great rock bar where you could even watch football and see a local band perform.

Ubud - A place for yoga teachers and spiritualists

The next day I went to the interior of the island, to Ubud. Since I didn't want to rent a scooter, I asked at my hostel how I could get there best. The man said I had to take a totally overpriced taxi (over 20 €). That was a lie again. But in the internet I found out that there is a small bus company that drives to different points of the island for nearly 5 €. Only a few people know about it. Beside a French woman, I was the only one who knew about it.

In Ubud I should get to know the real Bali, the Indonesians told me. What I first saw? A souvenir shop with huge penis gifts.  So this is the real Bali? Oh, yeah. Ubud is full of expats and Instagram models who take yoga classes there, feast their way through the many vegan restaurants and occasionally drive to a closeby rice field to take some fancy pictures.

I myself got an enormous headache in Ubud because of all the wannabe do-gooders and the streets crammed with tourists.

Visiting the rice fields full of Instagram models

With three Kazakhs I rented a private driver who drove us around the island. First we stopped at a coffee plantation. The entrance is free. Everywhere you could see the Instagram models, who were on the many nests or swings, looking for the perfect shot to get as many Likes as possible. For fun I also had some pictures taken of me, but only on the objects that were free. For some of the swings you even have to pay money and get registered on the queue.

Afterwards we drove to the beautiful Tegallang rice field and had a lunch break at the Batu Sari Restaurant, where we had buffet food and had a view of Mount Batur, an active volcano. Unfortunately the weather was quite cloudy that day. Later we approached the volcano a bit but it was too late to climb it and the visibility was not good anyway.

Next we stopped at Tirta Empul Temple. The Hindu temple compound consists of a petirtaan or bathing structure, famous for its holy spring water, where Balinese Hindus go to for ritual purification The driver brought us back to our quarters. Before we arrived we made a short stop to enjoy the beautiful sunset over Bali.

Nightmares of bed bugs

Back in Ubud in the dark I had to check in to my new quarters. The night before I was bitten by bed bugs in my 3€ hostel, the Kayuni Hostel where I had to get up in the middle of the night to avoid getting more bites and sat down in the common room. During this time a bat flew into the room again and again! Oh my God!

In order not to get the critters again, I booked a single room in an excellent rated guest house called Nang Ade House. I took a quick shower and laid down on the bed with a little music. I had even turned on the light when a bunch of bedbugs attacked me. What a fucking shit!!! I've never had bedbugs twice in a row. It is also impossible that I dragged them here, because in the bed frame a whole family was already gathered.

I told the owner and he allegedly never had bedbugs and didn't even know what they looked like. However, due to the hot and humid climate and careless tourists who drag the creatures from A to B, these creatures are found in many Bali accommodations. I demanded my money back instantly and moved out immediately, even though I now faced the problem of finding a new place to stay in total darkness, it was already after 10 p.m. I walked through Ubud in the dark and it was not easy to find a good place that was not yet closed.

A peaceful oasis in the middle of the busy Ubud

I finally found a little oasis after all, the Sapta House. From the outside it looks quite simple, but inside it looked like a beautiful temple. I had a nice private room with balcony, very clean and well located in the center, for a good price. Also the owners were very friendly and prepared me a delicious breakfast (omelette with fruits) each day.

Instagram Fake vs Reality

The next morning 2 Kazakhs, a French woman & me rented again the driver of the day before. This time we wanted to drive to Lempuyang Temple. At Instagram I had seen fantastic pictures of this place. There it seems as if a beautiful volcanic landscape is building up in the background behind the gate-like, symmetrical Hindu temple. It also looks as if there is water in front of it, with the temple and the landscape magnificently reflected in it.

But one disappointment after the other followed. First of all, the distance there is only 70 km, but by car we still needed more than 2 hours. The traffic is lousy in Bali, there are traffic jams everywhere.  After the arrival, we had to pay for another bus from the parking lot, which brought us up to the entrance of the temple. When you arrive you first have to pay an entrance fee and borrow a sari, a long suit. We walked up to the actual temple and saw a long line of people standing in line to take a picture. The whole time there was a repeating annoying noise, whose meaning was not clear to me at all. About 1 hour we waited!

