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As our visit here rapidly came to its conclusion, we decided to explore the areas south of the Denpasar/Kuta region and see if finally, we could find somewhere that would leave us with a positive image of this place. Jimbaran is just south of Denpasar airport, yet it is still relatively unknown on the tourist circuit and while the backpackers seem to have found a niche here, most others make a mad dash for Nusa Dua or Benoa whose tiny, narrow roads make rush hour on the M25 look like a country lane on a Sunday afternoon.

Having spent 2 weeks on this island, I’m left with a stunned sense of bewilderment and a rather bad taste in my mouth. If I could have ever stood accused of generalising about one place in particular, then it would have been Bali. Images in my head, reinforced by those that you see on the Internet, draw you in, making Bali one of the top, tropical, tourist destinations for many, yet, the reality is vastly different from how you imagine it to be and far removed from the glorious pictures you see in glossy magazines. Again, Jimbaran Beach was an eyesore. Tourists sit on the beach, eating lunch while filth and muck lies shrewn across the sand and swirls around in the surf before them. Rotting fish are scattered everywhere and despite the apparent cleansing effect of salt water, the smell can be quite overpowering. Honestly, has everyone gone soft in the head or is it just that these tourists have become so institutionalised that they simply feel compelled to return to the same grotty destination year after year?

The one enduring memory had to be all and sundry trying to rip you off and being charged for everything, everywhere you go. We’ll charge you to see our temples, we’ll charge you to see our cliffs and damn, we will also charge you to look at our beaches too. It wouldn’t be so bad if these places were worth visiting, but they aren’t. The natural beauty of Bali is on the inside and this thankfully remains free of charge to see, for now. No doubt, ways will be found to eventually get some kind of financial recompense for this too! Of course, these costs are always hidden from you until you are in a position where it would be embarrassing not to pay up. Even at the airport you are faced with the final indignity of having to pay a 150.000 Rp ‘customer service charge’ to leave this blasted place and are then subsequently ripped off by the many shops and retail outlets that do their best to drain you of your final, last drops of life blood. We had to pay the equivalent of $3 for a small bottle of coca cola at the airport. I understand that admission fees and charges are something every traveller has to face, but it’s the principal that the Balinese people and authorities see every tourist, traveller and backpacker as a contemptable mug who deserves to be over charged, that really gets to me. These people would no doubt sell their own grandmothers if they knew they could make a few quid out if doing it.

While a large percentage of the beaches are grotty, smelly and covered in detritus Thankfully, the interior remains largely untouched for now. Vivid green rice paddies adorn vast terraces and are a marvel to behold. Small huts nestle between banana plantations and farmers lovingly tend to their land and their livestock in full view of those who chose to explore the inner regions. With the exception of the east coast of Bali, tit seems that he nearer you get to the sea, the worse things tend to get. Of course, the most popular tourist areas (especially those that Indonesian tourists from Java and Sumatra tend to frequent) are kept in pristine condition being as tourism is no doubt a huge source of income for the Balinese economy, but the coast and beaches in the north and the south simply defy believe where cleanliness is concerned.

I constantly bang on about longing for more respect, moderation and tolerance in this world and I sincerely mean it, however, when you see a country as naturally beautiful as this one, being slowly buried under a thick layer of garbage by its indigenous population and many of those who chose to come here then it does get to the stage where my tolerance turns to frustration and then eventually to anger.

I encountered the same thing in India. A vast and beautiful country, steeped in thousands of years of culture and tradition, yet almost everywhere you go you find rubbish and filth, with piles of sweet smelling, putrid waste that sits festering in the tropical heat, which no one seems to want to do anything about. When national sporting events come around then national pride is evident for all to see, but this pride and the love for ones own country seems to totally evaporate when itcomes to basic hygiene and cleanliness. Everywhere you go, you see people praying and making offerings to their Gods, they burn their dead and cast the ashes into their holy of holies, The River Ganges, yet while in Varanasi, I personally saw people discarding plastic, bottles and other waste into it, which I found to be rather hypocritical. I've frequently wondered who the Hindu God of Hypocrisy is?

Despite the rubbish, thankfully, this area does have one redeeming feature. Among Bali's places of interest is Uluwatu which is well known for its cliffs and its monkey temple that teeters precariously on the edge of it. A path leads along the very edge of the cliff top, part of it already having being affected by the erosion going on below. I’ve always been curious as to what it is that causes people to throw themselves off of bridges with only a rope attached to their feet or what inspires certain individuals to climb tall buildings or walk tightropes without safety equipment. Well, walking this path was certainly adrenaline pumping enough to please any thrill seeker and it more or less becomes a ‘walk of faith’ as certain parts tilt at an ominous angle with nothing but the crashing sea and rocks below to cushion your fall, should this lot give way. The only sensation I received was a rapid dilation of my sphincter and a feeling of utter dread as I envisioned myself plummeting into the watery void below! ‘Elf N Sayftee’ in the UK would have shut this path down yonks ago. Lets just hope that nobody is actually walking on it when it does all give in to the subsidence and the laws of gravity.

I’ve been to some wonderful places in my life and experienced some amazing things and coming to Bali has made me realise how good some places really are, even if they did make a negative impact on me at the time. Personally, I would recommend that you avoid Bali like the plague. There is nothing here that really stands out anyway, with the exception of Candi Dasa which still remains relatively untouched, thanks no doubt to the huge amount of foreign land and hotel owners who take a pride in their properties and do their best to keep the area clean and free of hawkers.

Anyway, I'm out of here. Next stop, Thailand!

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