My Bali Experience And Why You Could Never Pay Me To Return!

What happens when a stunning paradise turns into a stage for unexpected challenges and unsettling truths? Join me as I navigate the enchanting yet complex landscape of Bali, where breathtaking beauty collides with the antics of a resident gecko named Gary and the troubling rise of fake healers. This episode unravels my personal experiences amid the island's sacred traditions and misleading facades, offering a glimpse into a world filled with both profound connections and disillusioning encounters. Through stories of genuine cultural practices like water purifications and daily offerings, we explore the magnetic allure that draws so many to Bali, while also shining a light on the shadows cast by those who exploit its spirituality.

As the journey continues, I delve into the ethical dilemmas faced by digital nomads who find themselves living in a stark contrast between Western earnings and Balinese aspirations. This episode reflects on the complex dynamics of low-cost living against the backdrop of a tourism-driven atmosphere that often feels exploitative. The clash between Balinese communal culture and Western individualism is palpable, prompting a deeper conversation about authenticity and exploitation. Before leaving Bali for the UK, I'm eager to hear your thoughts and experiences—has Bali's spiritual vibe left a lasting impression on you, or do the transient illusions linger? Let's uncover the multifaceted magic of this island together.

Chapters

• 0:01 Dark and Sacred Magic in Bali
• 8:21 Cultural Exploitation in Bali
• 17:41 Perspectives on Bali's Spiritual Vibes

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

so funny story. I didn't think this episode actually saved. I recorded this whilst I was in Bali and I had such a nightmare recording it. It was unreal how horrible it was to record it, to record this and then to actually, yeah, save it everything. I didn't think it was saved and I have just found the file on my computer. So here you go. Here is all the juice from Bali whilst I was live in Bali. One, two, ah, gary, jesus, fucking Christ, gary, oh, okay, well, hello and welcome to this week's podcast. Obviously, you're like who the fuck is Gary? Gary is the gecko that is currently living in my room whilst I'm sat here in Bali. He just literally appeared out of nowhere and obviously, like with geckos and stuff, they're just everywhere.

Speaker 1: 1:03

So let's talk about Bali and how I'm really gonna piss a lot of people off in this episode. And if I really piss you off, I really want you to look back into you and ask yourself why is she triggering me right now? Because I'm gonna be brutally fucking honest. You could not pay me to come back here. You cannot pay me to come back here. Okay, now, there's a lot of things I okay. Now, there's a lot of things I'm going to unpack and there's a lot of things I want to say and I'm going to start with, like Bali is a beautiful place. I'm not disputing that. The location, the jungle, everything is absolutely gorgeous. I can say that. Okay, that you cannot fault the nature here like it's beautiful. You cannot fault the nature here Like it's beautiful, especially with the waterfalls, everything like that.

Speaker 1: 1:47

But there is a lot of dark and sacred magic here within the Balinese people and you know, what we're finding is there's lots and lots of fake healers, so fake shamans, fake healers who are here and they are just scamming tourists, okay. So guess what? The gods here are really fucking pissed off and there are multiple gods as well. It's a very special place there's. I often see like things out the corner of my eyes, like recording this podcast has been an absolute nightmare, like my recording just wasn't working and I think it's because I was going to talk negatively about Bali. Interesting and yeah, I'm not going to rush ahead because there's so many things to talk about um, in terms of like my experience. So I personally feel like within the Balinese culture, there is a lot of dark and sacred magic going on. There's a lot of fake healers that are all geared towards tourism.

