Blogs from Indonesia, Asia - page 529

Our late-night arrival in Ubud, though clouded by weariness, pissed-offness, and a general sense of frustration, had nevertheless been accompanied by images of art galleries, silversmiths', handicraft shops, and spas lining the streets on our way to the town. And our first morning in Ubud only reinforced the sense of an artistic streak running through the region, which continued through the fortnight we were there. Waking up in our room, which we'd not yet seen in daylight, the painted carvings on the door and flowers on the bedside table seemed like nice touches, but it was only when venturing outside that the sheer quantity of "nice touches" became apparent. Statues of creatures from Balinese Hinduism were dotted throughout the guesthouse's grounds. Exotic flowers including orchids and frangipani lent their colours and scents to an overwhelming background ... read more

Hello to all, Just thought i would start my blog off with a small entry about our stay so far in Bali. Hotel is crap weather is rubbish and the staff are useless. Im sure thats what you would like me to say but i cant, its awesome here and i have already managed to get sun burn lol :) Adding a few photos for you to look at, i will make a bigger more detailed entry as to our adventures here once we get to Oz, which, im sure will be just as crap.... read more

...is what I was singing along with as I jumped around in the Indonesian equivalent of a mosh pit with scores of pre-pubsecent Indonesian boys (and a few westerners!) on Kuta Beach, Bali, and for just over 2 weeks I fell in love with the paradise that is Indonesia (cheesy but true!). Forget buckets on the beach and the tuk tuks of Thailand, its all about Indonesia. Ignore the bird flu and claims of militant extremism and just come!I flew into Ubud, the cultural heart of Bali, from Sydney, glad to be finally off on my travels again. As soon as I got out of the airport the smells and sights of Asia seemed to hit me, as familiar as Mum's cooking. It was good to be back. Ubud is quite large by Bali standards - ... read more

So for our final 10 days it was off to Candi Dasa, a small village on the East coast of Bali. We had booked ahead after it was so busy in Ubud but actually changed places once we had looked around the village and found somewhere that was right by the sea, had better facilities and was cheaper!! We hadn't really planned on doing too much during our time here but lie in the sun and swim in the pool but as things turned out we ended up doing quite a few things. We astarted off with a couple of days in the sun but I was soon tempted into going on a fishing trip!! I have never fished in my life before but an Australian guy called Jim was keen to go out with the ... read more

The journey to Bukit Tinggi was not quite as bad as we had anticipated....the 16 hour bus ride seemed to just fly by...no joke. At this stage in the game, we don't even blink an eye went we are about to get onto another night bus. The ride was fine, quite bumpy, slippery and slidey for the most part since the road pretty much disappeared during the night and we found ourselves driving through deep, slippery mud. No sleep for us that night. We arrived in Bukittinggi at 9am, check into a hotel and went to sleep. The next day we joined a Dutch couple, that we had met on the bus, on a day tour of the countryside around Bukittinggi. We visited a coffee roasting house, historic Minangkabau houses, woodcarvers, weavers and a dirty lake ... read more