TheDromomaniac.com

     Normally, I check out Google News and search by the town or country I am visiting to see what is going on. Maybe there is a film festival coming or a hot local topic people are stirred up about, but every time I look at what is going on in Bali, I get agitated, like this story about “stingy tourists” (i.e. backpackers) not helping the local economy. Here are it’s most salient points:
     —Tourism Board chairman Ida Bagus Ngurah Wijaya said stingy tourists are overcrowding Bali, and residents who rely on tourism for their livelihoods are not reaping the benefits. “It’s ironic. We want people to come but when they come we have serious problems of traffic and waste. The island becomes dirty," he said.
     —However, their average length of stay has fallen from a week to three or four days, while daily spending has decreased from $300 ten years ago to $100, Ngurah said.
     —Bali has begun to lose its cultural charm and exclusivity due to the crowded conditions, he said, driving away “quality tourists" like those from Europe.

     I don’t believe the $300, but if I did, it means I’m staying in a big international hotel, brunching at Starbucks, dining in exotic ethnic restaurants presumably not owned by an Indonesian, and probably going on excursions provided by the hotel. How is that helping local people?
     There’s only one benefit: those places employ locals. They employ them at dead-end, dirt-low wages, but even the salary argument aside, look at the difference with us “stingy travelers”. We stay with local families in guest houses and homestays and eat in Indonesian or locally-owned restaurants—the money’s not leaving the country, it’s not even leaving town. Even better, we are helping to grow local businesses, which is more of a future than a service job—big difference. Again, we can debate the effects of increased tourism on the local community until the cows come home, but don’t deride us unwashed backpackers so quickly.
     I’m making this black and white for the sake of argument and tourism here is spiralling out of control from its own success despite the arrival numbers, but my point is that money that is spent locally helps grow local economies. Money spent the Bali Tourism Board’s pipedream way is all leaving the country except for taxes that somehow disappear. Have you been to Ubud lately, Bali Tourism Board? Ubud is probably my favorite place in Bali, but it has several fundamental flaws. The biggest one is ironic, that you have to get outside of the town center to enjoy it. If you don’t, you’ll be swallowed up by the endless gelato shops, Mexican restaurants and fifi bars. The Ubud of today is of a wretched infrastructure: crumbling sidewalks, poor lighting, no garbage cans—where is the tourism tax money going?
     The most ridiculous assertion from the Bali Tourism Board is that somehow we non-Europeans are responsible for the traffic and waste. If there was something resembling a transit system, foreigners would gladly take it to avoid the rapacious taxi drivers, and I feel comfortable in saying that no tourists are littering, or more to the point, if we ever saw a garbage can, we would use it.

     'Strictly forbidden to throw garbage here'

Traveling
     There’s construction at the airport now, but it’s not far, maybe 400 meters, to walk straight ahead out of the parking lot and to the one road leading north. Then you need to go right at the first street and walk to a bigger north-south main road (or go with one of the motorcycle guys offering transport) where you can find a bemo/bus that will take you to Denpasar for 10,000 rupiah or closer to 5000 if you have a sympathetic local person haggle for you. You’ll need to get another bemo to another part of Denpasar, Batubulan, to take another bemo to Ubud because, you know, we tourists love making traffic and the taxi mafia can’t allow a decent public transit system that would connect the two main places tourists go and the cheapest shuttle companies aren’t allowed to do airport pick-ups.
     Sorry, I digress.
     I was a little impatient last time, but there is a stretch right after the place where everyone pays for parking which would be a great spot to hitchhike. It wouldn’t be so unheard of to get a ride all the way to Ubud since I imagine lots of drop-offs are being done all day. In fact, keep an open mind. If someone is driving to Amed or Padang Bai, take it. It’s easier to hitch back to Ubud from there.

Sleeping
     OK, so you already in a bad mood when you get to Ubud and then you are bewildered by your sleeping options. It used to be that you wanted to stay near the market, but that has been turned on its head and travelers with some money want distance from the center to get some tranquility, so now, generally, the cheapest places are…near the market!
     The best place to start is to walk east from the market, take the first street on the left, Jalan Sriwedari, and then check the first few homestays on the right. Remember to bargain for a room without breakfast and if you are staying multiple days, work that angle, too. I bet you can get something for 70,000 if you are alone. I stayed in that area two years ago. I would go check rates, but looking at homestays isn’t my idea of a good time. It’s hot today!
     Another area that has cheap sleeps and everything else you’ll need are the three roads parallel to the east of Jalan Hanoman. (I saw internet on Jalan Sugriwa for 5000/hour, the best I’ve seen.) If you are coming from the Perama shuttle stop or are being dropped off in southern Ubud, it’s within walking distance.

Eating
     This is easy, and you aren’t going to suffer by eating cheaply. On every little side road there is bound to be a stall that sells basic goods and then a basket of these balls in the photo below of food wrapped in banana leaves or butcher paper is about 3000 rupiah. You can add little portions of stuffed tofu and fried tempeh for only 1000, though a concerned citizen has suggested I should go easy on the soy due to this study about adverse sexual side effects.
     I had 10 small sticks of chicken satay with lontong for 11000 and for snackers, you can find thick chunks of tasty tempeh bacem for 3000 at most, thin slices of fruit for 1000, little packs of highly addictive singkong chips are 1000, etc.
     1.5 liter bottles of water are cheapest at the many Delta Dewasa convenience stores for 2500, then you can refill them at Bali Buddha market/restaurant or the library by the soccer field for 1500-2000 rupiah.

     This is a little overkill: pork, chicken AND tuna, but it's still 8000 rupiah, less than a dollar.

Sightseeing
     Two things I like to visit are the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary (any time you see the words “sacred” or “sanctuary”, watch your wallet) and the beautiful Tegallalang rice terraces. Who doesn’t love monkeys and rice terraces?
     To see the 20,000 rupiah Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary for free, there are two entrances in the front and one in the back, but from the front, if you follow the motorbike path on the left, where it makes a sharp right turn you’ll see a sidewalk that leads back into the forest.
     To check out the rice terraces 10km north in Tegallalang you can do two things: take a cheap bemo from the market to Gentong and then hitch or walk the few kilometers from there or, walk from the market on the main road heading east to where it comes to a “T” at the stoplight, go left, walk just past the big supermarket and police station, and hitchhike from there. There’s only one road north, but it’s nonstop shops and not the easiest route to hitch. Hitching back is much easier.

     Love the monkeys, fear getting bit by them.

     Tegallalang rice terraces with a swastika table, a Hindu symbol the Nazis reversed and took for themselves.