Indonesia (Bali)

March 20, 2024 | Mike Mikus | Asia

Over the last several days, our travels have taken us to the largest archipelago in the world, Indonesia. While it is comprised of some 17,500 islands, its 265 million residents only inhabit 6,000 of them. Our journey took us to their two largest islands, Lombok and Bali.

An active volcano, the 13,000’ Mount Ringiani, dominated the island of Lumbok. 80 percent of the population is Muslim, and as luck would have it, we were visiting during Ramadan. Therefore, much of the country was practicing fasting between dawn and dusk during our one-day visit. Strategically, we scheduled our excursion to spend our time at an American resort hotel located on a beach in the village of Senggigi. This allowed us to partake in cocktails and lunch during our visit, and still get a feel for the island.

So this island has an extensive roadway infrastructure. Unfortunately, the island experienced a devastating earthquake and a subsequent tsunami that killed well over 500 people in 2018. Sadly, while their roadways survived, a majority of their buildings did not. Six months into their rebuilding effort, COVID overwhelmed the remainder of their economy, which has struggled to recover ever since.

Our short visit started with an hour-long drive from the cruise port to Senggigi which provided us heartbreaking of the devastation that their communities are still suffering through, yet the people seemed so happy and humble.

The Sheraton Senggigi Beach Resort was new, great, and luxurious. We enjoyed some local flavors and cocktails and explored the beaches and infinity pools for several hours before returning to the ship and calling it a day.

The following day was to be a long one. We left the ship early to explore Bali with a tour group of about 8 folks from the ship and a local guide. While it was fairly hot, our van was roomy and air conditioned, and our agenda was full.

Bali is an island that is about 10% bigger than the state of Delaware. It has some 4 million residences and is Indonesia’s primary tourist destination, and for good reason, which we will talk about in a bit.

Unlike Lombok, Bali does not have an extensive road infrastructure. Now I need to say that I’ve seen a lot of things in my days, but I have never seen anything like driving on the island of Bali. I’m nearly certain that there are nearly as many motorbikes in Bali as there are people. I’m not certain how that math would work out, but wow! What a place.

So imagine all of the traffic you have ever seen. Now imagine that it is all in the same place at the same time, 75% of all of the vehicles are motorbikes, and there are no road signs of any sort. We did see one stoplight, but that was literally one traffic light in an entire day of driving. The main roads are 2 lanes, but the motor bikes use them like they are 5 lanes If you are driving next to another car, there will almost always be a motorbike between the cars, as well as two more on on the other side of both cars. Now in vision that this is also happening in the lanes of oncoming traffic, and the center lines in the road seem to be more of a suggestion than a law.

We saw entire families with small children on motorbikes. We saw people moving furniture on motorbikes. We saw a flatbed truck with hundreds of bags of cement that was so heavy it collapsed the drainpipes under the street and was stuck, blocking traffic. If anyone ever asks, my answer will always be, “Bali is a great place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to drive there…”

The Indonesian government own all of the oil wells and gas stations. The price is the same everywhere for gas (about the same as the USA). However, they do not have oil refineries, so they export the oil, and then re-import it as gasoline. Hmm…

There are so many people, it is fair to say that the island is filled up. But, the culture is built around their Hindu religion, and everyone seems to be in piece and harmony with one another at all times. Even in their driving, they are completely courteous to each other. I’ve never seen anything like it.

Trust and respect abounds. Even the businesses leave their goods out along the roadways when they close at night. What a place!

Every house and business has a little basket (like a colorful little mailbox) along the road, where the tenants place offerings to God three times a day. Each time, they place little pieces of fresh fruit from their gardens, fresh flowers, and fresh sticks of burning incense. (The smoke from the incidence carries their prayers to heaven.)

Another very cool Indonesia does is to uses fixed names for boys based on the order in which the are born. Generally, the first born sun is called, “Iputu”, the second is named “Madi” the third is called “Nyoman”, the fourth is named “Ketut”, and the fifth is named “Balik”. If you have more boys after that, you start over it “Iputu”. (I will say that it has simplified remembering many of the Royal Caribbean staff’s names.)

Beginning 50-60 years ago, these nice folks figured out how to optimize the land into tiered rice paddies, which allows them to feed the huge number of residences that call Bali home. Huge rice patties are communal property. And every available piece of unused land is either a garden, a rice paddy, or a sacred jungle.

Burning the Rice Fields – Lombok, Indonesia

Our adventure took us to a half-dozen little villages (not that you ever leave the “city” as you travel between the “villages”). Each one has a unique skillset. We saw hand crafted woodworking masterpieces, silversmiths, and a coffee plantations that produce the worlds most expensive coffee.

Kopi luwak coffee is harvested in a ridiculous manner that you can read about elsewhere if you have a strong stomach.