Bali is a small island that spans 153 km east to west and 112 km north to south. Most of the roads are concrete and even though you drive opposite side of the road to what we’re used to and traffic can be crazy, we wanted an adventure!
Yesterday we had pulled out a map of Bali, circled spots we wanted to visit and rented a scooter for $3 a day!
Before we got on the road, we decided to do a bit of research about what areas of Bali are safe and any road precautions we should know about.
It took us less than 10 minutes for our hopes of touring Bali freely got crushed. It appears that Bali’s police has a reputation for hunting for tourists without an international drivers permit.
Even if you do not commit an infraction, you will get stopped and be requested to show your International permit…. if you don’t have it you can be fined anywhere from $5-$300 depending on the cop …
We have no problems in riding a bike inside a city because we look like locals … the difference is that if we’re jumping cities, we’ll be having a huge backpack with us and look like tourists…
How stupid were we?! We’re AAA members in the US and it costs only $15 to get an IDL and it takes less than 10 minutes in person …
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!
Frustration!