Bali For Beginners – Insightful Observations To Both Frequent And First-Time Visitors

Bali has been romanticized so much that it’s almost impossible for first-­time travelers not to have any high expectations going in. The wonderful, and perhaps peculiar, thing about the place is it will both meet and not meet those expectations. This Indonesian island is a tropical paradise most famous for its beaches, local art, culture, and religion. It doesn’t have the same kind of grandeur and vaunted history of other destinations in neighboring Southeast Asian countries like Thailand and Cambodia. That’s just fine. This lack of scale and scope may be Bali’s best and biggest asset. In Bali everything is within easy reach. Its most popular beach, Kuta, is just 15 minutes away from the airport in the provincial capital of Denpasar. ‘The heart enclave of Ubud is a nice one-and-a-half-hour drive away. From there it’s only another 45 minutes to the Tanah Lot pilgrimage temple. And this is just the proverbial tip of the iceberg. The 5-kilometer Kuta Beach is said to be Bali’s best surfing spot. But it’s not only the surfboard -wielding and beach combing locals and foreigners who have claimed its fine, off-white sand and clean, light-green waters as their sanctuary by the sea. Everybody and everything else seems to converge in the area. And why not? Not only does it sit right next to the airport, it is also the most developed and commercialized spot in all of Bali.

The immediate area surrounding Kuta Beach is teeming with hotels big and small, from modest Inns to five-star accommodations. There is also a shopping center nearby. Kuta easily merges into Seruinyak, another popular commercial district that offers even more shopping, dining, and entertainment options. It’s so near, in fact, that anyone can just keep walking from Kuta and unknowingly find himself in Serninyak. This area is perhaps best known for its row of bars that come alive at night until the wee hours of morning.

A different kind of experience awaits travelers in Ubud, which has been immortalized in the Julia Roberts movie Eat Pray Love. This suburb is Bali’s art capital and offers a quieter and more soulful time. It is composed of several small villages that provide travelers more than a peek into Balinese art-small- to medium -size shops that sell anything from clothes and paintings, to silver accessories and other metal ware to wood carvings and paper-made products, and everything in between. Travelers exploring Ubud may consider checking out the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary. This jungle attraction is home to several holy temples and is a sanctuary for a band of gray-haired long-tailed Balinese macaques. Ubud is also home to some of Bali’s most scenic rice terraces.

Although incomparable to the breadth, width, and height of those in the Philippine Cordilleras, the sun-kissed rice paddies of Bali, like most of the island’s attractions, are winsome because of their accessibility. Visitors can easily opt to explore the fields on foot, breaking sweat not so much from the effort of climbing up and down and going around as from the heat of the sun, which makes the experience more immediate, more visceral, and more memorable than just viewing from a distance. The same kind of engagement can be experienced in many of Bali’s temples, including the ones in Taman Ayun outside of Ubud. Because they are not the imposing-monuments-of-stone types, they look and feel more real, more living, and less like they’re from a very long-ago time and place than their counterparts in neighboring countries. It is perhaps this same appeal that makes Tanah Lot one of the most visited places in Bali. This 15th-century-era temple sits on an offshore rock formation that is connected to a cliff overlooking part of the southern coast. To reach the temple, visitors take a leisurely stroll through a sprawling garden and promenade. The view is stunning especially at sunset. More adventurous guests can explore both ends of the cliff range and walk down the shore up until the waterfall on the rightmost edge, which is not officially part of the area’s attraction and is not readily visible to rather casual visitors.

More discerning travelers who want to avoid the madding crowd have the option of staying in Bali’s more upscale nooks. These include the gated Nusa Dua, which offers a host of water-based activities, and the Uluwatu area that offers more spectacular cliff-side views of the Indian Ocean.

Wherever one chooses to stay and whatever places to explore in Bali, one thing is certain: a trip to the island will confound expectations of first-­time travelers and continue to hold more surprises for frequent visitors. That’s the Bali charm.