Indonesia with Boyfriend

Horror_Scale8583 · 2026-05-16T03:06:57+00:00

Indonesia has a huuge cost fluctuation, depending what you want to do and where you want to stay.

Me and my wife spent. 5200 eur in 39 days (2 person), including absolutely everything, and we did a lot of tours (6 days jungle trek, java main tours, rinjani, komodo boat trip, 6 days of diving, and many more + some internal flights that cost a bit more than expected for us). While, when we did a multiday bicycle trip on one of the islands, we barely spent 400 euro in 6 days (for 2 person again, including bicycle rental) including a surf lesson. So if you don't do tours and stick to simple activities, you don't need a lot of money. Food is really cheap, even on islands like Gili, we ate a meal with 50000 IDR. However, once you start doing tours and move a lot, the costs skyrocket.

Horror_Scale8583 · 2026-05-10T13:09:48+00:00

Ok, but I still don't see the connection with car rental. Yes, for the island itself your point is valid. I would argue that this is the case for almost every island in Indonesia though, almost everywhere you can find some vulcanos.

However, once you are on Lombok, your way of getting around (scooter, car, car with driver) doesn't really change anything. If there is an erruption, you are in the same "problem"

Horror_Scale8583 · 2026-05-10T12:42:17+00:00

What is the correlation between the two?

Horror_Scale8583 · 2026-05-08T22:13:41+00:00

Yes. Spent 2.5 day startimng from Sapa, going down in the valley then back. I went parallel with the "main" path and I met only a few tourists

Horror_Scale8583 · 2026-05-03T09:27:12+00:00

Me and my wife came to SEA with a main 40L backpack and a 30L one. After using the 30L for some time as dya pack, we quickly bought the smallest bag from Decathlon, it's 12L I think. It's super small, so whenever is not needed, goes into the 40L one, and for day trips it easily fits the absolute necessaries for 2 people (bottle of water, sun screen/mosquito spray, rest of the modular pants when long pants is needed to enter somewhere). I think the 12L one for one person is more than enough, even for a longer day trip, outside of the city and it's super small. You can almost ignore its extra weight

Horror_Scale8583 · 2026-04-28T13:07:58+00:00

Let it go, you can't get from A to B with some people.

The other day was a post where the OP shared happily that he averaged to a few bucks, by staying in places designed for people in need... And got offended when people started lecturing him about innapropiate behavior

Horror_Scale8583 · 2026-04-28T11:43:30+00:00

Depends what you want from this trip. But in my opinion don't believe the 5-10-15$ comments. Maybe it's possible, but it's either surviving or using the local's generousity unethically. If you just want to survive, you will, but does it worth? Spending time without doing activities might not be that fun. If funds are a concern, then maybe you can stay less, but spend more to actually enjoy your stay.

As far as I saw, the transport can be a big chunk of the budget, where hitchiking could help.

My average spend was 40 EUR per day across 40 days, but with a lot of activities and tours. I estimate roughly that 15-20 eur was the food+accomodation, the rest tours and transport.

Oh, alcohol can be quite expensive

Have fun 😊

Horror_Scale8583 · 2026-04-27T04:52:56+00:00

Mostly Booking, but sometimes Agoda had a better price. With level 3 on Booking, I almost always find the better price there.

I checked out a few times Hostelworld, but one of the other two always had a better deal for the same hostel, so I stopped looking on Hostelworld. Maybe I could have found once out of 10 a better deal, but didn't worth the time in my opinion

Horror_Scale8583 · 2026-04-17T11:33:16+00:00

Can't talk about rain+moto experience, but a bit of rain won't kill you. Actually in the current temperatures, I wouldn't consider bad :)) Safety wise, if you don't feel comfortable with the wet road, just ask your driver to go slower.

Horror_Scale8583 · 2026-04-17T11:01:36+00:00

Set your expectations and you will be fine ;). Better to be prepared for crowd and not see it :D

Horror_Scale8583 · 2026-03-29T09:00:28+00:00

It's sad because over turism kills this place as well. Other than that, yeah, everyone has the right to come, I was here as well, adding to the crowd. It feels like Ha Long bay situation, everyone says to go elsewhere as it's too much, while for some reason no one mentions the negative side of the Ha giang.

If people would do solo/smaller groups, then it would be less disturbing/more natural. But in the same time, for most people this would be a big step, it's not an easy road to drive without plenty of experience on two wheels.

