Bali : buying silvers

After surviving a day without pak supir, the next day we gave in and called him to take us around Bali for the whole day.

If you're looking for pak supir (driver), do not take the ready ones at your hotel or villa - the marked up price is ridiculously high. We had one suggested by our friend, and he charged us 400,000 rupiah for a day - while the one suggested by our villa is 750,000 rupiah. And the places they offer in the package are the exact same ones!

Thank God for experienced and helpful friends.

So the next day, Pak Suchan (our supir) fetched us at our villa at 10 am and took us to our first destination, silver and gold factory. Apparently the goldsmith and silversmith here in Bali are very unique and sought after; they have been in the business since their ancestors' time.

The distance from Seminyak to Celuk, the majority silversmiths' place and where you can easily find silver factories is quite far; we even snored in the van a little. Reaching there was quite easy as there's just a main road lined up with silver and gold workshops, you can see the signs everywhere.

Love the old building design, though.

Upon reaching there, the shop assistant will take you to see how the silver-making process works in their workshop, usually located in the same building as the store, where they put up all the jewelries. 

One shop assistant will accompany you to see the collection and make your decision whether you'd buy or not. I find this quite disturbing as they came off as pushy - there were a lot of earrings and rings and pendants, I need some time to decide!

Oh, make sure you negotiate too. Always.

Even walked around the area too - they have gems like old-school taxis and bikes and houses.

This is actually the shop owner's, we were told. Makes me realize how rare it is to find something like this in a regular household.

No idea how a house in Bali could be this beautiful, but usually it comes with a praying area, hence the design.

Bought a pair of beautiful dragonfly earrings from the place, worth RM30.

Turns out I can't wear it because of my allergy, even though I made sure with the shop assistant that it's 92.5% silver.

T.T

If you're going to Bali and need a driver to show you around, Pak Suchan is highly recommended as he's a Muslim and can take you to places with halal food and surau for your convenience. In Bali, there aren't that many places with praying area for Muslim - he saved us a lot of trouble. The price is reasonable too. Let me know if you need his contact number!