Golden Cage Heritage Hostel is not a corporate hospitality project. It was built by Martin — a Jakarta-born explorer who moved to Bali in 2010, spent a decade discovering places that didn't exist on any map, and is now doing the same thing for Denpasar's Heritage District.
The Beginning — Bali as a Gateway
Martin grew up in Jakarta. In 2010, he made a decision that most people in his position wouldn't: he moved to Bali. Not to retire, not for the beaches — but because he saw something others hadn't yet seen.
"I saw Bali as the gate of Indonesian tourism," Martin explains. "Everyone was coming to Bali. But what I wanted was to take them further — to the rest of Indonesia that nobody was visiting yet."
At the time, Bali itself was still largely unexplored beyond the obvious. When Martin arrived in 2010, there was only one waterfall known on the island: Git Git. He spent the next two years exploring — not as a tourist, but as someone methodically mapping what existed.
"Nusa Penida was empty. The hidden beaches had no names. I'd find a waterfall and there would be no path to it — just jungle."
Between 2010 and 2012, Martin discovered waterfalls, beaches, and viewpoints that would later become famous across Instagram and travel blogs. He wasn't trying to make them famous — he was simply following his instinct that the best places in Bali were the ones nobody had heard of yet.
NEWbali — 2013 to 2020
In 2013, Martin turned his exploration into a mission. He founded NEWbali — one of Bali's first tour companies explicitly focused on non-touristic destinations. While other operators were running the same Ubud rice terrace and Tanah Lot circuits, NEWbali was taking guests to places that didn't appear on any itinerary.
NEWbali ran successfully from 2013 to 2020. Then the pandemic stopped everything. But something else had also been happening gradually: social media had caught up. The hidden places Martin had discovered were no longer hidden. Nusa Penida had become one of Bali's most-visited islands. The "secret" waterfalls had queues. The empty beaches had cafés.
"Those non-touristic places had already become touristy," Martin reflects. "So I decided to get out of the game." It wasn't defeat — it was the same instinct that had served him well before: when everyone arrives, move on.
Finding Denpasar — 2024
For a few years after NEWbali, Martin observed. He traveled. He thought about where the next genuinely undiscovered place in Bali might be. The answer was hiding in plain sight.
In 2024, Martin became intrigued by Denpasar's Heritage District around Jalan Gajah Mada. The observation that struck him was simple but profound: everywhere he had traveled in the world, heritage districts were packed with tourists. Not in Denpasar.
"Wherever I traveled, the heritage site always packed with tourists. But not in Denpasar. I thought — this is the place."
The same eye that had spotted Git Git's unknown waterfalls and Nusa Penida's empty beaches was now looking at a heritage district in the capital of Bali — full of royal palaces, 100-year-old Chinese shophouses, active temples, and the best traditional markets on the island — with almost no tourist infrastructure around it.
Golden Cage — 2025
In 2025, Martin opened Bakung Flower Shop on the ground floor of Jl Kartini No 51 — a space that now supplies flowers and offerings to the surrounding heritage community. Then he converted the second and third floors into Golden Cage Heritage Hostel.
The first booking arrived in January 2026. Since then, many guests who come expecting just a transit stop end up staying longer than they planned.
The hostel currently accommodates 12 guests in dormitory rooms, with a rooftop terrace that overlooks Denpasar's heritage district skyline. Every check-in includes a personally curated message from Martin with pinned locations for the best local food, coffee shops, laundry, and groceries — the kind of insider knowledge that takes years to accumulate.
Golden Cage is not trying to be the biggest hostel in Bali. It's trying to be the most honest one — a place where the host actually knows the neighborhood, the guests actually connect with local life, and the experience is genuinely different from anything else on the island.
Come Stay With Us
12 beds. One rooftop. A host who knows where the real Bali is. Book directly via WhatsApp — no platform fees, no middlemen.