Lost somewhere in Bali – Spherical Image – RICOH THETA
Key point: RENT A CAR. Wherever we travel, we always make sure to rent a car. Even in Bali & Thailand, where every single website / forum / travel blog strictly advised against it. Matt drives a manual back home, so it’s a lot easier (and cheaper) to rent a car with a stick shift abroad. In Thailand, given the vast amount of motor cyclists and left side driving, it was extremely difficult to drive, especially switch lanes. There were literally pools of cyclists that you just had to maneuver around. Anyway, renting a car allows us to really see the country-side and true culture of any given country. We always try to avoid big cities and touristy places because it just drives the price up, is over-crowded, and almost never as beautiful as what you could see in the random little villages. The best part of having a car is getting an authentic experience that you just won’t have with some bottled tour full of British and Aussie tourists. Even if you are fortunate enough to be able to afford a private tour, you will still feel restricted as to what you see and how long you see it.
Driving in Oman
We pack our itineraries so that we can see the most. We usually don’t check into our hotel until 9pm every night because we’re so busy seeing different sites during the day. Sometimes we struggle to find restaurants that are open at this time because the quaint, small villages that we tend to visit, are usually asleep and closed for business. Don’t get us wrong, we love to eat and go out for dinner, it’s just not the focal point of our vacation. This is probably another item that keeps our travel cost down. We are not afraid to enjoy some local food from a small ‘take-away’ place and eat in our villa on the balcony, sipping some local wine from the vineyard we are staying on.