Surprisingly, you can chew, chomp, and swallow all the ice your pretty little heart desires in Bali. Why? Because it’s heavily regulated by the government. However, unlike ice or “Aice”, you cannot drink the Bali water.
Avoid drinking from any faucet. It is not drinking water. With that said, you can still brush your teeth with it. I’ve been doing it since day one and so have plenty of other digital nomads too. Just don’t get ahead of yourself and chug it or freeze ice with it. That’s where you may run into a potential Bali belly problem.
Thankfully, you have plenty of bottles of water and canned drinks available. Read more on the Bali drinking culture. With that said, know that a cup of water served at a restaurant is usually filtered. Jugs of water are delivered to restaurants daily and weekly. Not only is this water served for their customers, but also for their employees – this is generally a very good sign for tourist. Why?
Rule of Thumb
The behavior of the locals will help to determine how cautious you need to be about the water you’re served.
If the tap water is not drinkable in said country and the locals don’t drink it, that’s in your favor. It is second nature to them to never drink it or even mistakenly serve it to anyone.
If the locals are known to drink the water, then you are at risk. They don’t see the tap water as a present issue. It may slip sometimes and may accidentally pour, cook or mix it with ingredients.
Want to know more? Here is a fun read with more things to be cautious about like getting a tattoo or drinking the local distilled rice spirit “Arak”…don’t do it.