eats and villas

Eat:

Bali has a huge variety of cafes and restaurants, serving both Indonesian and international food; see Indonesia for a menu reader. For better or worse, some American chains have established a presence here, although almost exclusively confined to the southern tourist areas. You’ll see KFC, McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, and Starbuck’s Coffee. Interestingly, the menus are often highly adapted to the local tastes. The menu at Pizza Hut looks nothing like one you’ll find in the U.S. Try the smaller local restaurants rather than touristy ones, the food is better — and cheaper. Be sure to try the ubiquitous Indonesian dishes nasi goreng (fried rice) and mie goreng (fried noodles). These dishes should rarely cost more than Rp 25,000 (sometimes a bit more if you add chicken — ayam — or shrimp — udang), so their cost on a menu can be a good indicator of a restaurant’s relative cost and value.

Some of the most authentic food can be found from roving vendors called kaki lima, which means “five legs.” This comprises the three legs of the food cart and the vendor’s own two legs. Go to the beaches of Seminyak at sunset and find steaming hot bakso, a delightful meatball and noodle soup, served up fresh for a very inexpensive Rp 5,000. You can season it yourself, but be forewarned: Indonesian spices can be ferociously hot. Go easy until you find your heat tolerance level!

Actual Balinese food is common on the island, but it has made few inroads in the rest of the country due to its emphasis on pork, which is anathema to the largely Muslim population in the rest of the country. Notable dishes include:

- Babi guling, roast suckling pig, a large ceremonial dish that must usually be ordered several days in advance.

- Bebek betutu, literally “darkened duck”, topped with a herb paste and roasted in banana leaves. The same method can also be used for chicken, resulting in ayam betutu.

- Lawar, covers a range of Balinese salads, usually involving thinly chopped vegetables, minced meat, coconut and spices. Traditionally, blood is mixed into this dish, but it’s often omitted for tourists’ delicate constitutions. Green beans and chicken are a particularly common combination.

- Sate lilit, minced seafood satay, served wrapped around a twig of lemongrass.
- Urutan, Balinese spicy sausage, made from pork.
- Grilled Chicken with Sliced Shallot Chilie and Lime (Ayam Panggang bumbu bawang mentah).

- Grilled Chicken with Red Chilie and Shrimp Paste Sauce (Ayam Panggang bumbu merah).
- Steam Chicken Cooked with Balinese Herb and Spicy (Ayam Tutu).
- Steam Duck Cooked with Balinese Herb and Spicy (Bebek Tutu).

- Mince Chicken with Shredded Rind combine with Spicy Sauce (Lawar Ayam, Klungah, Buah Kacang).
- Sliced Chicken mixed with Herbs and Spices Steam in Banana Leaf (Tim Ayam / Ketopot).

- Grilled Snaper (Ikan Bakar Bumbu Terasi).
- Special Balinese Salted Dry Fish (Sudang Lepet).
- Sliced Fish mixed with Herbs and Spices Wrap in Banana Leaf (Pepes Ikan Laut).
- Special Mixed Vegetables from Klungkung (Serombotan ala Klungkung).
- Water Cres with Shrimp Paste and Lime (Pelecing Kangkung).
- Fern Tip Vegetables with Shrimp Paste and Lime (Pelecing Paku).

Sleep:

Bali has, without a doubt, the best range of accommodation in Indonesia, from the $3-a-night losmens on Poppies Lane in Kuta to the $4,300-a-night residences at the Begawan Giri in Ubud. Backpackers tend to head for Kuta, which has the cheapest if also dingiest digs on the island, while many (but not all) five-star resorts are clustered in Nusa Dua. Seminyak, Sanur and Jimbaran offer a fairly happy compromise if you want beaches, nightlife and some quiet, while Ubud’s hotels and resorts cater to those who prefer spas and cultural pursuits over surfing and booze. Legian is situated between Kuta and Seminyak and offers good range of accommodations. Further north on the west coast, and mid way between Seminyak and Ubud is the district of Canggu, which offers many traditional villages set among undulating ricefields. For rest and revitalization visit Amed, a peaceful fishing village on the East Coast with some good hotels and restaurants.

Thanks to Bali’s balmy climate, many villas and bungalows offer open-air bathrooms, often set in a lush garden. They look amazing and are definitely a very Balinese experience, but may also shelter little uninvited guests and are best avoided if you have low tolerance for critters.

