Bali & Yogyakarta

Bali: understanding the mythology and the reality

Bali is one of the world’s most recognisable destinations — and one of the most mythologised. The actual island is extraordinary: 5,780 square kilometres of volcanic mountains, terraced rice paddies, and Hindu cultural tradition that has been largely intact since Hinduism retreated from the rest of Indonesia to Bali in the 15th century. The 6,000+ Hindu temples that dot the landscape are not heritage sites but active daily centres of religious and community life. Cremation ceremonies, temple festivals (odalan), and daily offerings (canang sari — the small palm-leaf baskets of flowers and food placed at doorways, shrines, and crossroads) are not performances for tourists but expressions of the Balinese spiritual world that structures daily life.

Bali’s two realities coexist in a way that takes time to navigate. The tourist-facing Bali — Seminyak, Canggu, Kuta, and parts of Ubud — is an international lifestyle ecosystem of cafés, yoga studios, surf schools, co-working spaces, vegan restaurants, and Instagram infrastructure. The Balinese Bali — Denpasar’s market streets, the rice farming communities of Jatiluwih, the traditional dance villages of Batubulan, the fishing villages of Amed and Candidasa — is a genuinely distinct cultural world operating in parallel. Teachers who stay long enough, learn enough Bahasa, and move outside the tourist zone access the second Bali. Many don’t.

Teaching English in Bali

Bali’s teaching market is real but genuinely smaller and more competitive than its profile suggests. The positions available:

Where to live in Bali

The honest Bali teaching experience

Yogyakarta: the city that gives teachers context for all of Indonesia

Yogyakarta is included in the Bali page because teachers who are drawn to Indonesia’s cultural depth and natural beauty — which is what Bali promises — should consider Yogyakarta as a serious alternative or complement. Yogya offers what Bali’s tourist infrastructure often prevents: genuine, deep engagement with Javanese culture, community, and history.

The case for Yogyakarta over Bali for culturally-motivated teachers: Borobudur and Prambanan are 30–40 minutes away, not a day trip from across the island. The active gamelan and wayang kulit tradition means you hear and see the arts as daily cultural life, not as performance for tourists. The Sultan’s Palace (Kraton) is still an active royal court. Living costs are Indonesia’s lowest among major cities. The local community’s engagement with foreign teachers — through language exchanges, university connections, and the arts community — is genuinely open and welcoming. And the food: Gudeg (young jackfruit curry, the city’s defining dish), sate ayam Madura, and bakpia (sweet bean-filled pastries; the city’s most beloved gift) are available from IDR 15,000 a meal.

FAQ