It was close to midnight when I arrived at Ubud. Ubud is about an hours drive from the Ngurah Rai International Airport at Denpasar. Actually, it is located further south of Denpasar (name can be misleading). It costs IDR 195.000 (one hundred and ninety five ribu) to take a taxi from the Aiport to Ubud. Ribu is the shortened form of thousand (1 INR = 220 IDR approx).
It is easy to rent a motorbike (usually two-wheeler Hondas or Yamahas in their 125cc variants) at Ubud. Probably it looks like the best way to travel around a fairly big island. It costs about 35 to 50 ribu per day and add insurance on top of it. The insurance covers the vehicle and not the passenger involved. Most probably, you are looking for something around 50 ribu per day and can bargain if you plan to rent for a week or more.
Bali on the first day looks to me like Goa of India. Certainly it has its own character shaped by its culture. I saw a Balinese version of Ramayana at on of the dance performance halls. It was an open air auditorium. The Kecak (pronounced: Kay-chalk) performance is a highlight show and ironically was invented in the 1930s by a German (citation required).
Balinese food is centered around Pork - something which is a “haram” in other parts of Indonesia (predominately Muslim populated). I plan to visit nearby places with the rented out two-wheeler. The Western Tourist find the traffic to be crazy. I haven’t found it yet. May be, I have to wait for few more days.
The internet charges vary from 5 to 6 ribu per hour. Some browsing centers offer a competitive rate of IDR 100 for a minute. If you have WiFi enabled phones, it should be a breeze. I have Fring installed on my Nokia 5800 and it allows me to connect to my Skype Out account. All I need is a Wi-Fi spot (the airports offered the facility at zero cost) with decent signal strength.
BTW, getting a prepaid mobile at Bali isn’t an issue. I wasn’t even asked for an identification document (probably they don’t have tougher regulations yet). simPATI is pretty popular out here and offers 3.5 G service. It comes with a GPRS option of 5 MB initial cap. You have to call the customer center and activate GPRS and MMS options.
That’s about it for now.