Bali Shopping

Shopping in Bali - An Every Day Adventure

Bali Marketplace

You cannot go anywhere in Bali, if you're a tourist, without getting accosted by the street vendors. I've said it before (once somewhere on one of the pages in this website), the street vendors in Bali make those in Mexico look like amateurs. Persistent does not begin to describe them. I made myself a hostage at the hotel and did not go on the beach because I just did not want to deal with them. The street vendors were just everywhere.

Every bus tour we went on, just walking down the street (which I did at night and which is really not all that dangerous in Kuta even though it's the crime capital of Bali), there were people everywhere trying to sell us something. Our first tour, to Mount Batur, we visited many shops as well as Mount Batur (a volcano) and the Water Temple. Vendors congregated outside the shops, the restaurant where we ate lunch, the temple, literally shoving items in our faces. All for American dollars no less.

Bali Marketplace

Bali has some cottage industries it specializes in for the tourists - wood carving, batik (painted cloth is the best description I have for this), stone carving, basket making. They also make very inexpensive "normal" stuff, like quilts. One couple on the tour bought a king size quilt for about $35.

I did get some nice stuff. I have two wood carvings (of cats - what did you think I'd buy), a pillow covering (some sort of silk), a new pair of sandals (one of my souvenirs from rafting), a fan, a sarong (very pretty blue one for only $5). I found a wood carving on palm leaves for my mother - it tells the story of the Balinese Romeo and Juliet. That was probably the most expensive souvenir I bought on the trip. The people I work with all got painted wooden eggs, 50¢ a piece. My brother got some Hard Rock Cafe merchandise (so did I but, then, I went on the trip). Who knew there was a Hard Rock Cafe and Hotel in Bali of all places!