Villas:

One accommodation option for which the island is becoming increasingly famous for is private villas complete with staff, although not every place sold as a “villa” actually fits the bill. Prices vary widely: some operators claim to go as low as $30/night, but realistically you’ll be looking at upwards of $200/night for anything with a decent location and a private pool, and at the top of range nightly rents can easily go north of $1,000/night.

Villas in Bali mostly found around the greater Seminyak area on the west coast (Seminyak, Umalas, Canggu), on the east coast around Sanur and in the inner regions such as the hill town of Ubud and rarely found in the Nusa Dua area (peninsula)which is more famous for hi-end resort complex of international chain hotels, but other portions of the bukit, such as Uluwatu are seeing more and more villas come on line. Competition is fierce, but larger and more established villa agencies include Elite Havens, established in 1998, and BHM (Bali Homes Management). There is also another very nice set of villas close to Mt. Agung – Mahagiri Resorts.

Long-term:

For long-term stays, it’s worth considering long-term rentals, which can be as low as US$4,000/year including a driver. Western-run agencies include the Moran Fraser Group. Restaurants and bars frequented by Bali’s sizable expatriate community, particularly in Sanur and Ubud, are good places to find information about long-term rentals. Look for a bulletin board with properties’ advertisements tacked up, or pick up a copy of the expat’s local publication, The Bali Advertiser. It’s not hard to find a nice house in the $350-450 range for a month’s stay.

Stay safe:

Bali has been the scene of lethal terrorist bombings in 2002 and 2005, both waves of attacks targeting nightclubs and restaurants popular among foreign visitors. Security is consequently tight in obvious targets, but it is of course impossible to protect fully against terrorism. If it is any reassurance, the Balinese themselves — who depend on tourism for their livelihood — deplore the bombings and the terrorists behind them for the terrible suffering they have caused on this peaceful island. As a visitor, it is important to put the risk in perspective: the sad fact is that Bali’s roads are, statistically, far more dangerous than even the deadliest bomb. It is still prudent to avoid high profile western hang-outs, especially those without security measures, and the paranoid or just security-conscious may wish to head out of the tourist enclaves of south Bali to elsewhere on the island.

Bali is increasingly enforcing Indonesia’s harsh penalties against importation, exportation, trafficking and possession of illegal drugs, including marijuana, ecstasy and heroin. Several high profile arrests of Westerners have taken place in Bali since 2004, and a number have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms or execution. Even the possession of a small amount of drugs for personal use puts you at risk of a trial and prison sentence if searched. Watch out for seemingly harmless street vendors looking to sell you drugs (marijuana,cocaine, etc.). More often than not they are undercover police and will try to sell you drugs so that they can then get uniformed officers onto you and demand a bribe to let you go.

In Bali if you see a red flag planted in the sand, do not swim there: they are a warning for dangerous rip currents. These currents can pull you out to sea with alarming speed, and even the strongest swimmers cannot swim against them — the thing to do is to stay calm and swim sideways (along the shore) until out of it, then head for the shore.

Last but not least, be wary around the monkeys that infest many temples (most notably Uluwatu and Ubud’s Monkey Forest). They are experts at stealing possessions like glasses, small cameras and even handbags, and have been known to attack people carrying food. Feeding them is just asking for trouble.

Stay healthy:

The midday sun in Bali will fry the unwary traveller to a crisp, so slap on plenty of suntan lotion and drink lots of fluids. However, don’t carry liters of water as you can buy a bottle virtually anywhere. The locals tend to stay away from the beaches until about two hours before sunset, when most of the fierceness has gone out of the sun.

Get out:

- Boat services run regularly to Lombok, Flores, and islands further east. Combined bus and ferry service will take you to Java destinations such as Yogyakarta, though the trip can be long on winding jungle lined roads.

- Less than one hour, at the south-east of Bali lies Nusa Lembongan. From Sanur a ferry service can take you to this small and beautiful island. This island is a good place to go one or two days, if you want to get out of the touristic area from Bali. Along the beach you can find many small and cheap Homestays. Be aware you get wet feet getting in or out the ferry. And the island doesn´t have a Money Machine or Bank. Many people on this island live from farming seaweed. And the acres with the different coloured seaweed, just under the sealevel, makes a beautiful view.

- Yogyakarta has convenient air service from Bali on Garuda with scheduled service early in the morning and late in the evening, making it possible to have a full day of sight seeing in Prambanan and Borobudur and still make it back to your hotel in Bali in time for bed.

- Komodo, is an island and national park in East Nusa Tenggara. The island is famous for its komodo dragon (giant lizard).