Speaker 1: 2:42

Okay, which means obviously it's low vibrational, but other things within the Balinese culture that is absolutely beautiful is that every day, they give offerings to God, which consists of like flowers, rice, banana, biscuits, anything like luxurious, and they and they use incense to send the essence of the offerings up to the God, and they believe that there's a God in the north, south, east and west, and there's obviously our main God as well, and there's a God of the offerings up to the god, and they believe that there's a god in the north, south, east and west, and there's obviously our main god as well, and there's a god of the moon. There's so many gods and they spend a lot of time worshipping their ancestors as well, which is so beautiful to me. Obviously, I'm gonna be like, yes, that ancestors, baby, love it. So when I got to spend time with some genuine Balinese people and take part in the genuine practices, oh my god, it was so, so beautiful, like so, so beautiful, and it made my heart feel really full. And it actually makes me feel really, really emotional now because, as I went through, like the water purifications which I did three times when I was here, well, when I am here, I yeah, it just cleanses your soul. It cleanses your soul and it was so beautiful and I had this one guide and she was incredible. She explained everything. We did everything step by step, the Balinese way. I actually started giving my own offerings every single day because I wanted to just gift it back to the land and say thank you for holding me. People like call Bali, like Mama Bali, and I quite like that actually. So I kind of felt like giving an offering back to the gods was something like really beautiful. It's my last morning here tomorrow and I'm going to be doing quite a significant offering just to say thank you for the time and experience here, because, yeah, it's really, really been beautiful.

Speaker 1: 4:22

In that sense, this place is low vibrational as fuck, okay, and it's because the spirituality has just become a tourist attraction. So we are having a lot of fake healers, okay, and I'm not being funny. There's a lot of damaged people here. Now, I never talk about people in such a derogatory term because that isn't me, but there is no other word. There is no other word than damaged, okay. These people have obviously come here, inflated their ego and now they teach others. So I'm not talking about the people who come here for a genuine healing experience. I'm talking about the people who come here, inflate their ego and then start to teach others and start to heal others, but what they're doing is they're projecting their nasty ass energy onto other people.

Speaker 1: 5:08

I met multiple people like this and they were like from all over the world, like there was a Romanian guy, there was an Australian woman. There were so many different people where I was like oh, you really need to be doing your own healing, not facilitate in healing for other people. And one example is like I would like to give is I went to a class. So I went to this class and it was designed to connect to the Akashic records and it was like a sound healing which you know. The sound healing was very disjointed and very clunky. And then, when it came to connecting to the Akashic records, we had music on and then we were going to meditate. But then the male instructor was like, okay, now I would really like for us to get into pairs and put our hands on each other's. There was like four of us in the group and like including the teacher right, and he goes over to this very vulnerable young woman who I was like, hmm, that's very interesting. And he's like make sure to put your hands on the person.

Speaker 1: 6:07

Obviously the experience got ruined for me, because the minute I put my hands on somebody else, I just become like completely flooded with their energy. And then my guide is like oh, you want to heal? Okay, well, here are some messages for this lady. I'm like fucking hell, we haven't even asked for, like, explicit consent and her energy was open. And I felt really awful because I started to just know all these things about this, this poor woman who was a complete stranger, who never asked to have this sort of experience with me. So that made me feel really uncomfortable and I was like, okay, um, you know. And I kept saying to my guide like, please, like don't send me messages. She's not open to hearing them. Please don don't, don't invade her privacy. And I just like I tried to be resistant as I could, but my body just got completely flooded with everything that was going on for her and I needed to tell her afterwards.

Speaker 1: 6:55

And we actually sat down, had a beautiful chat after and we made this beautiful connection and it was all okay. But it could have gone the other way. You know, could have really gone the other way, way. But I was put in a very difficult position then for him. He was like, okay, well, we're going to do the Reiki hand positions. And then he was like, oh, yeah, and then, you know, the client turns over, the client turns over. And then he was like, yeah, make sure you put your hands on their butts, like literally on the bum.

Speaker 1: 7:21

I was like what on earth? Like what on fucking, what fucking Reiki does? Does this like what Reiki requires a grown man to put his hands on the butt of a young woman who is you know? She was very, very beautiful as well, but obviously really, really vulnerable. So I was like it just didn't sit right at all. I had to speak to her afterwards and be like look, really be careful, like this is not normal. And she was like all right, okay, I thought it was. Look, really be careful, like this is not normal. And she was like all right, okay, I thought it was. Could I be into another one of his classes? And he did the same to me then and I'm just like oh, my god, this is like a start of a fucking cult, isn't it? So, yeah, during this process as well, by the way.

Speaker 1: 7:59

We had a 35 minute sound healing and meditation experience the other time. It's him talking about himself. There are a lot of people in Bali here who do that, but why they're so amazing. Their experience, blah, blah, blah. And yeah, of course you need to be confident in your abilities, but you can sense when it's ego and I just got repelled by a lot of the people here.

