Bali

What Kuta beach is known for
see all photos »

After Malysia it was off to Indonesia, with the first stop being where else but the fabled island of Bali! Indonesia is a huge country comprised of over 14000 islands, each with its own character. There's no way our 30-day visa was going to even allow us to scratch the surface of the country. We knew we had left the orderly conduct of Malaysia when the Balinese customs official gave us his personal phone number at the airport to use if we wanted to "extend" our visa.

Bali is an ancient hindu island in a mostly muslim country. It is one of the only hindu bastions left outside India, although it only vaguely resembles the religion practised on the subcontinent. Every Balinese seems to frequent tiny shrines located in every nook of the island to make offerings, and there are temples absolutely everywhere, making Bali feel like an intensely spiritual place despite the onslaught of tourists it receives.

The fabled beach
see all photos »

Once in Bali we headed for the beaches of Seminyak, an upscale area 3km of beach away from the international party capital of Kuta beach. Seminyak definitely receives plenty of partyers as well, as there were quite a few clubs around that wouldn't look out of place in wallpaper magazine, i.e. they were very trendy. While we ate quite well at great restaurants for relatively cheap (mmm sushi) the rest of the multi-kilometer beach was a bit of a disappointment. The beach was quite dirty and the swimming wasn't great due to fierce riptides and currents. It seemed like primarily a surfer beach and seeing as we don't surf didn't hold much appeal for us. The endless hawkers hounding you to buy their massages or buy their wares on the beach didn't add to the ambiance either. As such we only hung around for 1 day, but will be back at the end of our trip as that's where the airport is.