One interesting memory we brought back from Bali was our road trip experience.
As part of my trip management jobs besides booking the hotels and making itineraries, I hired a driver for the whole duration that we were there, paying about B$270 for 4 days. He came with a van and a baby’s chair which was the reason I chose him out of all the private drivers I found online.
The first thing that struck us as soon as we were out of the highways was the size of their normal main roads – specifically the roads that led to Ubud.
We were constantly amazed at how he comfortably maneuvered our car on the ridiculously narrow roads (considering there were many big tour buses and hired vans) without scratching oncoming cars or falling into drains – or worse, knocking pedestrians down!
But what impressed us the most was despite the rather bad roads and driving conditions, all the honkings by our driver and other cars were done only to warn other road users. Nobody honked impatiently or irritatedly (which could easily happened at so many instances). Or maybe we were just lucky.
In any case, we returned with a whole new level of respect for Bali drivers.
*Picture : Along a road that led to Ubud
