… and how Bali is positioned in-between a touristy and wild destination.

In every one of us there are two different instincts, two opposite drives. One is to follow the hottest trend, to go with the flow, to try the sweetest honey everyone is buzzing over. Some do this for the status and instagram posts. Some just out of curiosity. Some just because they already have contacts there or information and tips about those popular destinations. And the other impulse is to get away. Really get away. Get lost and turn off everything for a while. Some feel one drive more intense than the other. But if you’re reading this, you surely got a bit of both in you. So where is Bali’s place between these two ”extremes”?

The internet, as always, can find arguments for either side, but in the end, if the internet is full of information about Bali, doesn’t that already mean that Bali is not a remote destination?

Well, the truth is… in the middle.

Bali is a 5.780 square km island and although its name is already too popular, it still has enough wild areas full of lush jungles, virgin beaches and non-English speaking inhabitants whose children run around barefoot and have not seen a mobile phone in their lives…. yet.

Ubud (Bali’s center and spiritual heart and soul), Canggu (surfers, hipsters and party paradise), Kuta, Seminyak, Denpasar, Uluwatu and Sanur are indeed mainly busy.

Full of both tourists and locals, all driving scooters and even big cars, all trying to fit on the same thin roads regulated by no official rules, but magically driven by the same cheap gas fueled flow.

But the beauty of all Bali’s destinations is that in less than 10 minutes of driving a scooter you can get lost in peaceful nature.

Owning a scooter seems almost obligatory. On the other hand, you might not be interested in learning how to drive one or in daring the chaotic traffic waves, and have enough money to daily splurge on personal drivers or taxis (which is not to say they are expensive, it would just never compare to the low price of renting one). The main idea is that a scooter is your way of getting the best of both worlds, of both extremes:

The social life, with so many amazing vegan restaurants, great pools, yoga, ecstatic dance, cooking classes, vibrant coworking spaces, and at the other end.. vast green rice fields, lush jungles, remote quiet villages, countless waterfalls, majestic temples and secret beaches.

North Bali, for example, is rich and renowned for its secret wild waterfalls and bigger, sweeter tropical fruits. There, you can even find fruits that are otherwise non-existent in the center or southern parts of the island.

In conclusion, the absence of a scooter does not bring the end of the world, it just means you are bound to appertain to only one of them. So you just need to decide to which world you want to belong to.

This roughly covers the space dimension, but what about the time dimension?

Well, when it comes to high and low season, you should learn Bali is busy all throughout the year, with the highest crowded months being July-August and December-January, the ones you would normally expect, as these are either the most popular periods for westerners to get free time from work or school for holidays, or to escape their cold weather and dive into the tropical degrees.

But regardless of how Bali manifests its popularity and crowdedness in space and time, you must also take a look in the mirror and at your luggage and ask yourself how remote can YOU go? Bare in mind remote does not only mean peace and quiet, cleanliness, lush nature or the absence of noisy rude tourists. Remote also means no wi-fi, no signal sometimes, no facilities in general, and even no toilet. It means no restaurants, no access to transportation, no access to an atm.

Are you ready to learn the local language (Bahasa) in order to be able to communicate with the locals living in the remote villages?

Are you ready to go wild, or just try a popular destination in low season?

In the end, whether you are looking to surf, to party, to meet new people in hostels along with new adventures, or to just be a rare fruit hunter, riding solo, the ”Island of Gods” has it all. Let Bali Treasure Properties help you in finding a place you can call “home” while exploring what this little island can offer you. And if everything else fails, remember you can always escape to one or more of Indonesia’s 17.508 islands.

The instinct of being original, unique, a pioneer, is present to one extent or another in all of us. And especially if we want to slow travel and merge with the locals, we get the tendency to run away from other tourists, forgetting they might be one of us and that we were once one of them.