We queued up in line, though. After all, we did not go there for nothing. At the end of the queue was a single local who took pictures of everybody. You give him your cell phone and then everyone has just time to do 3 poses. He has his finger on the shutter release the whole time and takes hundreds of shitty pictures that only look good after endless Photoshop transformations. Furthermore, he sits at such a stupid diagonal angle that the picture does not become symmetrical at all.

Moreover, the beautiful reflection in front of the temple is also a pure fake. He simply uses a second mobile phone, whose lens he puts crosswise to the first one and thus creates a fake reflection. And also the weather blocked the view to the great volcanic landscape behind it. You have to arrive extremely early and be very lucky to take a great photo here - or have good Photoshop skills. All faked!!!

Drive tries to get more money from us through his friends

By motorcycle we went back to our driver. We made a stop at the Taman Tirtagangga, a water palace with pools, ponds with lotus flowers and fish like koi, fountains and a swimming pool. Nothing special. During the drive our driver stopped again and again at some people he knew and came up with some reason, that we would have to pay something there. So annoying!

Moving to a hotel next to the garbage dump

The next morning I returned to the coast of Bali and took quarters in Budhastay in the Seminyak district. My hotel felt like a prison. It was located directly above a garbage dump and the room had almost no interior decoration, everything was terribly white and it smelled terrible. In return the price was low and the owners were very nice. The next day I moved to Beji Ayu Homestay, which was a bit further away from the coast, but had a much more welcoming atmosphere.

Beach and water full of plastic garbage

I visited the beach of Seminyak, but it also left me very disappointed. The beach and the water was full of plastic garbage, I didn't even want to think about swimming. But there were some nice beach bars. I tried to lay down in the shade of a parasol, because I didn't want to pay for the sunbeds. The bitch who sells the sunbeds noticed that and closed the parasol so that I can't lie in the shade anymore. Typical for the money-hungry Bali people!

Streets are not made for the huge amount of tourists

Even if the distances seem very close in Bali, it often takes forever to get from one point of the island to another. The roads are all very narrow and the island's traffic is not ready to cope with so many tourists. So the places in Bali are all far apart and there is hardly any public transport. So if you don't rent a car or a scooter (like me), you have a hard time. Some tourists even get home with a special "Bali tattoo", wounds they get from scooter accidents.

Annoying local people

While I found the people of Jakarta to be super-nice, it was rather the opposite in Bali. The Balinese are super pushy and only want to make money. Most of them can only say three words: "transport, massage, cheap". Those are the three words they yell out to tourists every time they see one - depending on whether it is a man or a woman.  During a tour, my friend only once looked at the souvenir of a saleswoman, and we couldn't get rid of her even after saying "no" for a dozens of times! So we kinda had to slam the car door in her face.

Sanur one of the nicer areas of Bali

On my last day in Bali I made a couchsurfing acquaintance, which showed me a more beautiful side of Bali. The beach of Sanur is located on the east side of the island and is more family-orientated. The beach was nice and quiet, only a few dogs made themselves comfortable next to us. It took more than 30 minutes to get there though. I reached the place by moto-taxi which quickly became uncomfortable in the passenger seat.

Nightlife of Bali

In the evening I went to La Favela, one of the most famous clubs. A chic designed club with great music on different dance floors. But the alcohol prices are quite high, so you pay, like everywhere in Indonesia, more than 10 € for a cocktail.

Bali suffers from overtourism

Certainly the island felt like a paradise about 20 years ago as it indeed offers some nice nature and culture, but nowadays the number of visitors literally exploded and Bali struggles with all the negative consequences of this tourist overflow. And I haven't even been there in the main season where there are many more tourists. The traffic is horrendous, the beaches often full garbage, the island full of annoying locals, drunk tourists and wannabe models who help hyping up the place by publishing enormously photoshopped pictures on Instagram which look far worse in reality.

Finally I was glad to leave Bali after 1 week and I could finally board my plane to Australia. For me Bali is the worst tourist hell and overhyped place I have ever visited. Still, everyone I know seems to visit it.

Summary of Indonesia

Even if I didn't like Bali at all, I had spent a great time in Jakarta. As so often, my experiences were exactly the opposite, what many people had told me before. I found the Indonesians very friendly and helpful, with the exception of Balinese people. Furthermore, I liked the cheap prices, the good food, the pleasant temperatures and the surprisingly good-looking women. So I'd like to come back to Indonesia because there's still a lot of beautiful places like the Komodo Island or the volcanoes on Java that I couldn't visit so far.