Bali: The Land of Romance and Paradise

Bali, a place where people loves to go for romantic reasons, and we went for study, architectural study.


A few days before going, I checked on what to take note of travelling in Bali (and that's like the only thing I searched about beforehand), and these are what I've gathered (and confirmed to be true then).

#1. The yellow liquid in vodka bottles NOT TO DRINK.

We ain't vodka but petrol!

Because they have very very very little petrol stations in the rural areas.


#2. Hot sun = loads of sunblock >50spf
No kidding, lots of the guys who refused to apply sunblock "because they don't like to coat an extra stuff on their skin" got sunburnt and skin peeled off. And the only part of my body which wasn't covered or sunblock-ed - my scalp, was burnt lol, sounds ridiculous but yes, so bring something to cover your head too.

I can't even open my eyes properly even if I tried.

I can't even really see what's on the camera screen.


#3. Undrinkable tap water
So said that the tap water in bali isn't clean enough to drink even if you boil it, so unless you want to catch sickness or even not go back to your own place alive, don't try drinking tap water, buy bottled mineral water. It's really normal to be spending a lot on water there, adding to the scorching hot / water drenching sun that they have there.


#4. The Bali belly
Just be careful with what you consume and keep your hands clean and you should be fine, I got through the whole trip with no tummy sickness whatsoever, so yeah. But one of my friends did. And one other exception is unless your stomach got upset over all the chilli and spices they put in the food there, but that's only normal.

Probably the spiciest meal I had there, but it's really good.

Also, try not to have close interactions with the stray animals there because you don't know if they carry diseases, if you really want to help them, look up for the animal care organizations there (I know there's one but I forgot the name already).


#5. Bargaining and being courteous to buy if they agreed on your offered price

the Ubud market

Like Thailand, shopping in Bali at stalls and small shops means you will need to do some bargaining there because, trust me, most of them offer initial prices that are more than doubled up of what they will accept as a final selling price from you, DON'T BE SHY TO CUT DOWN THE PRICE but do be reasonable. My friends and I had fun bargaining and chit chatting with some of the sellers. Most stuff sold at one stall is similar to the other stall of the same kind, you can most probably find the same thing at a dozen different stalls. One thing to specially take note of, if you do not intend to buy, don't simply offer prices and if the seller agreed on your price, be courteous to buy it then, so think wisely and have your shopping there a good experience.


#6. The roadside "mushrooms".
They are not the ordinary mushrooms that we put in our dishes as food, I will say it's some sort of poison. Google about it if you want to know more. My advice from my experience is to just ignore and walk away from strangers calling out "mushroom" to you, and if they insist say 'NO' loud and clear and walk away (usually they don't insist if you show no interest).


And many many more things that one probably needs to know.

I will be sorting out more photos and hopefully posting my adventures there day by day, at random times.

Til then.