I had never been to Bali before!

I had been to Thailand for a month for xmas, and wanted to visit Bali for a few weeks, I booked as always a flight to Bali online via a USB dongle and Thai sim card for the net. I am not sure which site it was, though I booked the accommodation on line also, $14 a day got me a beautiful wooden chalet with a free moped to ride for the entire stay (plus a free massage on day 1). It was away from the commercial part, and that suits me fine.

It also included breakfast that was cooked outside, I ended up cooking it for a few days to show the chef how to make scrambled eggs and omelettes, as 1 fried egg with toast, no butter and ham was not my ideal choice of breakfast. The staff though were super friendly and great company on the nights.

Now not being in the tourist part and having a motorbike gave me and my travel companion the ideal excuse to travel around the entire Island, and that we did. The worst part was the last night for a guy we befriended from New Zealand, he wanted to go into the touristy part - we did and it was full of drunken tourists (mainly Aussies) all wanting a fight.

The owner of the complex took me to buy some art one day, I still have some of it here like below.

Relevance?

Whilst in the owners car on the way to the art and craft market I kept seeing buildings that had cafe written on the roof, so asked if they did English breakfast in them, and he laughed at me. I asked what was so funny to which he replied "tonight I take you cafe, and you see" - And so it was, we went to a cafe that only opens after dark!.

We entered and I noticed a door to the right in the entrance, inside were 30 - 50 young ladies doing makeup and getting changed - There was to be no food here! It turns out you take a settee style seat, and a young lady will sit either side of you, then when you order a drink it comes with two or 3 glasses, we were all on bottles of Guinness at around £1 a bottle (cheap) Every time you took a drink the ladies would also, then they refilled your glass and theirs. This was for locals, so they were shocked to see us Westerners in here, they were also not prepared to be drunk under the table!

They were not whores though, it is just a place for local men to get some company at night, when the wife is tucked up in bed. I paid the bill for 4 of us (men) and it came in at under $50, it was my treat for the gaffer taking us half way across the island to the art market earlier.

Rubbish beaches!

I have never seen so much rubbish on a beach before, it turns out Indonesia uses the ocean as a bin, and a lot of it washes up on Bali beaches, duckduckgo Bali beach images, and enter rubbish also, you will get the picture.

Whilst on the beach one day we met two young girls from Australia, it turns out they had not left their all inclusive complex for their entire stay, the weak as cats piss free drinks kept them amused, and the furthest they had been was sitting on this bit of beach tied to their hotel. (BORING)

Whilst on that beach a local came along selling bow and arrows, and blow dart pipes, the price was around $20 each, I asked how much for 100 of each delivered to my hut, and the price incredibly went down to £1 each, so I bought the 200 and got them shipped back after they were fumigated and packed, I sold them in the UK 6 - 8 weeks later for £25 to £50 each, and along with the art they paid for my 3 month holiday around Asia, taking in Hong Kong twice, Thailand twice, Bali, Singapore then Dubai twice.

You see - with a little imagination anything is possible, with an all inclusive package deal it is not, fly free my friends, the only limit is the one you pre imagine on yourself. BE FREEEEEEEEEEE.

Amusing!

When I arrived I had some local money sitting on top of my passport, I looked at the queue at immigration and passport control and walked up and down along side it, staring at the amount of people trying to get stamped into this tiny airport, whilst doing this I caught the eye of a corrupt immigration officer, who said he would relive me of the queue wait, for 2 of those notes on my passport, I handed him the money and my passport, plus my friends, and 2 minutes later I was in, the queue still had not moved, yet I was free to enter! ($9 was the fee).

The flight out was also amusing, it was delayed, and Air Asia decided to give us a free McDonald's as a bribe, they did not bother to ask what we wanted and just thrust a burger meal in everyone's hand, a cold one at that.

Due to this unforeseen 2 hour delay I got to meet a lot of Australians who were also leaving, the amount that had run out of money and not realized they had to pay airport duty or tax to leave, was more than two hands worth of fingers and thumbs. I helped out a few of them till I had no Bali money left, the rest though had to beg outside.

The moral of the story is? be prepared, travel free, place no restrictions on your mind, and the rest will fall into place, package holidays are safe, though the real fun is hanging with the natives, and that is just how I roll!

Verdict = Life is for living!

First image CC0 pixabay.