Our Back Yard at Puri Wirata
This was our back yard view from our standard hotel room at Puri Wirata. Our front yard view the Bali Sea, maybe fifty metres from us - although I am never comfortable with metric distance accuracy and feel more accurate with descriptors like "in your face" and "use ear plugs at night" if you aren't used to ocean wave noise.
As I sit writing this from my Best Western style very mediocre room in downtown Darwin, Australia, with no view of anything, that is more than twice the price with breakfast available for only an additional $30 per person, I am reminded of where I would much rather be - even though Darwin is a lovely little city - and will soon happily be returning to: the land of smiles and my second home, I miss you already Asia, and I've only been away one day.
The Dutch began to colonize Indonesia in the early 17th century; the islands were occupied by Japan from 1942 to 1945. Indonesia declared its independence after Japan's surrender, but it required four years of intermittent negotiations, recurring hos... ... read more 
