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Published: March 2nd 2023
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Before I go into any further detail, it is worth pointing out that the original blueprint for the stay in Indonesia was radically different from how it actually turned out. In the original draft, the idea was to explore Sumatra along with Kalimantan, the Indonesian area of the island of Borneo, however, various factors are responsible for this mutating into a visit to the resort island of Bali. For whatever reason was behind it, I was heading Bali-wards, with the intention of staying in 4 different areas over the spread of 12 nights, and the first portion of the stay was a couple of nights in the island's capital city of Denpasar, though hardly bearing any firm relation to the kind of tourist-oriented areas found elsewhere on the island. Denpasar, as I rightly recall, is an enclave of commerce sprinkled with one or two pleasing features which made for interesting enough urban exploration as the short stay there unfolded. The usual suspects which I vaguely recall from the past still held firm as Denpasar landmarks / institutions, yet in reality, the stay in Denpasar acted as a warm-up for a stay in Ubud, the island's cultural capital, and in many ways,
the final word in Balinese culture, if you work your way around it all to a comprehensive extent. The monkey forest is something of an Ubud must-see, and as the years have clocked by, efforts have clearly been made to ensure that attractions of that ilk are bigger, better and more of an experience than previously. The royal palace and surrounding area are worthy of photos galore, and this is a town of artisanal depth, where craft shops selling hand-made Balinese wares abound as a result. If you're looking for a day trip option, and they do exist in no small measure, then a car plus driver is your best bet for a day out of pure exploration, where you can plot your own course at your own leisure. Owing to the initial impact it made upon my first visit, a trip to the astoundingly exotic Lake Bratan seemed to be too much of a hot prospect to cut out of the equation, as a result of which, it was worked into the mix, and provided a different kind of high to it's original impact some 14 years prior. Similarly, dropping by at a terraced rice field will provide an
authentically Balinese view, as will a visit to a waterfall should you feel so inclined. Leaving Ubud, the next part of the itinerary involved a short stay in the coastal town of Seminyak, perhaps best described as something of a commercial extension of the more established resort town of Kuta, further south. Seminyak itself is sufficiently well-supplied for it to be considered a town in its own right, and a few features such as a commendable outdoor market will flesh out your stay here nicely enough, should you seek out these places of interest. A desire to rental a boogie board and repeat an experience to mirror the first visit of riding the waves on a local beach led me back to Echo Beach, part of Canggu beach, now a vastly developed area in relation to its former existence, and a proper resort / beachside town to boot, suggesting that the popularity of surfing and boogie boarding has remained constant and / or developed sufficiently in Bali for the town to develop into something really substantial. The variety of dance show options in Bali, legong dance and kecak dance to name but two were still two bona fide Balinese evening
time entertainment options, but as with the rest of the planet, the re-emergence of tourism in Bali post-pandemic has been a gradual process which might have well frustrated Balinese tourist-dependent locals as much as the Bali bombings did in the wake of the shock terrorist act all those years ago. The stay in Bali had to end with something of note, and Kuta beach was where it came to a close, the brash, sports bar-laden resort town, where a predominantly Australian clientele tend to keep the area awash with a tourist presence and rich in entertainment and leisure options. The local water park, the Waterbom park, is still a reliably fun-filled day out for visitors of all ages, though one constatation was that the once-thriving Discovery Mall located opposite had gone into a palpable decline, and was now looking a fraction of its former self, suggesting that 'moving with the times' is not always forward motion. This then was Bali, 14 years on, and a welcome return to an island of many pleasing cultural features, where the good times still roll, albeit in slightly different ways to a background of a mixture of standards ranging from the polished and improved to the somewhat worn at the heel. Visitors to Bali do get so wrapped up in the Balinese cultural aspects to detract from the fact that this is but one island in a nation comprising over 13,000 separate islands, though only a select few matching the credentials of Bali per square kilometer. However you choose to spend your time in Bali, be it in active or more passive ways, you can be assured that the reasonable cost of living here will make for a pleasing amount of bang for your buck!
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