Exploring Bali by Suzuki

Exploring Bali by car is the way to go (motorbike being the other way). I read travel guides where the stud older traveler goes on about meeting the people and riding a bicycle everywhere. If I lived in a Balinese village I’d ride a bicycle. If I want to explore Bali I will not be riding a bicycle and living in the Kuta / Seminyak area you can forget it. I see hopeful travellers riding bicycles in Seminyak looking majorly pissed off. The trafic is insane, the pollution intense, the sun a blow torch and the heat represive.

Renting a little Suzuki means you’ll have shade from the sun, AC on those super hot afternoons, a roof over your head when it raining and a means of carrying some gear. Recently I took a couple of wrong turns. I get a feeling about it when I run into one those typical Balinese routing situations. The map says the road goes straight through, when actually its a T-junction. In those cases I have to choose and sometimes get the feeling I should ask someone. Its not a problem and most people are glad to help.

Getting petrol is easy too. On main roads petrol station can be found and on windy local roads you will see rack of petrol in bottles, 5,000rp per liter. I grabbed 5 liters in Tejakula.

People often say they are scared too drive in Bali. I think that British people will have an easier time than Yanks for 2 reasons. Firstly the cars are all right hand drive, and secondly Bali demands that instinctual sharing of space you have to do in places with small streets. In the US everyone has his own lane, that’s not the case over here at all and sometimes you both have to share the same lane, timing a pass. Locals have their own game plan when it comes to driving, but also have seen enough crashes to know they don’t want to be in one.

After a little practice driving in Bali is quite easy.