John's Around the World Adventure 2005/2006

We departed Australia after some memorable and enjoyable months to take on a new challenge and adventure, the very different culture of Bali, Indonesia. We stayed in the main tourist haunt of Kuta in two very nice hotels for very little cash (or lots of cash if your talking Rupiah!!!).

At last we had arrived somewhere very, very different to home. From the incessant, uncompromising, yet desperate offerings for 'transport' to the latest fake Oakley Sunglasses, or pirated DVD's, Bali was brash. Those open sewer smells and unique religious offerings with burning incense sticks lining every house and street corner made the experience baffiling. Ladies walking the streets with tonnes of fruit balanced on their heads, men physically pulling wooden carts along the roadside, stray dogs scavaging, you get the idea.

Next stop on our tour was the Gunung Anung Volcano towering over Bali at 3142m, where we had a pleasant lunch looking over the view on a cliff edge restaurant on stilts. We also attended a traditional Balinese Dance, The Barong and Kris, representing the fight between good and evil in a religious context. Further sights of interest included temples, caves, water springs, courts, rice paddy fields, fruit growing areas, and silver and wood carving sellers.

I would describe Bali as chaotic, communication was sometimes a blur, hundreds of motorbikes and cars incessantly sounding their horns and people really didn't seem to know what was going on. Despite this, the region clearly is making strides to develop itself, recovering from the bombing and tsunami, and its blighted corrupt history. Bali continues to fit a second-world country model as many of its people are still incredibly poor and this saddened me significantly

The cheap food and Bintang beer were all positives, and the opportunity to barter for almost everything was very much a challenge. Whilst in Bali we decided to take an island tour, encompassing main attractions such as the impressive Mother Temple- Pura Besakih, lining the mountainside. We even had to wear sarongs on this occasion! Yeah Baby