Bali - Indonesia
All our experience of Indonesia is limited to the island Bali which, being a Hindu island surrounded by a predominately Moslem nation is hardly going to be representative - please bear that in mind. Bali was the `middle bit` of a three centre Far East holiday trip which started in Hong Kong and finished in Singapore. It needs to be on your bucket list as it has everything that you need in a holiday. Exotic culture, beaches, volcanos, fabulous food, wildlife, sailing, many different artforms including wood carving, silverware, paintings, weaving, music. It`s like paradise on earth. Ubud in the interior is the centre of art, dance and museums. There we found many arts and crafts shops and a monkey forest. We bought a nice painting of local birds in a tree . We stayed in Sanur beach which we relarively quiet, peaceful and green. If you want nightlife and surfing then a short trip round the coast is Kuta Beach which is full of hairy armed, pot bellied beer swilling Australians - and their men are just as bad. :-) Just a joke folks
The road outside our hotel was populated with little open air restaurants and shops of all sorts (including fake music casettes at silly prices). Eating out was great and very cheap. You will see in the gallery a picture of us getting stuck into a lobster supper - the three courses came to £5. We also discovered Nasi Goreng and Indonesian rice dish that you must try. Masses of seafood of course and we even had spiced ice cream one night - 9 different spices. Rice is a basic component of pretty much everything and there are rice paddy fields and terracing all along the roads. Ploughing the paddy fields is by water buffalo. The culture of Bali is one of slow pace, the people are very tolerant and welcoming to visitors, however, they are also very modest and polite people so it is advisable to dress modestly and behave appropriately. There are roughtly 20,000 temple situated on the island and they pretty much all have at least 2 ceremonies each year so there`s always something going on for you to see.
We travelled around either on a tourist package minibus or using local taxis which were reasonably priced. We had a great driver who knew where to stop and what to show us on our trip up to Ubud. The wood carvings there were quite amazing but much too large to take home. If you are really keen they can arrange to freight them home for you though. Think hard before chosing to hire a car or motorbike/scooter as traffic rules do not seem to apply and particularly in Denpasar (the capital) it can be gridlocked and hazardous. The entire island is volcanic so many of the beaches have black or grey sand based on fine ash/pumice but all the beachs and offshore coral are excellent. I had a session on a sailing surfboard one afternoon much to the amusement of those on the beach. havig done plenty of dingy racing in earlier life I made the basic assumption that sailing one of these would be pretty similar. It isn`t! :-) In fact I still have the bruises to prove it. One observer commented that it was the best hour`s entertainment that he had had for a long time. I did make progress but don`t think I`ll make the Olympics
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