Bali Beyond the Brochure: Sidemen, Munduk and the Quiet North

South Bali is a beautiful machine for extracting money from tourists. It works very well, and it has almost nothing to do with the island the Balinese actually live on. Drive ninety minutes in any direction and the island changes completely.

Sidemen, in the eastern hills, is what Ubud was twenty years ago: rice terraces stepping down to a river gorge, weavers working ikat looms on their porches, and Mount Agung filling the horizon. Stay in a family homestay and eat dinner cooked by your hosts.

Munduk in the north offers a different Bali again — cool mountain air, clove and coffee plantations, and a string of waterfalls linked by walking trails. The north coast around Lovina is low-key and black-sanded, famous for dawn dolphin boats and not much else, which is exactly the point.

Rent a scooter if you ride confidently, or hire a driver for 600,000 rupiah a day. The distances are short but the roads are slow; three days in the hills will teach you more about Bali than three weeks on the beach strip.