2024-05-03
What fairy-tale beaches in Bali really look like

The blogger under the nickname levik writes:
Here I am, finally back home, and now it's time to tell you the whole awkward truth about the paradise beaches of Bali. Surprisingly, you won't read about this in practically any of the enthusiastic reports by bloggers. They all unanimously praise the pristine paradise of white sand and azure blue water. Unfortunately, the reality is not as great as one might think after reading articles online.

I'll tell you everything as it is, without embellishments, so you won't experience the same disappointment when planning your vacation, just like I did. Read this post and share it with friends who are planning (or dreaming) to go on vacation to Bali. After all, forewarned is forearmed.
If you open Instagram with the tag "Bali," you can see a collection of photos of deserted beaches and beautiful people — mostly girls, naturally blessed (and not only!) with stunning figures. This is exactly the kind of island we planned to vacation on.
And it's no surprise, no one wants to post pictures of beaches that look more like dumps on their cozy Instagram when they finally arrive on a long-awaited vacation. Everyone wants to showcase beautiful images to envy their friends who stayed at home. Pictures that resemble those that led them to the decision to go to Bali.

I admit, I'm a bit at fault for this as well — for example, right before the new year, to avoid ruining anyone's mood, I posted a photo from a secluded clean beach.
As a result, it creates a vicious circle — no one wants to be the first to show the truth. No one wants to admit that they traveled to a paradise corner only to end up in a dump. But we have to fight against this somehow, so I will still tell you how things really are.
So, we arrived in Seminyak, dropped our things at the villa, and rushed to the beach. We got there and immediately sensed something was off.

Everywhere on the sand, there were empty bottles, plastic bags, wrappers, cups...

In some areas where sun loungers with umbrellas were set up, there were fewer.

In others — much more.

Moreover, the layer of plastic waste did not end on the sand — all this rubbish continued up to the water's edge and beyond. In the coastal waves floated the same bottles and cups. It was completely unclear how one could sit in such conditions, and it was frightening to think about swimming in it.

It turned out that the blame for all this trash cannot be placed solely on the residents of Bali or even on the tourists who do not clean up after themselves. In recent years, the winter months have become the season of plastic on the island. Ocean currents wash up heaps of garbage from neighboring Java to the southwestern coast (where all the most popular resorts are located). Indonesia as a whole is one of the worst polluting countries, using a lot of single-use plastic that is not recycled in any way. All this ends up in local rivers and is then carried out to sea. From December to March, it washes up on the shores of Bali, precisely in the areas where tourists come for the paradise beaches. The ocean currents bring not only mountains of plastic to the shore; sometimes entire logs find themselves on the beaches of Kuta, Seminyak, Jimbaran, and others.

This may seem surprising, but the trash does not bother some people at all. They sit on loungers amidst all these bottles and labels!

They allow their children to play in the sand amidst all this trash!

Some even take selfies on these filthy beaches!

The local authorities and owners of coastal hotels understand that such a situation can severely damage tourism on the island and deprive them of a large portion of their income. Therefore, the beaches near expensive hotels are cleaned every morning by workers and volunteers. They simply come early in the morning with brooms and rakes, collecting all the trash that has appeared since yesterday into large bags and taking it somewhere. I hope all this plastic is actually recycled properly somewhere and doesn't end up back in the sea.

In some places on the beach, you can clearly see where the area of the expensive hotel ends, and thus, the scope of these cleaners.

Is it any wonder that most vacationers in Bali prefer to spend time in so-called beach clubs rather than on public beaches?

We ourselves spent a few hours in such a club on December 31st.
Otherwise, we swam more in the pool than in the sea. The disappointment with Bali's beaches was shocking for us.
If any of your acquaintances are going to Bali in hopes of finding the clean beaches from Instagram, show them this post. There are still such beaches on the island, but most likely, you'll have to pay extra for them.
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And also... Don't think that this problem is exclusive to Bali, that you can just find some other paradise beach in another corner of the world. Sooner or later, all of them will be just as polluted with plastic waste if our civilization continues to use bottles, cups, wrappers, and plastic bags on such a massive scale.
I have heard many times about how single-use plastic products are polluting our oceans. About how somewhere in the sea there's a plastic island three times the size of France. But having to confront this face to face was quite a disgusting feeling.
How do we fight this?
Starting in January 2019, a ban on all single-use plastic products has already been introduced in Bali. It is unclear how an island where normal drinking water is only available in bottles will implement such a ban. But even if they succeed, it will not affect the flow of garbage washed up on their shores by ocean currents in the winter months.
Sooner or later, all of us must realize that we use and throw away too much plastic in our daily lives and change something in our habits.
Photos and text — Source