My Egg Noodles

I’ve received a few info requests on life in Bali via Twitter, email, comments and mum so today I quickly knocked up a little video touring the hotel I’m staying at along with a quick trip to the beach.

I come across this small hotel while searching around for accommodation options a few weeks ago and I have nothing but good words to say about it. It’s a newly built place, in a very small side street which is located about 5km away from the beach. The staff, all 3 of them including the security guard, are extremely friendly and try to be helpful, even with their limited English language skills.

The hotel is so new that the place doesn’t have a name yet – although if anyone wants to know the hotel’s details, post a comment here and I’ll knock up a little map for you.

If it wasn’t for Stuart taking me to Balangan beach to catch up over a few beers, I would probably have never found this beautiful, post-card perfect, gem of a beach. It’s a little difficult to get to but defo worth the effort.

Tomorrow I’m taking the day off. You know where I’ll be

On the way back from a dancing session last night, the conversation with the taxi driver quickly turned to food. He mentioned that some of the best Seafood can be found in Jimbaran Bay, about a 30 minute drive away from where I’m at now. Naturally, this left only one option: to get on the bike and see what the fuss was about.

Jimbaran Bay is home to some of the best hotels on the island, but it’s still a very sleepy town. The beach is great, curving around to create a nice bay and the food, well…. it’s hard to explain how good the food is without using sexual references. Put it this way, our seafood feast could not have been better; it was perfect.

The longer I stay in Bali, the deeper my love for the place grows.

It was 5pm and we hadn’t eaten all day, so a BBQ’d corn on the cob rubbed with salt and butter was a perfect little treat to start of a great evening.

The not-so-busy beach.

The beautiful sunset.

The holy grail… Lobster, Red Snapper, Crab and Prawns. Yum!

Saminyak – It’s a love and hate relationship with me. I find the huge amounts of tourists and the many areas of development a pain in the arse. While flipping the coin you are among many, many great restaurants, close to the clubbing scene in Kuta, close to many great beaches, the great Bali Dehli that reminds me of a little Central Chitlom Food Hall in Bangkok and then there are the great shopping opportunities all over town. Maybe it’s just me and I’m really fussy bugger, but Saminyak is not perfect (for me), but its pretty close.

No doubt, Saminyak makes for an ideal holiday destination, but would it make an ideal place to live mid to long term? I’m not sure as I’ve only been in Bali for a week, and I’ve not yet had to opportunity to explore other areas of Bali.

Regardless of what I think, the expat community here is huge; it’s apparent that many people are okay with being among tens of thousands of tourists and can put up with the development everywhere. Tourist visitors to Bali in 2008 exceeded 2 million – A record for Bali.

Out of curiosity and half heartedly thinking I could see myself living in this area, I dedicated a few days looking around to see what my budget could get me accommodation wise. It’s been a interesting few days and has been a great way to meet new people.

Although your requirements and budget will be different to mine, I thought I’d jot down a few notes that will hopefully help those that are considering moving to Saminyak – especially if you already have your heart set on the Saminyak area.

What you’ll need:

First things first, get yourself a local telephone SIM as this makes life a lot easier communicating with agents and home owners.

Get yourself some transport. Motorbikes can be rented for $4 a day and are well worth the freedom it gives you to explore small alleys and small roads that cars could not fit down. With the lovely weather, it makes a great way to explore and get to know more of the area.

Where to find:

Personally, I haven’t had much luck with agents that have shops everywhere you turn in Saminyak. It seems these are more geared towards weekly holiday rentals than mid to long term rentals. Saying that, if you have a huge budget exceeding $5k a month, it may be worth chatting to them.

Get friendly with waiter staff in restaurants and bars and ask if they know of any villas that are up for rent. I have gotten a few leads from them as they seem very enthusiastic to help out. I guess they are looking to get a kick back, which is fair enough. I’m pretty sure these will get a lower commission that an agent would get, so you should gain more bargaining power than going through an agent.

The best places by far to check out villa and apartment rentals are on bulletin message boards in café’s. The ones I have come across are the business center located on the corner of Jl Dhyana  and Jl Raya Seminyak. The Mocha Café located on Jl Raya Seminyak also have a busy board worth checking out.

There is a huge variety of accommodation options which have been posted on scrap pieces of paper by property owners. The property options range from single rooms to 8 bedroom villas. Today I come across a couple that want to rent out their second bedroom in a great 2 bedroom villa with a pool.

The Bali Advertiser, a free classified ads paper that is printed (I think) by weekly is available in some supermarkets, bars and connivance stores. Not only do they have a good property section, the paper is filled with ads from people selling a wide range of items. They are have a web site here.

Rates:

Compared to the west, villa rates here are cheap, but not as cheap as you would think for South East Asia. I guess this is mainly due to the area – Saminyak, as I have read, is certainly one of the most tourist-y areas on the island.

It’s hard for me to comment on property outside of my requirements (As I haven’t been looking at 8 bedroom villas) but as a guide, a pleasant one bedroom villa with a pool, within a 10 minute radius of Saminyak, range from $1,500 to $3,000 per month.

The other day I saw a great beach hut that wasn’t located on the beach, but it really did have that beach hut feel to it (I hope your still following – It’s hard to explain haha) for $500. There was no air-con, and all the furniture was at least 20 years old and worn, but it would have made a great pad if I was sharing it with a buddy planning to just surf for 6 months.

Anyway, hopefully these notes will help

Today I took the bike 40 minutes north from Seminyak to Tanah Lot to watch the sunset on the Thanah Lot temple grounds. The drive was great, driving through villages and rice paddies. It was a good chance to see a little rural Bali after being stuck in the tourist centres for the last week. Highly recommended if you are based in Kuta or Seminyak and want to go off exploring for an afternoon.