One of the perks of staying in our beautiful rental in Bali was that our landlord also happened to be a independent tour guide/driver! He has operated his own tour/taxi service for years, and since he is also a Bali native, we turned to him for advice about what was worth seeing in Bali during our 3 1/2 week stay. We went on several all-day trips with him, fully trusting him to show us Bali at its best!
First of all, I must strongly recommend using a driver in Bali. Yes, you can rent a vehicle and drive yourself…but once you turn off the main roads of the cities and go on any road trips (like my husband loves), you will be very thankful to have a driver! After all, my husband is a professional driver, and when even he won’t consider renting a vehicle to drive, then I’d advise you may want to do the same!
We got around town on motorbikes, but for big trips, our friend/landlord (Dewa) was the ticket! As he wound his way through roads and villages, down and around rice fields, I felt dizzy (not physically—just mentally)! It was a mess of roads, and I doubted a GPS would have done it navigational justice! Also, outside of the city most roads are very narrow. This means that if you’re headed one direction and a car is coming your way from the other direction—one of you (or both) will have to go off the edge of the road in order to get past the other!
So, off we went—and the views everywhere we went were just stunning!
Ever since arriving in Southeast Asia, I’ve absolutely fallen in love with rice fields (so much, in fact, that I jumped at the opportunity to help plant some rice in Northern Thailand)!
On our drive up the mountain, we stumbled upon the Bali Strawberry Farm and Restaurant. Outside in the parking area was a man hoping to lure tourists’ money by displaying various creatures for photo ops. We didn’t take him up on it, but I did sneak a photo of his bat hanging from his motorbike!
We didn’t eat at the strawberry farm, but we did enjoy the view. WOW!
The farm is on the steep slopes of the mountainside, and we immediately asked how much it cost to purchase some berries. It wasn’t cheap, but we figured some experiences are worth it. We’d rather say, “Remember when we picked berries in Bali?” instead of “Remember that place we wanted to pick berries, but they offered us only outrageous foreigner prices, so we didn’t?”
Off we went to pick our own berries!
I asked the worker if the berries were organic, and he assured me they were. As usual, Ethan made quick friends…
(Balinese humidity did “wonders” to my curly hair—ahhh!)
We took the berries to get weighed, and paid a small fortune (well, by Asian standards) for two baskets full. As we were getting them weighed, I suddenly got a very strong whiff of pesticides. Sure enough, I looked over the balcony, and there was a guy spraying another field with some raunchy pesticides. Sigh. So much for organic!
As our berries were being packaged, Jared walked over to the temple next door and took a few photos for the memory book…
Next up? A famous Balinese water temple — Pura Ulun Danu Bratan!!
(p.s. If you’re looking for a Balinese taxi driver or tour guide on your visit to Bali–Dewa Arjana is your man! His local cell phone is 6281-2397-0358, his English is great, and his honesty is impeccable! You will love him!
Yea I’ve found organic to be totally meaningless word in Asia. Gorgeous views. I love rice fields too!
Haahaaa!! 🙂