If you’re staying in a holiday rental in a village like Tumbak Bayuh in Bali, as we have been, you could find yourself a little frustrated by shopping in Bali, and might be happy to hand over the task to your villa cook if you have one.
While locals generally shop for fruit and veg at the nearest village market, and they’re certainly fun to wander around, according to our villa cook Desak, the quality of produce at the markets is nowhere near as good as the supermarkets.
When it comes to shopping the supermarkets, we have a choice of a handful of medium-sized places nearby such as Tiara, or heading into Seminyak to Bintang supermarket or the gourmet Bali Deli, or to the colossal Carrefour in Kuta, a 30 minute or so drive away depending on traffic. In emergencies, there are tiny warung, or simple convenience stores-cum-snack bars in shacks that dot the village, and plenty of 24-hour mini markets on the road into Seminyak – with plenty of beer, soft drinks and junk food.
Supermarket shelves are crammed with all kinds of Indonesian products, along with the ubiquitous ‘Western’ products seemingly found in every supermarket around the world, from Lipton tea to Nescafe coffee. But the highlight of shopping here must be the array of delicious fruit, from yellow watermelons (that seem to get sweeter by the day) to sublime orange paw paws.
While prices aren’t as low as we were led to believe – and indeed some things are expensive, such as a bottle of Hatten wine (above) – for travellers needing to stock up on toiletries, toothpaste, deodorant and shampoo and conditioner are all ridiculously cheap.
| 2 litre water | R21,000 | £1.53 | US$2.32 |
| 1 litre milk | R13,550 | £0.99 | US$1.50 |
| Bottle of local wine | R150,000 | £10.95 | US$16.58 |
| 650 ml Bintang beer | R20,000 | £1.46 | US$2.21 |
| 100g Nescafe | R73,150 | £5.34 | US$8.09 |
| 250g Java organic coffee beans | R59,330 | £4.33 | US$6.56 |
| Lipton’s tea 50 bags | R15,000 | £1.09 | US$1.66 |
| 1 kg sugar | R11,330 | £0.83 | US$1.25 |
| Jar of blossom honey | R8,970 | £0.65 | US$0.99 |
| 1 loaf of bread | R9,670 | £0.71 | US$1.07 |
| 250g quality butter | R21,980 | £1.60 | US$2.43 |
| 200g NZ cheese | R17,400 | £1.27 | US$1.92 |
| 500 ml oil | R51,300 | £3.74 | US$5.67 |
| 1 doz organic eggs | R16,200 | £1.18 | US$1.79 |
| 1 kilo tomatoes | R22,000 | £1.61 | US$2.43 |
| 1 kilo onions | R14,520 | £1.06 | US$1.61 |
| 1 kilo apples | R21,880 | £1.60 | US$2.42 |
| 250g pistachios | R9,500 | £0.69 | US$1.05 |
| 1 dragonfruit | R18,980 | £1.39 | US$2.10 |
| Total: | R575,760 | £42.02 | US$63.65 |
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