Bali is the Australians' favorite island, or as some say, the Australians' Mallorca. I'm really excited because I know Mallorca all too well. What awaits me here, booked a room through Airbnb with a photographer and a model who have just settled in Bali and want to build their business here. It sounds strange to me, but from Mallorca.
Once we got off the plane, we went through passport control very quickly and went outside and found our way to the accommodation. In Bali you drive Grab, which is a taxi app where you can enter your destination and immediately see your driver and the price. Actually very simple and, above all, safe, since the system also knows who is driving with whom and where. But probably too easy for Germany, therefore forbidden, to put it briefly. For a taxi ride of almost an hour, 130,000 IDR (approx. 8.30 euros) is very cheap, especially since the driver also looks for the house with me and provides his WiFi via his cell phone.
My landlord is probably already asleep, but he has described everything well where I can find the keys and my room. And that's how it is, a nice, clean room with a very new box spring bed, very comfortable. But it's still very warm at night, so I put the fan on first. The next morning I met my landlords in person and were shown everything important in the house. Sam the photographer then offered to take me to get a cell phone card for the internet and look for a scooter, because if you want to explore the island you need a scooter and internet.
I got both very quickly, 21 GB of data with fast internet and a nice 125 cc scooter, so we can get started. My first ride in left-hand traffic, I have to say, it's not difficult at all to just follow the 200 other scooters and just watch and stay in the flow. The rules here are almost self-explanatory: pay attention to the people in front of you and don't drive into them. I think it's going quite well, everyone shows a little consideration for others and finds their own way. So far so good, but what are all the free-roaming dogs doing here? Do they know the rules? Yes, they seem to know the rules. Not a single dog was seen and everyone seems to pay attention to the vehicles before they cross the street, great.
The next day it was time for a first beach shoot in Bali, of course with a local model, who was easy to find thanks to Instagram. The advantage of local models is that they know the most beautiful and best beaches. And so after what felt like 30 minutes of walking downhill I ended up on a kilometer long sandy beach with no trash, only 2 people and 7 cows here, great. But how it is, if you go downhill for 30 minutes, you have to go back up again, I tell you, hell at 30 degrees, now I know why there are no people down there.
But the pictures were worth it. Thanks to my model for the location and the pictures. In the evening there was a shoot at a beautiful beach club at sunset by the sea, what a great sight. What's particularly striking again are the people here, everyone is friendly to others, whether they're locals or holidaymakers, I didn't even notice that people were arguing. Bali is certainly a very beautiful travel destination, but there are also dark sides here, people have a garbage problem, there is no recycling, everyone burns their garbage in the garden or simply throws it into a hole in the ground. Here governments and companies would again have an opportunity to do something sustainably for the environment, not like the German government with an additional environmental tax.
What else is there to say about Bali? Of course, it is still very cheap at the moment, but that will change. You can ride a scooter from the south to the north in three hours, driving along serpentines that any motorcyclist would be happy about. The view is fabulous and you often find these PLACES where you can have a cafe and take these pictures.
But what I have learned to particularly appreciate here are the great people, they have very little themselves and are still very helpful without asking for anything in return, people still believe in karma here. The landscape could certainly be one of the most beautiful in this area if it weren't for the garbage lying around everywhere, which is a shame in my opinion. But I will definitely visit this country again and then stay in one place a little longer, but for me now I'm going to Nusa Penida and Lombok. In my next blog post you can read about what bad things happened to me there, exactly on December 24th.
Until then, I wish you a great time, wherever you are and whatever you do, enjoy it.
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