There are a lot of travel guides out there about Bali and for good reason. The geography, food, culture, and scenery in Bali are some things that lend themselves easily to being written about. However, most of these travel guides are written by people that are more tourists than any other label.

I am no tourist the island of Bali is just one of the islands that make up the country I’ve lived in for my entire life. I think it’s safe to say that I can definitely “pull back the curtain” and show you a completely different Bali, yes?

Now, I’m not telling you that these travel guides written by tourists are inherently bad, they just lack the flavor of being written by someone that can travel to Bali whenever they like, because they actually live within the country.

Kuta Beach, Bali.

One, it really is an island. You can get around Bali pretty easily. Most people tend to rent motorbikes, which is actually one of the most popular ways to get around the island. If you really want to blend in and look cool, a motorbike is definitely the way to go. Now, it does get hot in Bali, which means that you will have to compete with the weather while you’re trying to get from place to place.

You can indeed rent a car, or even a car and a driver. Unless you really have money to burn, I recommend either the car or the motorbike. Of course, if you’re trying to “go green” you might even want to think about just walking around and seeing all of the natural wonders of Bali.

The cool thing about Bali is that no matter what your budget is, you can really have a good time. If you want to go all out and have a big luxurious vacation, you can definitely do that, but it’s not necessary. You can have a modest budget and still stay somewhere nice.

Tanah Lot

One of the biggest questions that my foreign friends ask me about Bali is whether or not the people are friendly. You’ll find a mix of people anywhere in the world, but the people on the island are generally quite friendly. If you really want to impress your new Balinese friends, you should try learning a bit of Indonesian. Balinese and Indonesian are usually spoken just about everywhere on the island, but Indonesian will be more useful if you decide to explore the rest of the country of Indonesia.

I would love to go to Bali again in December, as the weather isn’t terrible. However Iman, my oldest son, he doesn’t have a lot of holidays during this time, so we’ll have to go as a family to Bali some other time.

Overall, there are plenty of reasons to explore Bali. I hope that by pulling back the curtain on the island of Bali a little, you’ll want to come and visit my country and grow to love it as much as I do!