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Date: September, 2004
Location: Bali, Indonesia
Arriving into Bali I can't tell you how glad I was to be
back in a beach atmosphere!
Almost immediately I met two Australian guys who I ended up hanging with most
of the time. I was staying in a $5/night single room that smelled repulsive anytime I ran the tap
water, but luckily for me the Aussies were staying at a resort with a nice pool and the staff just
assumed I was staying there as well! The area we were all staying in,
Kuta Beach, definitely catered
to the overwhelmingly Australian tourists, but it was full of quaint alleyways and the party scene had
recovered from the terrorist attack on a nightclub that killed 202 people just two years ago.
Almost everyday I went to a different beach area, some more isolated than others. My favorite one though,
Uluwatu Cliff, is renowned for its waves, and watching
surfers hit huge breaks over a shallow reef
area (ouch!) was indeed exhilarating.
For an astounding $5 each the two Aussies, a German gal and I
also hired a driver for a day. We were taken to an enormous volcano, an old Hindu temple area full of monkeys climbing amongst
its violent and sexually-graphic statues, and a village area of indescribable beauty tucked away
in a rainforest area below sea level. Our day trip was unfortunately spoiled by the unfairness
typical of tourism in many third-world countries. After agreeing to a set price with our driver
for a time frame of 9 am to 5 pm, he insisted on more money halfway through the day, claiming he
had to backtrack to get to one of our destinations. We were so angry that we enlisted the "help"
of a policeman who, without even listening to what we had to say, pointed to our driver and said,
"What he say." Between that and the, to say the absolute least, over-aggressive sales tactics at
Kuta Beach I couldn't wait to leave!
Well it could have been worse ... the two Aussies later emailed
me that money had been stolen from their room, and after reporting it to the police they had to pay a
further "administrative fee." Unbelievable.
Overall Bali was beautiful, but unless you're going there to surf I would suggest
something more like the islands of Thailand or the
beaches of Vietnam.
- Greg
For the next leg of Greg's around the world trip, click here...
Or if you want to see what he was up to before Bali, click here...
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