Bali

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After a very long bus ride right into Jarkarta I found myself with little motivation of exploring this big city. So I took another very long bus ride right across all of Java and with the ferry to Bali.

The touristic centre of Bali is Kuta, a beach town on a peninsular south of the capital Denpasar. Between the main street and the beach a maze of alleys offers every kind of accomodation, food, and souveniers a backpacker might think of, a bit like Bangkoks Khao Sarn Road relocated at a beach. But most of the places were pretty deserted. A local shop owner told me that several bombings, the last one in October 2005, scared away the masses of beach bums and surfers that are generally heading for the place. On the last incident two bombs had detroyed an australien-owned night club on the main street. Asked for the reason of the acts of terror he stated that some local people had the feeling of being exploited by australien owned businesses.
Another one made responsible religious extremist based in Java. He said the local balinese culture had been quite friendly and tolerant towards the masses of tourists and the involved western influence.

Compared to the rest of Indonesia I still met lots of tourists. When I roamed through all the shops and stalls I naturally found several places that sold watches. Although this is a common sight for touristic places in south-east asia the quality and the 'level of fake' was pretty high. So I ended up buying a German model that you can see in the picture.

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Photos

Surfing the Waves
Surfing is the reason to visit Bali. The waves are not as breathtaking as in Hawaii but the constant surf rolling in from south-west is pretty good.
For me it was a bit to cold and cloudy to rent a board.

Watchomania...
Those that have traveled with me know that I have a certain fable for watches. Especially fakes of mechanical German watches. Here is what I acquired from a street seller in Kuta. Fully mechanical and self-winding.