Speaker 1: 8:21

I think something else for me which like really just doesn't sit right is that there are so many digital nomads here, so people from the West are coming here and they are charging their Western prices, but they are living here and living here. For example, a 10 minute drive on the back of a scooter for 60 pence. The prices for things are really really low. Food really low. Like my average dinner has been between 3 and 5 pounds. It's been really really cheap and almost like exploitative.

Speaker 1: 8:57

I felt really guilty when I got here at first. I was like, oh my god, like this doesn't really cost a lot and I felt like a lot of guilt um, I guess you can call it wealth guilt because, like these people work really hard. I had a one-to-one tour guide and obviously I gave her a lot more money than she asked for. Not that I'm flexing, I'm not but what I'm saying is it wasn't a fat energy exchange, so I give her my money. And what she was doing is she was getting up in the morning. She was coming out on like a day tour with me for six, seven hours. Then she was going to the restaurant at like half two we're from half two to half eleven and then getting up in the morning and then coming coming back to get me. Like this is what she did for three days and this is what she was doing for multiple days and then she'd been doing it for maybe like 20 days in a row.

Speaker 1: 9:46

This is the reality of a Balinese person. They don't have a disposable income. You know, her vision board on her phone was just her to be happy and have a car and have um and have a house with her husband. That's literally what was on her vision board and it just got me thinking so much about like how people here they don't have anything but they have so much in terms of like, happiness and community and social connections and I do really really feel like that's why we struggle so much in the west is because we're so individualistic, like it's really common here for people to live together, so they will have your mom, your dad, your aunt, your uncle, your grandparents and your children all under one house, like that is just how you live until your son or daughter gets married and then they can create their own house.

Speaker 1: 10:34

Ok, but you are expected to look after your elders. Okay, but you are expected to look after your elders. You're expected to be in constant communication with your family, which I feel like there's there's two ways on that, isn't it? If you have a really toxic family, it's going to make this situation really, really difficult for you. But if you have, like a really loving family, then that can be like this amazing emotional connection that's so beautiful that we're totally missing out on in the west, which I was just like. This is really interesting, and also the wisdom of your ancestors, like how beautiful is that where your aunt and your uncle and your grandparents can tell you about how things are done and how, about their experiences and how you can connect and you're passing down that ancestral wisdom between generations. Obviously, you're going to have your ancestral trauma as well, but to pass down the wisdom is absolutely beautiful and on that regular basis, and you're likely to have people here who don't have so much childhood trauma, because there are multiple people in the house that will meet their mother or their father energy or requirements, because they'll be your mum, your grandmother, your auntie, or they'll be your mum, your grandmother, your auntie, or there'll be your father, your grandfather, your uncle, so you will have multiple people who can meet your needs. This is why I think you know, regardless of how much of a low you know economic country this is, we are still dealing with like something that is awesome that you know they have that collective culture which is, yeah, we've completely lost in the West.

Speaker 1: 12:04

Now I have not enjoyed Bali in terms of like the people, the tourism, everything. Obviously, I did some tourist, tourist, touristic, some tourist type activity. Of course I did because I'm in Bali, bali I'm going to do the tourist stuff, the stuff I've seen on TikTok come on but also like the spiritual stuff was really really difficult and when I did find out the things I really loved, I did really love it, but I honestly felt like I'm leaving Monday. I could have gotten a plane on Friday, like I looked at bringing my flight forward because I just felt it was so hard to be in this energy. It feels very dense, very low vibrational. I do feel like it's quite disgusting that so many digital nomads are charging western prices and then they're coming here and exploiting the local people. I know that Bali has opened their nomad visas for this to bring like money into the economy, but it's not having a positive effect in the economy because there are still so many people who are poor.

Speaker 1: 13:01

Everything is like geared towards tourists or take a photo, like I literally had to say to my tour guide stop taking my photo, I don't want to take any more photos. I just want to be in this experience, like because they're constantly like pose like this, pose like this, and I'm like no, I don't want to pose like anything, I just want to be here and enjoy the experience. And and when you go to certain locations, there will be designated photographers who will follow you around and take your picture so that you can post it on Instagram. Obviously, I have those photos. I feel a bit of a hypocrite. Okay, because I've got those photos, but when I got to these locations, I didn't know that was a thing and I was like follow instagram. So this is why you can't pay me to come back here. It's just low vibrational.

