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Every morning, like most of you, unlock my phone and start an almost endless cycle of moving through social networks. The first image that appears is from a young and attractive woman in a swimsuit posing by a pool. Bali Another one is from an impressive entrance door of the temple. Bali A third image makes you look on rice fields on terraces with no other soul in sight. Again, it’s Bali.
I think it is fair to say that Bali has been very popular in recent years. The images you see every day are enough to enliven the embers of passion for trips on almost any person. Upon leaving Australia, Bali was the place I expected the most. From what I had seen and read in several travel publications, Bali was paradise.
For those who do not know, or want a little background, Bali is an Indonesian tropical island just a few hours from the west coast of Australia. With dramatic and active volcanoes, thousands of temples, jungles, beaches and tourist towns, it could be said that this small island really has everything.
Despite all his fame and good appearance, there is a side of Bali that you do not see. Well, at least until you arrived and only then you ask yourself if you have a stop too early. It is not a side that is really shared on social networks. Who means to his friends that the fate of his vacation or the travel destination was less than impressive? We live in a world now where, apparently, there are no negatives.
Before starting and being honest with my feelings about Bali, I have to provide some warnings. I only visited Bali for two weeks. I stayed in Ubud in a stay at home before staying in Seminyak in a hotel. During my time there, I visited several places, but there are many areas of Bali that I just didn’t venture. Therefore, my views are simply that; They are mine. I do not intend to seem unpleasant or anything like that. I just want to share the Bali side that you don’t see on social networks. For those who plan to visit the island, this publication is intended to ensure that your view is balanced. I have spoken with many people when preparing this publication that they have suggested that they simply did not expect Bali to be as they found.
What I didn’t like
Well. You probably have the image now that I did not fall in love with Bali. There were aspects that I liked, of course, but, unfortunately, these were overcome by the negatives.
1. Bali is busy
I think that busy is a great euphemism. I am not calling Bali, since its economy depends on tourism, but, year after year, the number of visitors has increased without current infrastructure. Bali cannot face more than 4 million visitors a year. It is no secret that Bali’s roads are very congested. On a typical day in Ubud, the cultural center, each road inside and outside is full of stagnation traffic. You cannot get anywhere without walking and without breathing contaminated air.
The Ubud that was portrayed in ‘Eat Pray Love’ is the Ubud that we all come to see, but we have not realized that we have destroyed it simply being there. It is no longer a peaceful retreat from the jungle. It is full of tourists who come for the coach’s charge, which adds to a chaotic city. The same applies to Seminyak, the most northwest of the enormous extension of Urban City that extends from Kuta. Every night, as you approach sunset, there are literally thousands of tourists who go to beach clubs in the market to fight each other just to have a drink. All roads, again, are full of taxis. Cyclomotores take the small paths that exist only to try to overcome traffic. The temples on the other side of the island that take a few hours to arrive are also filled simply to take a photo and leave.
2. Touts
With the increase in tourism comes increasing forms for locals to win money. I agree that the local Balinese people should take advantage of this, but I fear that the edge of.
I have only some examples. First, when walking any street in Bali, I can almost guarantee that you will not have a peace of moments. There will be constant shouts of ‘taxi’ or ‘massage’ much more than other places in Southeast Asia. It is often “strongly persuaded” to enter tourist gift stores. Just leave me in peace please. Everywhere, someone is selling something. I did not visit the Talalang rice terraces for this reason. I have heard that you have to pay initially to enter. Then there are additional payments to ‘personal’ to progress on the terraces. I am also sure that to get those photos you see on social networks with a sign of ‘Amo Bali’ in the background or balanced on the rice terraces, you have to pay. Ah, and you may have to stop in a tail full of tourists who die to get an identical image for their camera roll.
I mentioned an impressive entrance door of the top temple that really is just a golf complex. A person decided to take a photo, publish it on Instagram and now receive a constant flow of visitors. There are guards who charge you for a ‘selfie ticket’ and an orderly tail for you to take your photo. I complained but our driver took us there on a tour of the island; I am also part of the problem.
If you also want to move through Bali, the best way is to hire your own driver for the day. Public transport is practically non -existent and taxis are often controlled by ‘mafia’ to keep the highest prices. A taxi that we attributed to us tried to charge us $ 20 to go five minutes in the future.
