One thing is different about Bali for sure: people here are much more aggressive in trying to sell you things. As soon as you exit customs, men start approaching you. “Taxi? Cheap cheap,” accompanied by a gesture of hands outstretched like on a steering wheel. Most of them aren’t really taxis (well, taksis), just people with cars who will charge you an arm and a leg. There is one reputable taxi company in Bali, Bluebird, who actually have meters and charge reasonable rates. To get one, you have to walk through the airport parking lot to an actual street. We flagged one down. The driver was from Tabanan, a town to the north and west of Denpasar. We talked about how he has had a long day, starting work at 6:30 AM. His shift is supposed to end at 12:30, but since he’s already reached his target for the day, he’s going to quit early, after only 13 hours. The ride costs R77,000, or about 10 dollars. We tip him R8k, which is generous, because he has to drive back through the traffic to drop off the taxi before riding his motorbike home, and he was very nice and conversational.

Denpasar is not a big tourist destination, which is why we thought spending a night in it would be nice. It takes us 20 minutes to find our homestay, which thankfully has space. Here in Bali, families don’t live in individual homes. Instead, a family has a plot of land that has multiple buildings within its walls. So many of the cheaper places to stay, rather than separate guest house buildings, are homestays, or rooms in a building in the family compound. We drop off our things and head to Pasar Barung, the largest market in Denpasar, for dinner.

But markets here are different. In Thailand, day markets are a mix of groceries and street food, while night markets are often mostly street food and sometimes some trinkets. Here, it’s all produce, meat and spices. The Private Eye starts to lose confidence we will find anything to eat and suggests we just go to a warung (street food vendor) outside the market, pointing a direction. Of course, it happens to be at that particular exit there is an elderly woman serving some kind of soup and a few fried vegetables. We have no idea what it is, but sit down and have some. It’s different than anything I’ve eaten before, a thin, slightly sweet coconut soup with lentils and a few small balls of sticky rice that she adds. The vegetables are some kind of sweet potato and we think cassava. She’s also making some kind of coffee drink with fresh egg, which the locals seem to like. In our half hour in the market, and since getting out of the taxi, we have seen two other white people. Three bowls of soup (The Private Eye had seconds), two bottles of water, and four fried bites is R31k, or about 4 dollars. We wander back to the homestay, rinse off the sweat (sitting in front of a soup pot in the tropics is hot!), and sleep, thankful that tomorrow is the first day in a while that we don’t need an alarm.

We sleep in and have a simple breakfast in the public area. I’m up first, so over my toast and coffee I have a long discussion with a woman from England about whether western culture is destroying Bali. I mention Ubud and she says she was disappointed. “It has a Starbucks. And a Polo store,” she says. We talk about why this might be bad (or not), finding common ground that if only tourists go to the stores then that’s problematic, as they indicate making a place less challenging and more comfortable as well as less unique. I argue that if locals want a Starbucks, though, they should be able to have it. We veer off into consumerism, capitalism, and other ills. She doesn’t agree with me, but also doesn’t disagree.

We decide to get a SIM card for our phone and to go to the nearby museum of Balinese art. On our way, we pass by a grimy concrete structure that says “Art Market” outside. Inside, it’s basically large, open concrete floors with men and women selling wood carvings. Since business is slow most of them are working on new ones to pass the time. Demon faces, Komodo dragons, Buddhas, monkeys in lewd poses, dragons, chess sets, and boxes dominate. We haven’t even been in Bali for 24 hours so shy from buying anything at first, but then The Private Eye finds a unique carving, a very simple, unfinished one of a rabbit. The woman seems surprised that we like it. She looks at the bottom and names her price: R50k. I bargain her down to 30 (~$3.75), which she accepts pretty easily but seems reasonable to me. After, we look at the bottom and it says 25; we paid a little more than we could have, but still a fair price. The woman stains it for us and wraps it in newspaper.

After the market, we head to the museum, which we have to ourselves. The most interesting exhibit is on Balinese dance, showing some costumes and describing the different forms of dance.

It looks like rain, so we catch a bluebird taksi back to the homestay, pick up our bags, and ride to the terminal where bemos to Ubud leave from. We debated back and forth about whether to take a taksi or a bemo. A taksi would probably be R160k, while a public bemo would be 30. Bemos are basically vans that run certain routes. They are small and kind of cramped. Foreigners don’t ride them much – one issue or complaint many travelers raise with Bali is its lack of a transportation infrastructure. But I figure we should ride one once, and this one is a major route.

Once we get to the terminal, there’s a bunch of discussion with people there. The long and the short of it is that we don’t catch a public bemo. Instead, a grizzled old man with a very beat up van agrees to take us to Ubud for R70k ($10). He won’t go lower. I figure since it’s a charter with no other stops, and it won’t be crowded, it’s worth it.

When we arrive, and I try to pay him, I realize I think I did the right thing. I don’t have correct change: we have only 50k notes and then 19k in other notes. So I give him 100k and ask for change. He looks at the bills, and pulls out a wad of bills from his pocket. He looks at them, leafs through them, and stops. They are mostly small bills. I realize that he probably can’t add them up in his head – he can’t make change. Generally speaking, nobody does arithmetic in their head here, it’s always with a calculator. I offer to make the change for him and realize he doesn’t have 30k – he has only about $3 on him. So I give him the 69k we can give him, counting it very slowly so he can see we are not cheating him. The look of relief and happiness on his face when I give him the money gives me a glimmer of how much harder his life is than mine and how valuable this money is to him. The idea of bargaining for a price you are both happy with does make more sense when there are such disparities.

We get out of the bemo outside the palace in Ubud, find a bookstore/library and a place to stay. I’ll leave our nighttime adventure involving Balinese dances, a jazz bar, and sharing beer with a half dozen artists in their studio for another post.

— The Professor