Speaker 1: 13:48

There are too many people here who claim to be healers, who are not. They're very exploitative their whole, like influx of digital nomads. And you know, living here cheaply, charging resting prices, literally doesn't sit right with me. I feel like the way of the Balinese people is probably getting lost and that's really really a shame, and I guess, like the gods are probably really fucking pissed off, right, because they're out here and they're like why, why are you behaving this way?

Speaker 1: 14:22

I went and had a water purification at Pura Meneng and literally I had to push a woman out of my car because she was so like adamant. She was like buy it, buy it, buy it. She wanted me to buy this um sarong or something. I had to push her out of the car like this is how poor people are like. They become so aggressive with tourists as well, which this never used to be like that. Do you know what I mean? And I just think, yeah, it's time to maybe not come to Bali. If you want a spiritual experience, if you want a holiday, well, you're going to get loads of pictures, you're going to get loads of content if you, you know, you're going to see some nice waterfalls and have a nice time great.

Speaker 1: 15:04

But I still feel like the overall vibe here is off the like. The day I got here, everything just felt really off and you know, gotta listen to that gut feeling right, always gotta listen to that gut feeling and, to be honest, I'm very excited to be going home tomorrow. Obviously, the time distance is a bit of a bitch as well, so it's been quite hard to keep in touch with clients and everything, because I'm usually going to sleep when people are waking up or like. Oh well, like 4 pm in Bali is like8 am in the UK, so yeah, we don't have like tons of time um to talk, because I go, I go to bed early. I'm a little nana, but yeah, what's really interesting about Bali is that like there's not loads of crime rates, but it's all the western people who get drunk and cause loads of problems.

Speaker 1: 15:51

So, yeah, I can imagine, like this sacred land, this deeply sacred, beautiful, spiritual land that is being ravaged by tourists, like it's just really fucking angry, really fucking angry. Like you know, there's obviously a reason why the volcano is going off. There's so many things that are happening here, like in nature, where it's just showing like that the country is just not happy or in harmony. Um, and yeah, I just kind of feel really sad for the Balinese people. Really. I do feel really really sad for them because obviously they, their culture is getting lost. Their culture is now more towards serving tourists, which feels really shit. And yeah, there's a lot of fake healers as they try to just make money off tourists now. And, oh my god, going into the markets is like the worst thing ever because they will barter with you like fuck as well, like yeah.

Speaker 1: 16:45

So buying anything was a bit of a nightmare. Thankfully, my tour guide volunteered to buy some things for me so she could get a reasonable price. But it, you know, it's just really hard. You know, obviously these poor people think, oh gosh, these people from the west are coming and they're gonna have loads of money and help and all of this stuff. But you know, when you're just like I just don't want to fight with a woman in the street about fucking so wrong. Do you know what I mean?

Speaker 1: 17:11

Anyway, I'm gonna leave it there, but I will not be coming back to Bali. I might come back on like a retreat or something, but I would not come back as a traveler, I would not come back on a spiritual exhibition or retreat. You know, I just won't. I just won, won't because it's just really fucking icky here. So get me on that plane home. I'm so excited to come home, which is not like me. I'm never excited to come home from my holiday, ever but yeah, I'm very, very excited to get on that bloody plane home.

Speaker 1: 17:41

So, yeah, let me know what you think. Have I completely pissed you off? Are you in agreement? Because I know that the views are like 50-50 on Bali. Like people are like, oh, it's so, so, amazing. And then some people are like, no, it's not. And I find it so deeply spiritual, intuitive people who are like, yeah, this place is not a vibe. So, yeah, let me know what you think. Hit me up on WhatsApp email. You know the drill. Hit me up on whatsapp email. You know, you know the drill, you know the job, and I'm gonna take my last sleep now before I leave this country and I'll be back in the UK soon. But by the time this, I will definitely be back in the UK and Bali will feel like a dream. See you later.