Bali has been "calling me" in little ways since 2012. It started while living in Australia, when I would see some beautiful pieces of wood furniture, ask where they came from, and learn that they were from Bali. I'd see a colorful purse in a market, fall in love with it, look where it was made, and it was made in Bali. Even last year, I walked into a shop in Berlin, Germany, was enchanted by this glass globe shaped over gnarly wood, and then learned it was from Bali. So, here I am, trying to figure out what Bali wants to share with me.
My first impression is that Bali is way more crowded than I expected. If you only looked at Instagram photos, you might think Bali is full of large open green spaces with random swings and private villa pools. Yes, it does have that and you can create those moments for yourself. However, in order to get to those moments, you're going to need to go through quite a bit of heavy traffic and try not to get hit by a motorbike.
Because of the density of people and traffic, the first couple days were a bit alarming to my senses. In many ways, I was hoping this would be an escape from city density and traffic. There are times when it can feel that way- like while lounging around our Villa property with a private pool that only gets shared with a few other people; or while lounging on our open-air porch daybed, listening to the birds and the breeze through the tropical trees. The private Villa moments are when Bali feels like an escape from everything else- and thankfully- we did find a place that can offer that sense of escape.
Yet, all we have to do to in order to come face to face with traffic and motorbikes swerving through the road is to step just outside the property and walk to a nearby cafe on a street with very little walking room between the doors of buildings and the two lanes of traffic on the road. We're then back to heightening our defenses by looking around every power line pole, private altar, and parked car just to make sure there's enough space to walk. A delicious cafe that's only a football field away can feel much further when you're just trying to stay alive on the walk there.
Now, this isn't the case everywhere in Bali. There are still places so remote that you cannot walk to a cafe at all or even get a taxi to come pick you up and there are places that have more sidewalks in areas that are a bit more commercially developed and have made a dedicated community effort to encourage walking traffic for retail stores and resorts. However, retail stores and resorts also means there are more people using those sidewalks as well, so then it's about dodging people and the canang sari spiritual offerings laid out on sidewalks and holiday poles rather than cars.
After sampling a bit of Denpasar, Ubud and Seminyak this last week, I think the area we chose in Canggu has a nice combination of cafes nearby, small retail businesses, privately owned villas interspersed with rice farms, and just enough beach traffic for us to easily capture a taxi or a gojek if we need it to go elsewhere. We can even occasionally hear a traditional gamelan orchestra practicing in one of the alleyways nearby, which is a welcome distraction from the sounds of motorbikes while walking around. For the most part, people in this area like being close to the beach and generally have a more laid-back approach to business and life.
The Canggu and Seminyak beach scene offers a combination of large commercial beach clubs and resorts with high end bars and restaurants, or little tiny beach shacks with a few cushions and umbrellas to sit on between surfing attempts or just for watching the sunset with a drink in hand. We did decide to make a day of spending time at Finn's VIP Beach Club, and I shared my mixed feelings about the whole experience in the instagram post below, so I won't rehash it those here. More than anything, it gave us an experience to compare to when it came to just hanging around our quiet villa pool. The beach club is definitely about the "scene" and a place to be "seen" which is something I enjoyed much more in my 20s than I do in my 40s, but it did give us a place to relax without needing to dodge traffic for lunch or dinner and a place to lean over the edge of calm pool waters while watching the strong ocean surf and sunset with drink service and a DJ pumping out beats.
Having VIP or First Class experiences make me wrestle with what my idea of happiness is. Does it make me happier to have someone serve me and get me everything I need so I can stay in one cozy place without lifting a finger? Or does it make me happier to explore freely without anyone attending me, leaving me to find weird quirky things and learning how to negotiate with locals in languages and cultures I don't understand yet? Luxury is often associated with a certain level of service and attention to detail, but I find that there's a part of luxury that can be somewhat constraining (until it's a lay-flat airline seat, because that is definitely less constraining)! I think for me, happiness is less about having a luxurious experience and more about experiencing a certain level of freedom. Freedom of speech, freedom of creativity, freedom of movement, freedom of travel, and freedom of choice. I know those things make me happy. Having an exclusive spot where everyone can look at me under a brightly lit VIP marquee? Meh, that feels a bit more like being in a birdcage.