Driving in Bali - exhilarating...and dangerous

Let me put it bluntly: I’ve never seen that many scooters in my life. There must be 5 scooters for every car on Bali. It does make sense to use a scooter in Bali because most of the roads are very narrow.

However, I think that the main reason why scooters are so popular in Bali is that they provide drivers with an absolute “carte blanche” to do anything and everything on the road.

Now please close your eyes and imagine the most reckless or dangerous traffic violation you can imagine. Do you have that mental image now? Terrifying isn’t it?

Well what happens on the roads of Bali is even scarier than what you just imagined.

Let’s have a quiz to determine if you are ready to drive on the roads in Bali:

Q – How many scooters can fit (width) in one lane?
A – 5,6,7? When there is not enough space, use the minuscule shoulder lane or simply take over the lane of opposing traffic.

Q – Is there a way to avoid bumper to bumper traffic?
A – Why drive on the sidewalk of course. You’ll be driving on sidewalks a lot in Bali, probably along with dozens of other scooter drivers who just couldn’t care less about traffic lights.

Q – You own a scooter and your friend sends you an SMS. What do you do?
A – No time to pull over. Better to text on the go.

Q – Traffic goes one way only. You need to go the opposite direction.
A – Just drive on the wrong side of the road until you reach a set of lights. Don’t worry, going the wrong way down the shoulder is entirely normal.

I’ve seen buses, trucks, and cars on the opposing lane take over my lane entirely as they figured that scooters would just have to use the shoulder lane or the sidewalk. I’ve seen large trucks decide to overtake other trucks while going uphill or on right curves.

Honking doesn’t help much. Better go with the flow and accept that driving in Bali is unlike anything you’ve ever seen in your country. Take scooters. They transport an array of goods, from live chickens and ducks to long wooden poles, large panes of glass or plywood (held by a passenger), huge crates or baskets with eggs. Seeing a scooter transport a huge crate full of live chickens is as funny as it is dangerous. Just today I’ve seen 6 people stacked up on a small scooter. Possibilities are truly limitless.

So you still want to drive in Bali? My best advice is to go with the flow and stick close to other scooters, even if what they are doing on the road would land you in jail for a month in your country. It may seem counterintuitive but it is your only option. Traffic lights are rare in Bali and when they do occur, they are mostly ignored by drivers. So don’t wait for the thick traffic to nicely open up so you can exit the gas station, or you’ll be spending more time at the gas station than on the beach. Better to follow the other scooters and hit the gas and hope that you’ll be able to cut through the traffic.