DSCF1927Wish you were here?

Bali doesn’t seem to be on the main backpacker circuit but that doesn’t mean it’s not possible to travel here cheaply. Yes, there are plenty of luxury villas and 5-star hotels if you have a few thousand dollars you want to blow through in a few days but it’s also possible to live and travel in a simpler (maybe nicer?) way. After all you can stay in a posh hotel anywhere in the world, but there is only one Bali…

Accommodation

P1020894The view from the bungalow/homestay I lived at in Ubud for several months. Not bad for $5 a night huh?

The prices of accommodation have tripled in the (nearly) 5 years I’ve been here and the days of having hundreds of $5 a night rooms to choose from are gone. However there are still plenty of bargains to be had if you’re willing to do a little looking around and if you’re planning to stay long term, you can still get great accommodation amazingly cheap.

If you’re travelling cheap, first forget the idea of a hotel. And forget hostels (well there are a couple ‘backpackers’ style accomodation options in Bali these days. Quite why you would choose sleeping in a dorm when you can have a beautiful room all to yourself i don’t know).

So budget accommodation in Bali = homestays. This sounds more exotic than it actually is – you’re not plonked in a room in a family home like you’re on exchange (although if you are interested in Balinese customs and culture and are friendly, you’ll certainly be invited to temporarily be part of the family) Balinese houses consist of several bungalows in a walled compound. As it’s normal for extended family to live together (sons never leave, wives join their sons family), normally each of these bungalows would be used for a different family. However in tourist areas they build a few extra bungalows for guests.

Homestays range from the very basic to pretty luxurious. In general you’ll get a nice spacious room with a double bed, a huge bathroom and a little porch where you can sit outside and watch the world go by. Most places include breakfast which is usually fruit and pancake or jaffle (toasted sandwich)

I can’t speak for the rest of Bali but even the most basic homestays with a small bed and cold water in Ubud start at around 150,000 rp these days. If you’re staying for a long time (say a month or more) you can usually haggle the price down. Also the further away you are from a major tourist town, the cheaper the accommodation is.

Food & Drink

DSC07766Eating Bali style!

As with most of Asia, it’s pretty easy to eat well here on the cheap. Bali lacks the variety of some other Asian cuisines (like Thai, sigh!) but it does at least have flavour (unlike the food in Vietnam, ahem). The trick to eating cheap is to stay out of the tourist restaurants where prices quickly add up.  I once ordered a small mineral water from a slightly pricey restaurant in Ubud and it cost me 30,000rp for a posh branded bottle instead of the 1,500rp it would have cost me in the convenience store for the most popular brand of mineral water here – Aqua.

Luckily, it’s easy to find plenty of local warungs (restaurants) even in the most touristy areas. Just follow the locals and you’ll be fine. the most usual options are nasi goreng (fried rice) mie goreng (fried noodles) cap cay (stir fried veg /soup), ayam goreng (fried chicken), padang (choose your own dishes from a selection displayed in the window on an impressively-balanced tower of plates) , bakso (meatball soup), and nasi campur (rice with a nice selection of meat, veg and tofu/tempe dishes)

When you’re starting to feel unhealthy from too much fried food, there’s always a market nearby to stock up on fresh fruit (but stay in the local section of the market and for gods sake, don’t buy anything at the tourist market in Ubud if you’re on a budget!). Juice stalls are common (you’ll see fruits and veggies stacked up in the window). Coconuts are also cheap and plentiful and taste great served with ice, lemon and honey. Again if you buy coconut juice (es kelapa muda) in a tourist restaurant, you’ll be paying a huge premium.

People are often worried about eating in the local places because they quite often look filthy. In general, the food is safer than it looks. The food in padang restaurants sits out for a long time but the spices stop it from spoiling (and it’s probably full of preservatives too but whatever). A good general rule is to see which places are busy with locals and they’ll generally be safe to eat at.

A good compromise is to eat at a more classy local place or one that specifically caters to tourists. If you’re in Ubud I can recommend Mangga Madu, Dewa Warung, and the nasi campur place by the petrol station in Peliatan for cheap and tasty eats that are tourist-friendly.

Sightseeing and Activities

P1030589Balinese cremation = free entertainment

You could spend a fortune in Bali doing tours but there really is no need. If you’re staying by the beach then you’ve got plenty of entertainment right there. Inland you have rice fields and jungles, great for exploring. There are free and cheap art galleries and museums everywhere. You must visit a few temples when you come here and they are all very cheap to visit as a tourist.

One of my favourite things to do when i first arrived here was just drive around the rice fields at sunset on the back of a motorbike. If you’re braver than me you can rent a bike for about 50k a day and just go exploring. The road up to Kintamani is a nice day trip from Ubud and easy on a motorbike. if you’re feeling energetic you can even try going by bicycle, although most people choose the option of paying for a tour that drops them at the top in a van so they can cycle downhill all the way back!

The best way to see a lot of Bali is to hire a car with a driver for a day and go wherever you like. This will set you back about 600,000rp (there are still people doing it for 500,000rp but petrol just went up by a third so don’t expect it to stay like that for long) but you can see so much and if you get a good driver you can learn so much more about Bali and its culture.

Ok I think i’ve rambled on here enough. So to sum up – Bali – a haven for budget travellers! Book your cheap flights and go!