Denpasar

Getting from Lombok to Denpasar was something of a trial, entailing a taxi, slightly dodgy fastboat, sweaty shuttle bus, and another taxi. We narrowly escaped a scam at the Sanur harbour (always look for the guys wearing your transport vendor’s T-shirts!) and arrived at our accom in Denpasar slightly shell-shocked by the day’s travel and the traffic. Fortunately we’d booked a spot deep in Denpasar, far from the party scenes on Canggu and Seminyak.

This gave us quick access to the local’s parks, markets and temples, and we were of course extremely smug to be the only Europeans kicking around. It’s a trope of travel in Asia that Westerners get invited to weddings, but not us. We are clearly funeral people, and had to insist on our existing plans to get out of a multi-day funeral invitation issued by a taxi driver. We gave our condolences and he insisted that it was ‘Good to celebrate!’ 🤔

Another taxi driver was excited when we mentioned that we like spicy food. "How many spoons of chilli do you like?" He asked. We were a bit unsure, so we said 4-5. He proudly announced that his wife takes 10 spoons. Now we felt cheated by his arbitrary, schoolyard one-upmanship. How big are the spoons? How strong is the chilli? How much food are we mixing it into? What if his wife has a tiny spoon just so she can lord it over weak-stomached westerners? It all felt very unfair.

We only had one full day in Bali, as we had decided to mostly skip over the island. It is lovely and has great culture, but we only have one month and Indonesia is huge. So we're focusing on places that are harder to get to. Our Valentine's day visit included stops at the Pasar Badung market, the textile stores on Jl Sulawesi, the Bali Museum, the Jagatnatha Temple, and the park around the Bajra Sandhi monument. Luckily we could do most of this on foot – traffic in Denpasar is unpredictable, and we are somewhat dreading the notorious jams in Jakarta.

Some quick maths indicates a very tidy profit for Westerners running ‘boho chic’ Indonesian clothing import businesses. Chelsea bought an excellent floaty jumpsuit for £6, with only a small amount of haggling. All Westerners are perceived as mega-rich, with some justification, given that low level civil servants in Indonesia make £50 a month.

Overall, Indonesia is helping us to recoup some of the unholy expenditure from three weeks on the road in Australia. Long may it continue!Lue lisää