Bali Tourism News

“NINETY THOUSAND,” said the driver who brought me from international airport of Bali to my hotel in Nusa Dua. “Ninety thousand, for what? It is such a short drive,” I asked.   Admittedly it was the start of my confusion to remember how much ‘rupaih’ is equal to Indian rupees or for that matter US $. Thanks to my bad maths, the problems remained with me during my stay in Bali. It was possible to spend half an hour debating the last few thousand rupaih and getting quite irate when drivers won’t back down, before a bit of effortful mental arithmetic reminds me that I’m arguing over just US $ 1.

Welcome to Bali! We left behind the honking traffic of Denpasar and walked into the marble foyer of Melia Bali villas in Nusa Dua to live up to the clichĂ©s. Werner Vom Busch, our host in Bali, told us that we are lucky that the rain has not started in Bali thus animating the scent of flowers in the air. The wind from the sea was sharp creating  a romantic atmosphere. “This is paradise,” someone observed, calling on all his imaginative resources.

Bali had always conjured visions of sandy white beaches with palms, packed with gap-year backpackers and surfers in sarongs under a vast sky of stained glass blue. Bali is always busy. But you would not know it from inside the secluded grounds of Melia Bali - 15 acres of tropical flowers and private luxury villas, a huge pool, amphitheatre and its own stretch of beach. But once you take half an hour drive from Nusa Dua to Kuta, you will soon fel that you’ve come to a different place.. It is a party town - loud, raucous.

Kuta it is also a nice place to stay. Busy, lots of shops and some nice restaurants such as the well-known Poppies, which is a hotel that has a lovely restaurant in a garden setting - the steak;  Mexican coffees tempted me back three times. I stayed in Adhi Dharma. It was just a holiday hotel and didn’t have a lot of character but it was very comfortable and had a nice swimming pool with a lovely bar.

In Bali, as Rita, a Bali based journalist later told me that the people of each island identify themselves firmly with their birthplace.  Local dialects differ significantly. While rooming around in Bali I noticed that people are very religious. 94 per cent population of Bali is Hindu. One could see people going to temples and putting offerings, made from plants and flowers, on the ground as well as on higher ground for the bad and the good spirits every time. We constantly tripped over the offerings as they were often in the middle of the pavement.

The Bali bombing has created a culture of fear, which has deleterious a effect on the tourist industry on which the life of most of Balinese dependent. Daya, the cab driver said that after the bombing in Bali the number of visitors has dropped considerably. “There is very little business,” he kept saying as he drives us around Bali.

Later in the evening I met Philip and Anderson who had both moved from Australia to work in Bali. Both seemed lyrical about the Balinese way of life: the serenity, the peacefulness, and the beauty. Nightlife in Bali starts late, which means around midnight. The pubs, bars and discos of Kuta are just blusterous.

But I didn’t found the island a good place to shop. The reason is that I am not a good shopper and bargainer. The sales boy or girl will leave you in a clumsy situation with an awkward question – “This is our prize what is your price boss!” It is possible that you would end up bargaining for hours without any chance of getting the item at a cheaper rate.