7 Tips for Travel to Bali

1. Haggling: whenever an official price tag isn’t available on a product, you can guarantee that you will need to haggle your way to a better price. The Balinese over-price all their products and services, so its best to renegotiate to get the best price. PS: it can be rather tedious.
2. Transportation: unless you know how to ride a motorcycle, cars are the only practical way of navigating through Bali. PS: the streets are narrow and get very crowded especially in the afternoon.
3. People: the Balinese people are friendly, kind and helpful. They greet visitors with a smile, especially when providing a service. The majority are deeply religious Hindus, very few Muslims, Christians and people of other religions can be found.
4. Language: while knowing English is sufficient to communicate in Bali, don’t expect the locals to understand a large portion of what you’re saying. Use basic sentence structure and the simplest words for the best results. Ex: too much money, instead of expensive. Understanding their pronunciation of the English language is another challenge all together,  for there are several letters that either don’t exist in Indonesian or are simply mispronounced. Ex: Lun means Lunch, Epy means Every.
5. Weather: I visited Bali in August, knowing that is during the dry season but expecting severe humidity. While the weather is humid and rather warm, it isn’t intolerable. There is a light breeze in the morning and at night, but sunnier during the day. Bearing in mind that I come from a particularly hot country, so I’m more adapted to warmer climates.
6. Prices: food, clothes and souvenirs are cheap, especially when you talk your way to a better price. Tours, on the other hand, are not. Depending on the length of the tour, prices start from $40 – $100+. This price doesn’t include entrance tickets, food or some activities, it generally only covers transportation i.e. a driver and an air-conditioned vehicle.
7. Insects: I was advised to pack bug repellent, since tropical areas like Bali are known to be rampant with insects, especially mosquitoes. However I haven’t needed to use it once. The country is very clean, and I only encountered a few mosquitoes in the coffee plantation.

Through the Window

In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Through the Window.”

Go to the nearest window. Look out for a full minute. Write about what you saw.

Not the view from my window – Google

I looked through the largest window in my house, overlooking the narrow street where my building is located. I live in an apartment building in the middle of a crowded Cairo neighborhood, where there is almost no view. The building is surrounded by more building from every direction. Anyway from that particular window, I could see a thin line of trees in the middle of the street. I could also see the doormen from neighboring buildings, the frustrated residents in search of parking and the carefree youths swarming into the surrounding cafes. The view from my window is always noisy, active and ever-changing while never-changing.