Fact #091
Strange but true
Bali switches off — no lights, no traffic, no flights in or out — for twenty-four hours every year, on a day that always falls at new moon.
Nyepi, the Balinese day of silence, runs 6am to 6am. Everyone stays indoors, artificial light is restricted island-wide, and Ngurah Rai International closes completely: the one day a year a major international airport shuts for a religious observance. Because the Balinese saka calendar puts it the day after the dark moon, the island's darkest night of the month and its darkest night of the year are the same night, and the Milky Way comes out over resorts that normally cannot see it.
Source: Balinese saka calendar; annual Ngurah Rai airport closure · checked Aug 2026