3. Is this Magaluf?
There are many people who love to drink in oblivion in the Magaluf or Malia strip. However, I am not one of them. I love some beers and a few whiskey and coca -I just night, but I didn’t expect Bali to be a party island. He had now heard that Australia’s love went to Bali for a weekend (for those on the west coast, he is closer than Sydney) and that some like to party in Kuta. I avoided Kuta for this reason. However, as I said before, the urban area has become a metropolis where there is no apparent division between Kuta, Legian and Seminyak.
Seminyak is apparently a more up -to -date complex, but once the Australians descended on it, it was not different from the ‘British abroad’ descending on Magaluf. It probably did not help my hotel room in Seminyak to see a nightclub directly that remained open until 6 in the morning. I am in my veins; No (Leo: I can’t) make nights like that. While we talk about alcohol, it takes me to my next point.
4. Alcohol is expensive
Not so much negative, but something I did not expect. I suppose that with the growing demand comes the increase in prices. We are talking about prices that the English would find expensive and the Australians are a bit cheaper than normal. Of course, everything depends on where I am drinking, but I found it more expensive than I thought it would be and had just spent nine months in Australia.
5. Contamination
So this is where it gets interesting. All of the above could be taken in any way and cannot put a shock absorber on your particular visit to Bali. However, there is one thing that cannot be ignored and that is the amount of garbage discarded throughout the place. The rivers that will eventually be emptied in the Seminayak sea were full of plastic bottles, plastic bags and general garbage. In addition to that, I’m afraid they absolutely stink raw wastewater. I have read before, although I cannot find where now that the sea around Seminyak has been classified as raw wastewater. It is not that he wants to swim in him anywhere thanks to the notorious currents of hangover. I found that Bali was incredibly dirty and I can honestly say that I felt cleaner in Bangkok; A notoriously contaminated city.
As if Bali was not occupied enough, new hotels and beach clubs are being built where there is space. Construction work does not stop on weekends, they often run late at night. One of the graffiti slogans that I saw simply said ‘Make this land again’. I think tourism is a double -edged sword. Bali needs tourists to survive and generate income, but tourism, in my opinion, has ruined the island. Unfortunately, it seems that Bali cannot offer a clean land and a paradise for millions of millions. I am not sure that many places can.
6. The food
I loved the food, I really did it, but finding authentic Indonesian food or other Asian food was not as easy as I thought it would be. Restaurants attend to the market, namely Australians. Almost everywhere you can find climbing eggs and ‘avo’ broken in toasted fermented dough or sarracene wheat pancakes. Do not be misunderstood, I ate these things and enjoyed them a lot. However, I cannot describe the feeling, but it was not the bali that I thought.
However, what I loved was Nasi Goreng, Babi Guling, Balinese Rons and Rice; Authentic true Indonesian food.
7. Rich and poor
When you venture outside the tourist cities, you really understand how poor are some balls. It hurts to see five -star luxury resorts in Ubud and its surroundings that cost thousands of pounds to remain in poverty and many Balinés still live in poverty. Many stay in these resorts comfortably when literally a couple of hundreds of meters away, the true bali is exposed so that everyone sees it.
Conclusion
As I said before, what I have outlined above can be your idea of traveling the sky, but I really feel that my honest views on Bali need to be shared. The images can shed a little more light on what I mean if I don’t have my points. In one, you can see a row of often promoted stores as one of Instagram’s most “things (God who hates that term) in Bali. However, everything is dirty, deteriorated and quite disheveled.
While I enjoyed my time in Bali, there were aspects that I didn’t like and I will probably not come back. There are many others who also share that opinion. However, the question that I continue to ask myself is if I did not like Bali or if I did not like the ‘trips’ version of some people. These days it seems much more important to portray a place as perfect for gratification in the form of tastes. Not many want to share their honest points if those opinions are negative and I feel that is wrong. If I had known what I now know and had seen the side of Bali that you don’t see, maybe I would never have gone. Maybe I would. All I know is that there are two sides for each story and that must be shared.
I appreciate your thoughts about this publication. Let me know what you think of the comments below. I totally accept that many will have a completely different vision and I am sure they will accept that I have mine.
If you liked ‘the Bali side, you don’t see’ why not fix the images below?
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