On our recent visit to SE Asia, we wanted the convenience of Uber versus being at the mercy of unscrupulous cab drivers. When we arrived in Bali, however, we found that Uber ceased operations on the island (perhaps across Indonesia?). That led us to look for an alternative.

Luckily there’s another option that seems to work as well as Uber: Grab. With Grab, you download the app on your smartphone, add a payment option, and use it just like you would Uber. For us that meant getting local SIM cards for our phones, but these were cheap in every country we visited. From there, it was mostly painless to use the service. They even have an option to rent a car for a number of hours at a fixed price.

Issues We Found with Grab

We did have a couple issues with the service:

• We couldn’t find a driver willing to do a pick up for a trip to the airport. It may have been a busy time, or it may have been due to the location of our hotel. That trip we had to use a taxi.
• Sometimes the app uses a strange location for the pickup. It tries to find a nearby business or to use your last drop-off location even if you have walked several blocks away. This led to confusion with drivers more than once.
• Since you have to chose your destination in advance, you need to make sure the destination is open. One restaurant was closed, so the driver took us elsewhere “to a good seafood place.” It was significantly overpriced, and it was obvious that the driver got a kickback (clip joint). He later asked if we wanted to go to a silver shop he knew or to another of his “recommended” restaurants. I guess you’ll find these guys everywhere.

There are other options like Go Jek or My Car that are similar to Grab, or you can even catch a ride on the back of a scooter (!). For me, Grab works well enough and has a large enough coverage that would be my first choice.