Badung Market The Largest Traditional Market in Bali

I thought visiting Badung Market (Pasar Badung) in Bali would revoke my childhood memories of roaming around the traditional market near our home in Jakarta with Amma.

I was expecting small and dimly lighted rows of colourful stalls. For my nose to be hit by multifarious smells, from eye-watering spices to the putrid smell from the butchers’ stall. I could still recall the humidity of the market from my childhood. How it was a constant maneuver to avoid piles of water here and trash there back then. Not to mention trying to ignore the abundance of flies.

Badung Market

Well, a lot must have changed since then, because stepping into the Badung Market, I was greeted by a cool breeze. The four-floored market was huge, with an open-air plan allowing good circulation of air. It even supported both elevators and escalators. Definitely very different from the one and only, heavily foot trafficked, stair connecting the two floors we had for the market back home.

I sighed a sense of relief. The whole place was clean and not a single fly in sight.

What I noticed though, despite that it was mid-day on a Saturday, Badung lacked the usual market buzz. Only a few sellers were busy dealing with the customers.

Others were playing with their phones or chit-chatting with their neighbour stalls, but most of them were just sitting on their stalls, looking bored. None even bothered acknowledging when my camera clicked their way.

I guess the tourists in Bali have become the norm. Not worth lifting your head up. Kinda like the fly.

I made my first stop at the fruit stall that displayed all my favourite tropical fruits in the first row. Mango, mangosteen, and snake fruit. I bought them all and ate some on the spot. It was so good!

The second floor (I took the elevator) had non-perishable food, household items, and kitchen utensils. This is where I feasted on all kinds of local snacks. The ones my Amma used to get for me every morning in front of our school gate.

High on both natural sugar and unnatural colouring, I roamed around the market until I finished my film roll.

The poultry stall displayed chickens that were dead and skinned. Completely different from my childhood memory of seeing live chickens being slaughtered and skinned in front of me (maybe this memory explains my fascination with the true crime). I eavesdropped on the local conversation between the seller and the lady who was buying a few kilos worth of French shallot. I passed by a tray of the reddest chilli. I used to eat the same kind as a condiment every afternoon with my colleagues in Jakarta.

Other than the much calmer vibes for a traditional market, another striking difference in the Badung market as compared to other traditional markets I have been to in Indonesia was the miniature altar displayed in almost every stall. It’s not unlike the red Buddhist altar you see in some places in East Asia, including in most of the hawker centres in Singapore.

When you think of Bali, the traditional market might not even be on the must-see/do/try list. I get that. But the true call of travelling, at least for me, has always been to take a peek at the parallel universe of the local life in other parts of the world. Also, visiting Badung Market, or any other Bali traditional market guarantees a refreshing side of the over-commercialized island of the Gods. That and to munch on some local snacks.

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