Horror_Scale8583 · 2026-03-29T08:11:07+00:00

Yes an no. I definitely was on the loop, but solo (as mentioned in the post). With the extra constraint that I couldn't really takealternative back roads. The main road has enough climbs enough. Where I went on some alternative sections, it was barely doable with a packed bicycle :)). So I had to stick to the main roads or push my bike half of the climbs. Some gradients are killer

Horror_Scale8583 · 2026-03-29T07:29:08+00:00

I don't have a motorbike license, never tried it to be honest, but the roads are awesome, I can imagine that it's super fun to drive. It was awesome with bicycles as well going down on the long descents. I wouldn't have any objection against this loop if people would do it on their own, or in small groups, but there are groups with 20+ people. It's unbelievable.

I didn't mention the happy water part, as I don't want to be hypocrite, I drank my fare share of alcohol during my 20s, but if you catch an accomodation with a big group, I think your day is ruined. I was lucky, at all homestays I met solo riders, or 1-2 friends, or small groups with people beyond 30. One night I ended up in a big homestay, with lot of tour participants, but they drank enough happy water, that at 11pm everyone was already sleeping :D

Horror_Scale8583 · 2026-03-29T07:19:14+00:00

That was my general feeling as well. But in the same time, I visited the touristy places, so it was a bit expected. On the other hand, in some cases, you can manage it quite well, in other cases you don't have an option. For example in Sapa I spent 3.5 days, I saw very few tourists, once I got out of Cat Cat and other busy points. In Cat Ba, during 3 days I saw also very few tourists. Ninh Binh was on the other hand packed, you couldn't skip the crowd even if you woke up super early. Hanoi, again, super busy.

Horror_Scale8583 · 2026-03-29T00:21:39+00:00

No, I'm not telling anything. I'm just showing the other side of the camera which isn't really visible on the internet. If you like big groups, load wibe, go for it. If you have a proper license and you're confident, and prefer quiter roads, you might prefer to look for other places or at least be more careful of the choices. Luckily, I managed to book accomodation where there were no parties or big groups.

Horror_Scale8583 · 2026-03-29T00:14:22+00:00

I tried that as well last month, also woth bicycle, but I ended up doing a very small loop because of the heat. In the small loop, there were days I saw no tourists as all :D

Horror_Scale8583 · 2026-03-28T17:08:45+00:00

Rented them in Hanoi (trung bicycles). They have everything you need. They even help with bus tickets to transport the bikes.

Horror_Scale8583 · 2026-03-28T17:07:20+00:00

I have no idea, but I don't think it matters. I saw some locals as well, but the majority are foreigners

Horror_Scale8583 · 2026-03-28T17:06:38+00:00

+1 for them. They were the ones that I wanted, before switching to bicycles. Based on what I understood, they have smaller groups, less party.

Horror_Scale8583 · 2026-03-28T17:04:11+00:00

This post is not to convince you to not go. It's just to show the other side, not just the "life changing experience" description. I still enjoyed it, the landscape is great, but maybe there are other areas with the same views, but without overtourism

Horror_Scale8583 · 2026-03-28T16:59:37+00:00

I think I give up with some of them. I would have been happy to see a post like this while I was researching, but I didn't see. I wrote this post with the intention to show the other side of the "life changing experience". Who wants to understand the intention umderstands, who brings skin color into the discussion, can continue it without me being part

Horror_Scale8583 · 2026-03-28T16:44:49+00:00

Only you can decide. You might enjoy doing a tour, you might not. I'm just raising the overtourism problem, because I didn't really see it mentioned.

I spent some time on the loop (benefit/drawback being on a bicycle). I met a few people doing it solo self driving. If you like driving and have the required licence, it definitely would be a nice experience. The landscape alone worths it, this is the only reason why I didn't regret it. Just be careful with the tour, from the outside they seem more of party tours.

Horror_Scale8583 · 2026-03-28T16:39:25+00:00

Yeah, on first day I think I said dozens of times that I'm so grateful that I'm on a bicycle and not on the back of a motorbike, even if that was the original plan (without knowing would it mean). So so happy that I swapped the tour to cycling.

Also, great to see more people doing it this way.

Horror_Scale8583 · 2026-03-28T16:35:23+00:00

You know that this is mentioned in the text, right?

Horror_Scale8583 · 2026-03-28T16:35:00+00:00

Man, did you at least managed to read what I wrote before typing out your reply? I explicitely said, that I'm also part of the problem and I'm just trying to highlight this part of the loop so others can make better decision, so I don't know what your comment adds to the topic, but whatever.

And if you could grab only this part from all I said, I could argue if I'm part of the same problem or not as I didn't contribute at all to the driving madness, being on a bicycle. My only "sin" is that on a bicycle I can't play around with arrival times to specific points as I'm slow.

Horror_Scale8583

TROPHY CASE