---
type: Place
title: Bali
description: The island Harry actually lives on — a working day around Canggu, a beach you can ride a motorbike down, a village temple chosen over the famous one, and the subak water system.
tags: [bali, indonesia, canggu, pererenan, digital-nomads, temples, rice-fields, subak]
coordinates: {lat: -8.2271, lng: 115.1919}
timestamp: 2026-08-05T12:00:00Z
---

# Bali

Harry's base. He has lived on the island in [Indonesia](/countries/indonesia.md)
for over a year at the time of filming, in the Canggu and Pererenan area on the
south-west coast, and the one video he gives it is a behind-the-scenes day
rather than a guide — his stated aim is to show the side of Bali people don't
see, meaning the ordinary working life rather than the beach clubs.

*Obs: this video is sponsored by a laptop manufacturer and a large share of it
is product demonstration. Only the travel and cultural substance is recorded
here.*

## Why he lives here

Three reasons, in his own order:

- **The community.** He says this is the number one reason, and that the
  negatives get far more attention than the positives — his positive is that it
  is a community that pushes you to be a better version of yourself. It is built
  around remote workers.
- **Cost against the UK.** Activities run at roughly a quarter of British
  prices. His example is a Muay Thai trainer who will come to your house on a
  phone call, which he says is effectively impossible to arrange at home.
- **Nature on the doorstep.** He runs in the rice fields near his house daily.

He also says, without elaborating, that some of the view from where he trains
will be gone in a few years.

## A day around Canggu

- **Muay Thai at home**, with a trainer who comes to the house — his first
  lesson, taken instead of the usual morning gym session or run.
- **Pasut Beach**, up the coast to the north and about 30 minutes from where he
  lives, which he had never visited before. Its distinction is that you can ride
  motorbikes along the sand, which he does.
- **The rice fields** beside his house, and the daily run through them.
- **Sacred Grill** for dinner, which he uses to make the point that Bali has a
  serious high-end food scene as well as a cheap one — you can eat any cuisine
  any day of the week. Steak, cooked to order.

## The temple

The decision worth copying: he was heading for **Tanah Lot**, the famous one,
and turned off to a local village temple instead because the people outside it
looked friendly. He was invited in by a man who introduced himself as Richard,
given an offering to carry, and shown what to do. Nobody asked for money.

His verdict is that he had lived on the island a year and never done it, and
that a visitor is welcomed with open arms if they go to the temple that isn't on
the list.

What he is told about Balinese Hinduism:

- The calendar has far more holidays than most countries.
- **Galungan** is the big one.
- **Nyepi**, the day of silence, stops all activity for 24 hours.
- The underlying idea, as Harry summarises it back: gratitude for small things —
  the water, the rice — and thankfulness for the bad as well as the good, since
  you can't have one without the other.

## The subak system

The rice terraces are irrigated by **subak**, a very old communal water system.
The fields belong to different owners but the water is shared out between them
through a filtration and channelling network that waters every plot in turn.

Harry's point about it is social rather than agricultural: it works because
nobody takes more than their share. He says outright that in England the top
field would take the water and the bottom field would go without, and that
subak is evidence of how the Balinese hold together. He calls the farmers the
backbone of Balinese society, and notes they are now the only people around
still doing hard physical work while everyone else is a digital nomad.

## Harry's tips

- **Skip the famous temple for a village one.** Tanah Lot is the guidebook
  answer; the temple where the people outside look friendly is the better day,
  costs nothing, and is the thing he regrets not doing sooner.
- **Ride the beach at Pasut** rather than the crowded southern beaches.
- **Book the trainer, not the gym.** Instructors will come to you, at a fraction
  of Western prices.
- **Eat properly at least once.** The cheap food is the reputation; the
  restaurant scene is genuinely good.

## Source

- [The Side of Bali You Don't See | BTS with the ProArt PX13](/videos/JzZBUFvIbO8.md) —
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzZBUFvIbO8