Bali Weather: Heat vs Rain / Heat feat. Rain

I believe my adaptation to the country and island itself went very smoothly, but what made me doubtful about staying longer than I planned or not was the climate, more precisely the heat.

I came from the country with four distinguished seasons, where you complain about the cold in winter, the debilitating heat in summer, and never ending rains in autumn. But in Bali it’s kind of the same all year long. Over the time you notice some slight changes but at the beginning it all seems the same.

It’s super hot. I couldn’t breathe. Always sweating. Going out during the day was the worst that can happen to you. And I started to think that 1 year would be enough. But after around 3 months later then slowly rainy season started to come it wasn’t that bad. And I realized I had adapted more or less to this heat and moreover I noticed that I am getting cold at some point and wear a sweater on a bike and similar things locals usually do here.

So basically there are two seasons: dry and rainy. It is considered a dry season from April to October, and a rainy one from November to March. But that’s a lie. Since all these global warming or other related changes of weather, it hardly rains during the whole season. Of course I can compare only last two years, but I can say that in 2014-2015 there was a rainy NY and in 2015-2016 – a rainy Christmas. But apart from that you can count on your fingers the days with rain that lasted all day long. Most often it rained only during the night or early morning. A lot of people want to escape rainy season and stay away in other countries. I cannot understand what they want to run from? Seriously, is this rain so horrible?

This year we’ve had the driest April but with occasional rains in May and even now in June. This is completely out of the usual forecast. Unfortunately some streets in the island are not well prepared for a heavy rain, so they turn into a pool, hiding sometimes big holes in an asphalt or getting flooded enough to kill the engine of your bike. But fun people can find joy in anything. These guys in Kuta decided to do a body-rainflood-boarding (December 2015) (you can watch a full video if you click on a photo).

Originally the mountains are the rainiest part of the island, so if you plan to climb Batur or other volcano for sunrise, be prepared that because of the rain the trip might be canceled or it will make your climbing more complicated and slippery, or the top will be covered with clouds ruining the amazing sunrise view.

If you move around by scooter, don’t forget to buy one of the raincoats you can find anywhere along the streets or convenient stores and remember the safety on the roads.

No matter of the season, it’s important to put a sunscreen lotion on you. The sun will have no mercy to careless people, especially lovers to sunbathe at noon or travel long on a bike in a short sleeve or sleeveless tops. It took me a few months so that my body finally adjusted to the sun.

Starting late May the nights are getting colder and during the day you can feel some breeze around. The water temperature is getting lower as well, and I remember myself shaking on the line-up late July and August. I even bought a 2mm neoprene wetsuit. I am pretty sure if I arrived in August directly from Ukraine I wouldn’t notice a thing, but after swimming in a sea with hot springs temperature, believe me in August it is super freezing! :)

When the climate is more or less not changeable at one point you lose the sense time. Yesterday was May and tomorrow is October. If you work in the office regime at least you can differ weekend form workdays, otherwise you are lost not only in dates but also in days. It’s hard to relate some events of your life to a season like “it happened last winter”... Your memory starts to betray you without seasonal association. Two-month period turns out to be a half a year ago and vice versa.

It’s nice to live in everyday summer, but I’m happy that in my life I’ve experienced how it feels to walk under the snow, or swish the yellow purple leaves under the feet, or smell the blooming of the cherry trees.

#Bali #rain #weather #heat #climate