Bali travel guide
Interests
Activities
Bali's Processions
There you are sipping a coffee at a cafe in, say, Kuta or Ubud, when there's a crash of the gamelan and traffic screeches to a halt as a crowd of elegantly dressed people comes flying by bearing pyramids of fruit, tasselled parasols and a furred, masked Barong (mythical lion-dog creature) or two.
Diving
Legendary Pulau Menjangan thrills, one tank after another. It offers multiple types of diving around a protected island renowned for its coral walls. And that's just one of Bali's great dive sites.
Canggu's beaches
Canggu is more of an idea and really less of a distinct place, given that the area was all rice fields just a few years ago. But now it's a label that denotes sandy fun and frolic on beaches such as Batu Bolong, pounding surf offshore and nights you hope will never end at a fast-expanding collection of creative cafes.
Surfing Bali
If it's a month containing the letter 'r', go east; during other months, go west to fabled breaks like Padang Padang. Simplicity itself. On Bali you have dozens of great breaks in each direction. This was the first place in Asia where surfing took off and, like the perfect set, it shows no signs of calming down.
Bali's food
It shouldn't surprise that this fertile island provides a profusion of ingredients that combine to create fresh and aromatic dishes. Local specialities such as babi guling (roast suckling pig that's been marinated for hours in spices) will have you lining up again and again. Try lunch at one of the excellent Balinese cafes in Denpasar.
Snorkelling
Bali has oodles of places where you can slip on fins and a mask and enter another beautiful world. Swim a short distance from shore and see the eerie ghost of a sunken freighter at Tulamben or hover a few metres over the marine life around the beautiful reef wall at Pulau Menjangan.
Tips
Dress modestly before entering a temple in Bali. Temple guests are expected to wear shirts that cover shoulders and part of the upper arms. The waist and legs should be covered by a temple scarf (known as a selendang) and a sarong (known locally as kain kamben) respectively.
Don’t smoke in public areas. A “smoke-free” bylaw went into effect across Bali in 2011; smoking is now forbidden in most public areas, including restaurants, hotels, temples, and tourist attractions.
Trust only money changers that have been recognized by Bank Indonesia; these establishments advertise their status as Pedagang Valuta Asing Berizin or PVA Berizin (Indonesian for "Authorized Money Changer") with a green PVA Berizin shield where customers can see it.
The most honest taxis in Bali are the blue taxis marked "Bali Taxi" (known as Blue Bird Taxis); everybody else is hit or miss.
Drink a lot of water to avoid getting heatstroke. Just don’t get your water from the tap. Bali tap water is often blamed for many a bad case of “Bali belly,” so avoid it entirely. Stick to canned drinks or bottled water.
