Kuta, a popular destination on the island of Bali had been teh site of a bomb blast last fall. The Sari Club bomb had claimed 200 lives. So far some suspects have been identified but no one has been caught. The blast has left about a half a block destroyed. Despite this, and the war in Iraq and SARS, there are still quite a few travellers though the locals everywhere in Asia say tourism is down considerably.
Bali has retained much of its Hindu traditions even today and the Balinese have an interesting blend of traditional and modern outlooks. All businesses (and houses too) clean out the front yard and place colorful offerings to invite the good spirits in. Temple celebrations are common and seem to take place every full moon. Plenty of festivals are celebrated as well.
I met up with Nick, one of the BootsNAll guys (BootsNall.com is a great website for travellers) who recently moved to Bali and is working hard to establish BootsNall there. Nick treated me to lunch at an Indonesian cafe and I had my first Nasi Campur (Indonesian rice with many side dishes). He gave me some great tips on things to do in Bali. We met up for dinner as well and I got to hear about some of Nick travel adventures. One of the funniest was when he was flying back home after spending some time and all his money in SE Asia. He checked in at the Hong Kong airport (or was it Singapore?) 17 hrs early and had only $4 left. He found out he needed $20 for airport tax. He didn't have any credit cards or ATM cards on him! He had to come up with $16 in 17 hours somehow. He sat around the terminal trying to come up with a plan and was thinking about setting out any saleable items he had in his backpack and sitting down with a garage sale sign. Finally, with some hours to spare, a fellow passenger he had been relating this story to bought something out of his backpack!
From Kuta, I went on to Amed on teh east coast of Bali, taking up some of Nick's suggestions. The drive to Amed was very pleasant. WE passed many paddy fields set in the valleys of the surrounding hills. Plenty of palm tress dotted teh landscape. What lush green vegetation! The rice fields were a lighter green than the forestation and were often stepped to trap water more effectively. Every now adn then, glimpses of the sea could be seen inbetween two hills. I think I enjoyed this verdant scenery better than teh beaches.
I had my own pretty cottage at the Three Brothers REsort in Amed. There was a little lotus pond with a mermaid fountain right outside my front door. And the black sand beach was just meters away.
In Amed, as in teh rest of Bali, people approached me all the time wanting to ascertain if I was Indian. The Balinese are the only people on earth who recognise that I'm Indian (more on this later). And being Indian, I was instantly popular. The Balinese love Indian movies and seem to think that Indian women are really beautiful. I was perpetually being asked if I liked Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and other ppoular Indian actors. Curiously enough, many Balinese respect Sai Baba who is a modern day Hindu sage in India.
I met interesting people on many of my walks along the beach. There was a group of young men who worked in nearby resorts sitting around on teh beach adn playing music. It was around dusk and the music was relaxing and they threw in some Eric Clapton specially for me. I met a bunch of young girls who were washing each other off on teh beach. They were quite excited that I stopped to talk with them adn they kept pointing and talkig amongst themselves. I'm clearly not used to being a novelty. And they were so delighted when Iw anted to take some pictures of them. So amid shrieks of delight, I got ehir brother to take some really cute pictures of us.
I went on to Ubud from Amed in a bemo. Ubud is famous for arts and crafts, cultural shows and beauty parlours. I attended some fabulous dance performances. I saw the Kecak dance that related the story of the Ramayana (Hindu Epic).
I just love how friendly the BAlinese are (even when they're not trying to sell you anything). And there's so much still left to see in Indonesia. I can't wait to come back. But for now, its on to Kuala Lumpur next.