Bule Situations: Motorbike Fashions

By Wombat | February 11th, 2006 | 10 Comments »

An experienced and long-time traveller to Bali, Tracey Darmawan, shares one of her many adventures in which she is forced to adapt.

‘I was staying at Ocean Blue Hotel in Camplung Mas in Feb 1994, I had made friends with the guys working at Billy’s immediately (they were originally in Camplung Mas).

One afternoon, whilst having a Bintang one of the boys mentioned he was heading off to a market in Jimbaran the following morning, and if I could be awake at 5am, I was more than welcome to join him. Of course I jumped at the chance having decided to travel to experience new things and learn about other cultures.

So the following morning I stagger in from Bounty (the old Bounty) and Peanuts at 4am, to shower, before heading off to the market. Agung arrives on a motorbike (he hadn’t mentioned going by bike) but what the heck, then he hands me a colander, I ask “What it’s for”. I am then told it’s to be my helmet as he had no spare ones!!!. Ok, my first trip on a motorbike in Bali, I am severely drunk still & I have a colander on my head, which has no straps obviously, so I am hanging on to Agung with one hand & my helmet/colander with the other!!!. We made it to the market and back without any incident, which was lucky as I am sure colanders are not classed under protective headwear!?.

I have since worn a wok on my head from Sanur to Kuta, to prevent being pulled over and having to pay $1 fine!!!.

This was one of my many experiences in Bali of just adapting to ‘make do’, which I think in Bali is something you just have to learn to do… I have managed to get out of many sticky situations now due to this instinct I learnt on my first trip and simultaneous trips I guess!’

By Tracey Darmawan