Bali Travel - The Beginning
Screeech! The wheels of the plane smoked as I landed in Bali.
I’d finally done it, I'd touched down in Bali and the feeling of freedom washed over me. I headed to clear customs and pick up my baggage. It was quite a bit of weight carrying one normal backpack on the front, a 60L backpacker bag on my back, and a surfboard bag with 2 boards inside.
I had a friend that I had met in Vietnam who’d moved to Bali 2 months before me, he organised a taxi driver to pick me up. As I exited the airport and reached the outside I was faced with a sea of about 200 Indonesians, mostly looking for a fare.
My taxi driver was a bit late and I had no idea who he was, but a local man was happy to let me borrow his phone to call him. After 30 minutes or so he arrived and he took me to Palma Bed & Breakfast in Jimbaran, South Bali.
I was a late arrival but Lupe (the owner) was up and she gave me a friendly greeting. I slept upstairs in a 6 bed shared dorm for the night. I closed my eyes feeling very content and accomplished.
The next day my friend had also organised his scooter rental place to drop off a scooter for me. They came by and within 10 minutes I had a mode of transport, agreeing on AU$60 (600.000Rp) per month. Next I went to check out a place to rent in Jimbaran near Jalan Puri Gading (Jalan or Jl. means street).
It was small, colourful, had a small front garden and a nice outdoor shower out the back. It was very basic and had no hot water, but that didn't bother me as Bali is warm. It took me about 10 minutes to decide this will be perfect, and agreed on a price of AU$150 (1.500.000Rp) per month!
It was close to shops, markets, in amongst other local housing, and in a nice quiet area. I had to buy a mattress, gas bottle, cooker, fan and water dispenser but that was quite cheap. Not to mention the 2 Czech girls next door were very friendly people (:
Now that I had a home base, I just focused on surfing and exploring as much as possible while adapting to the Indonesian way of life. Balangan beach was the closest to me and I thought it was one of the most consistent breaks.
For the first few months I would surf nearly everyday, I was hooked! Uluwatu was generally the most crowded break, I guess due to its popularity. I surfed most the South Island breaks: Balangan, Dreamland, Bingin, Padang Padang, Uluwatu, Nyang Nyang, Greenball and Nusa Dua.
Nyang Nyang is a less popular secretive reef break located around the corner from Uluwatu on the bottom of the Island. The reason its less popular is because the roads to get there are quite rocky, then its followed by a walk down about 550 stairs. But it’s totally worth it!
Surfing Balangan
In amongst all the surfing, I was obviously eating! To be honest, while I was in Jimbaran I didn’t explore too many places to eat, because Jimbaran is quite spread out and a few warungs was enough for me (Warung = Local restaurant). “Stop Makan! – Campur Campur” was the warung I ate at the most, as they offered a good range of vegetables and rice.
I went to the local markets a few times to buy produce, but the range was small and I felt I was being overcharged. I eventually ended up shopping in Nirmala, which is a mini supermarket with a wide variety of fruits, vegetables and other necessities at a good price. I cooked a variety of stirfries, pasta dishes and soups a few nights per week and ate out at warungs the rest.
Compared to Australia, money lasted about 3-4 times longer in Indonesia. Don’t get me wrong you can definitely spend a lot of money too. Most people come to Bali and live it up large for 2-3 weeks to escape from their jobs while spending thousands of dollars. The amount of money they spent would last me a few months over there the way I was living.
I wasn’t living on the poverty line by any respect either, I was just living simple and minimalistic. In my eyes I was rich because I had freedom to be wherever I wanted, whenever I wanted. I had access to amazing beaches/breaks, and had no job dictating where, what and when I had to be.
Everything felt so quick and easy to achieve in Bali. The rules and regulations on most things are super relaxed; there isn’t a long winded process, 4 points of ID and a mountain of paperwork to complete. In fact in most cases a name, number and sometimes a scan/photo of your passport is enough.
I had a kos (small house) with necessities, a scooter, simcard/internet all organised within 3-4 days. By the end of the week I had a good idea of local warungs around me, and had already tried a few surf breaks.
Brief Cost of living
I’ll list the rough price of living when I was in Jimbaran 2015 below, keep in mind I was living quite minimalistic:
| Renting Kos | AU$150 (1.500.000Rp) | per month |
| Scooter Rental | AU$60 (600.000Rp) | per month |
| Electricity | AU$10 (100.000Rp) | per month |
| Food (avg.) | AU$50 (500.000Rp) | per week |
| Fuel | AU$5 (50.000Rp) | per week |
| Sim Internet 4GB | AU$12 (120.000Rp) | per recharge |
| Socializing (avg) | AU$40 (400.000Rp) | per week |
| Visa Renewal (avg) | AU$75 (750.000Rp) | per month |
In the first few months, I was partying occasionally. Every Sunday a group of us would head to Single Fin which is a massive bar/restaurant located in Uluwatu on the top of the cliff out looking the whole ocean.
Partying was a great way to meet a lot of people and have fun, but I was mainly in Indonesia to experience the culture, the people, the language and the way of life (not to mention partying/drinking is the quickest way to burn your money!). To be honest I met more people in just general travels then I did partying, which in most cases became stronger friendships.
Uluwatu sunset
If you're thinking about moving to Bali for an extended period of time, in my experience everything was super easy and I had little to no hassles setting myself up with 1 week!
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