How I went to winter in Bali: expectation and reality

blogger, coach, traveler

Today is exactly one month since I left for winter on a paradise island. Leaving my homeland, I thought that I was flying to the world of bounty, new meetings and opportunities. It turned out to be a little different. The beauty was with many nuances and challenges.

“If you need anything else, buy your own!”

My sister and I rented a two-bedroom apartment with a living room for €500 a month. This type of accommodation is called a “villa” here, although to me a villa is a detached house with a pool. The villa only had beds with made linens and two towels.

“If you need anything else, buy your own! We don’t have a washing machine. Here’s the phone number for the laundromat. They will come and take everything. It’s inexpensive,” was what a pudgy female landlord named Rosa told us as she greeted us at check-in.

“And yes, you may have a power outage soon. The payment is on you, too. That white wooden box is the meter. Don’t forget to take a picture of your personal account when you go to the bank to pay.”

“But there aren’t even basic dishes and chairs here! – We tried to defend our rights, “This is a lack of care for customers!”

“Okay. I’ll bring you two glasses, two forks, two spoons, two plates, two chairs. Everything else you buy yourself,” the lush Rosa disappeared imperceptibly into space.

We started asking her husband Made where we could buy everything we needed. And he volunteered to take us to the nearest grocery and hardware store.

Most Balinese stores are a quest for the brain. Some of them have dairy products and fruits, while others sell nothing but chips, Doshirak and obscure items.

It’s like a game of “edible – inedible. Necessary – unnecessary.”

You look at the departments with strange plastic bags and ask yourself: Is this edible? Do I need this? More often than not, the answer is “No,” since you don’t know what it is or why. Who and what most of the goods from the counters are sold for is still a mystery to me.

The first night in the apartment proved to be full of surprises. With the onset of darkness on the walls began to appear nocturnal guests – geckos, communicating with each other, making sounds similar to hiccups or burps. And huge tropical cockroaches. Against the white walls and ceiling, all the dark moving objects were especially bright.

And while the hiccuping geckos seemed quite cute, the guests pointing their whiskers toward my bed and suitcase caused panic and slight paralysis.

I picked up my phone and started taking pictures of what was happening. Then I sent the pictures to Rosa on WhatsApp.

To which I received a short reply, “You live in a tropical country. It’s normal. Buy cockroach repellent at the store and pour it in the bathroom. They come in through the sewer system.”

Next came pictures of bags with incomprehensible labels that are sold in grocery stores. And which I couldn’t recognize when I played the game “Edible – Inedible. Necessary-unnecessary.” After a couple days, the cockroaches were gone.

A couple of times giant beetles, resembling May beetles and exceeding them in size, flew into my house. Then they found the window on their own and left my space.

“Ocean view at a restaurant for the price of dinner for two.”

They’re here at every turn. All tastes and budgets. Lots of healthy and vegan cuisine. And there are also restaurants opened by Russian entrepreneurs, with cheesecakes, borscht, dumplings, pancakes and pies.

Almost every restaurant has home delivery. In the season of tropical downpours this is quite relevant.

Going to a Balinese restaurant, it is worth remembering a few things:

1. The price for food is listed without taxes and service charges. They make up another 10% and 15%. Therefore, if something initially seems quite affordable and light, in the final bill everything can increase by 25%.
2. If you don’t like spicy and sweet, you should say so right away. No sugar, No spicy. The Balinese love sugar and put it even in freshly squeezed juices to make it even tastier. In coffee and tea, too. Spicy sauces automatically go with every dish. But pepper can also be added just for fun, out of the goodness of their hearts.
3. Some restaurants have vegan sweets with coconut sugar. You just have to ask about it.
4. If you go to a restaurant in the evening, put bug spray on your legs. Then you’ll stay nice and healthy. Mosquitoes and gnats will get away from you. In pharmacies there is a huge choice of means.
5. In some restaurants you need to pay separately for a view of the ocean. The price for the opportunity to admire the beautiful sometimes exceeds the cost of dinner for two.

“Sat on a rock for 15 minutes because I didn’t want to be photographed.”

Almost all beaches are paid for. For the entrance you have to pay a small amount of money in the neighborhood of 30 rubles per person. And this does not always guarantee the availability of showers, changing booths and toilets. Sometimes they are paid separately, as well as the sunbeds with umbrellas.

The presence of the ocean on the beach is also not guaranteed, as the water level changes several times a day and still depends on the lunar cycle. In the morning the ocean can be shallow, and by evening the water can reach its maximum. The clarity and transparency of the water is also very variable. Sometimes it is a perfectly blue ocean, other times it is full of plastic and trash. Every trip to the beach is a surprise.

Local tourism is developed in the country. So be prepared for massive delegations from Java. They come to the beach as to a museum or theater, do not bathe, but take pictures with white tourists.

European women are especially enthusiastic. Why they are Muslim women, I have never been able to understand. Probably as an opportunity to see the other world and show it to their girlfriends when they return.

I remember sitting for 15 minutes on a rock with my arms around my knees as I didn’t want to be photographed full-length.

There were women walking around me, wrapped head to toe in headscarves, with cell phones, shouting, “Please, a photo!”

The men didn’t even ask permission. But since I knew it was a delegation of tourists and would be leaving soon, I just waited for it to happen. Inside me was peace and the knowledge that this too would soon pass.

The beauty of Balinese nature, the scents of flowers, the kindness and cordiality of the locals, and meeting like-minded people override all other nuances. You become calmer, more accepting of people with their oddities and quirks.

You just let things happen, realizing that everything changes like the level of water in the ocean. And all the bad emotions and unpleasant impressions will be washed away by an unexpected tropical downpour. You know that in a few minutes there will be a new reality, new people, new scenery, new you.