Road Trip at Land of Paradise, Bali

"We can't choose where we come from but we can choose where we go from there." ~unknown

Sunset at Kuta Beach

Who does not love Bali!! If you have never been to, you should!! At least once in your lifetime, then you will understand why I say so. Almost every part of Bali worth to be explored. From East to West, North to South.. You could just go on a road trip for a few days to do this. Well, what I think make Bali much more famous as compared to the other part of Indonesia is that they are really putting effort on the tourism part very well. Well done Pak Governor! Not only that a lot of places worth to be explored here in Bali, but also the locals are still taking care very much on their own cultures which made it very unique. From buildings (Pura), clothes, ceremony, etc, Bali is one whole package!

My mom is from Bali, precisely she was born in Buleleng district at Singaraja city. I used to be here quite often, but it was a long time ago when I was 4 years old which I could not really remember. So, practically this could be considered as my 'first time' stepped on Ball land, 20 years afterwards. My mom said Bali has a lot improvement within the last 20 years, but it was so much crowded than before. However, luckily, heritage culture is still very much the same with before which made it very special.

On top of that, you will see a lot of Caucasian people especially around south area. Almost all tourist are Caucasian people. You can see they ride their own bikes, motorcycles and cars, walking along the road freely. This is a very common view in Bali. Long time ago, my mom said there used to be a lot of nude people on the beaches, however recently it was prohibited by the government.

On my next post I am going to share my road trip for about 4 days 3 night exploring Bali, hopefully it could give some inspiration on your next holiday destination.

During this road trip, we cover quite many places, though not all of it as we only have few days to explore Bali. We went to Pura Taman Ayun, Tanah Lot, Ayodia at Nusa Dua, Pantai Jimbaran (Jimbaran beach), Pura Ulun Danau Bratan, Banjar Tegehe Buddhist Temple, Kintamani, Pantai Kuta (Kuta Beach), Pantai Seminyak (Seminyak Beach), Joger Shop and finally Toll Road (ByPass Road) at Benoa, Nusa Dua. Some other places we had no chance to visit were Pura Besakih (biggest Pura in Bali), Tampak Siring, Pura Uluwatu, Lovina Beach at Singaraja, Dreamland at Kuta, Ubud and many other places worth to explore which made it a reason to come back :). If you have watched the Julia Robert Movie, 'Eat, Pray, Love', there are some scenes they said played in Bali, however somehow I could no find all the beautiful places they said were played in Bali.

I have done many road trip throughout Java island, but I think I like more in Bali. These are my reasons:

- Almost 98% of the roads are properly maintained (much better than roads at Java island).

- Traffics are crowded smoothly, a.k.a even though it is quite crowded sometimes, we encounter almost no jam. (well, we sort of went to Bali after Hari Raya or Muslim Celebration Day, practically there were less tourist during this period)
- Beautiful view along the road as almost each houses or buildings has its own 'Pura' as a worship place.

However, I have some dislikes during our road trip in Bali:

- It has a lot of quite a sharp bend throughout road at mountain area (worse than Java). You could get some 'car sick' if you are not used to the road.

- The roads along mountain area are rather too small to fit 2 cars, especially with a lot of sharp bend, which made it rather not easy to drive along.

See you on my next post!