Lesson Learned: Show Locals Both the Address AND a Map

Before I headed out to Bali, I heard about the beautiful Village Above the Clouds and its adjoining Freedom School and just knew I had to volunteer. So once I felt it was time to move on from Gili Trewangan, I took the short boat back to Lombok, the car journey across Lombok, the long boat back over to Bali, the Perama tour mini bus back to Ubud and the connecting Perama bus to Bedugul. Phew. The journey took about eighteen hours in total and by the time I got to Bedugul I was exhausted. Luckily, once I hopped off the bus with my huge backpack, I found a moto-taxi driver who seemed keen to take me to Munduk where the Village Above the Clouds is located. I got on the back of his bike (in spite of my backpack weighing me down) and off we went on an hour long drive up and over the mountain.

*On the way to the Village Above the Clouds… or so I thought!*

It felt like we were driving for ages. Especially because it was taking every fibre of my being to not give into my backpack and fall off the bike backwards! Every muscle in my body was aching as the bike struggled up mountains with me clinging onto my driver for dear life. At least he made a friendly travel companion, laughing, telling me stories in what broken English he spoke and asking me what sorts of Balinese fruit I liked. The scenery was beautiful, green and lush. There were huge lakes and forests full of wild monkeys swinging through the trees. We drove for half an hour without seeing a single other person. In my delirium I actually wondered if I was dreaming at one point, but then the rain began to pour. I felt like I was drowning, my eyes were literally RAINED shut. But alas, I heard the words I had been looking forward to, “We in Munduk now. I see address?” I handed the address over to the driver and watched his face fall… “Oh no… this other Munduk. Two Munduks… one here, one back near Bedugul, Munduk Adong Kelod. Sorry, sorry, sorry. We must now go back!” I could have cried.

Stupid stupid me. HOW did I not give the guy the full address and show him a map before getting on the back of his bike? As he is a local I just ASSUMED he would know where to take me, but I’d never factored into the equation the possibility that there might be two towns of the same name so near to one another. And now I was going to have to get back onto that godforsaken bike with my backpack and my achey muscles and all the rain and the mountains and lakes and monkeys. And all I wanted to do was just get into bed.

Thankfully, my driver took charge and didn’t seem in the least bothered. He laughed to himself and apologised about a million times and seemed to think the whole situation was hilarious, “You crazy Western girls,” he chuckled. I just sat on the back of his bike feeling sorry for myself. When we finally arrived back to Bedugul we stopped at a little coffee place where he introduced me to his sister-in-law. She made us some coffee while he vanished off somewhere. When he arrived back he produced a juicy mango for me! It turns out he was paying attention during our Balinese fruit conversation earlier and had gone to his mom’s fruit stall to cheer me up. It was so nice of him I nearly cried all over again! 

We were only on the bike for another ten minutes after our coffees before finally arriving at the Village Above the Clouds. I ended up paying the full fair price for the whole crazy journey even though I felt we were both responsible for the screw up. However, the driver was so sweet that I totally felt like he deserved it so no harm done. Nonetheless, I definitely learned my lesson to ALWAYS give a full address AND a map to a driver before being given a price quote or getting into the vehicle. Learning this early on in my trip saved me a lot of money and time across Southeast Asia in the long run.

Have you had to learn any travel lessons the hard way? Would you have thought a local would accidentally take you to the wrong place? Don’t you think it was sweet that he got me coffee and mango???