Blogs from Indonesia, Asia - page 619

Bali is one of my favourite travel destinations, dear reader. This Australian tourist mecca on the Indonesian archipelago is only a seven hour flight from Sydney, and the first five hours are spent flying over the mighty Australian continent. Friends from home decided to have their wedding ceremony in Bali, and I was privileged to be invited at what turns out to be my second flight to Bali as a wedding guest. I've visited the magical island several times, but this was the first time since the Bali bombings in 2002. On arrival I paid my respects at the memorial to the victims in Kuta, built just across the road from the remains of the two clubs that were totally destroyed in the terrorist attack. I spent some time alone reflecting on the huge loss of ... read more

sunday our bali pictures can be found here. our first balinese morning we woke up an hour early than the proposed time. darwin didn't draw the curtains last night just in case we oversleep so we were up just as early as the sunrise. it was a beautiful morning! the sun was very bright, pampered by the absence of tall buildings and smog. it has been continuously raining in singapore when we left that the yellow beams filtering through the hotel windows were met with silent cheers. darwin showered first, followed by me then ritchie. we also packed our bags for transfer to the sister hotel where we'd stay for the rest of our trip (they couldn't accommodate us on the first night). by 8am, we headed to the restaurant for br... read more

Indonesia is my favorite country in SE Asia. I visited this beautiful country in September 2004, just a week after the bomb blast at the Australian Embassy in Jakarta. I decided to visit Bali and Java islands, as I wanted to see Borobudur temple near Yogyakarta. I had to take 7 flights Hanoi - Sai Gon - Singapore - Denpasar - Yogyakarta - Singapore - Sai Gon - Hanoi on Garuda Indonesia (US$650 for only flights). I did not include Jakarta on this visit. The first place in Bali that I visited was Sari club bombing memorial site, where 202 people were killed on Saturday night October 12th 2002. There were tears in my eyes, as I walked toward the fence of the site and saw a flower wreath from the Australian Embassy and happy smiles ... read more

brillant little island! beautifull waves for surfing and diving at the other site! mountains, vulcano's and nice tempels! Even nicer people to guide us around the island! jigijig massage?! thanks mate but no thanks! lets just enjoy the weather and surf's up! ... read more

Well this has probably been my favourite holiday ever! The first day will go down in my personal history as the greatest night out ever! We fly out of Sydney and headed to Melbourne (for some reason our flight went via there??) at 9am I bought the first of what would become MANY rounds. He hopped back on the plane bound for Denpasar. There was many beverages consumed on the course of the 6 hour flight. So many in fact that they even refused Adam a scotch... for a while. After we land we were keen to get in amongst the Bali action. After being dropped off at our hotel, The Barong, Kuta, we headed straight across the road to a restaurant and got 2 large bottles of BINTANG!! (Gotta love that BEER) we had a ... read more