Bali - Aussie hangout and cultural centre.

Bali, with its population of 4.4m people, sits along the chain of the Indonesian Islands, and it sits next to the Island of Lombok, and we visited both.

Bali has traditionally been the Indonesian destination for Australians; close, cheap, and warm. We arrived in Bali before our trip to Lombok, staying overnight in a small beachfront hotel at Candidasa before departing to Lombok. We returned seven days later by boat after our extended stay on the Gili Isles.

While Lombok is mainly Muslim, Bali is 85% Hindu and is strikingly dotted with many religious temples and altars, almost on every corner. We were immediately struck by its developed nature and, in the resorts, the population of Australian Tourists. Our hotel was in Seminyak, north of Kuta, south of the island. It may be our favourite hotel, sitting right next to the flat sandy beach, which resulted in large rolling waves fed by the Indian Ocean, providing a backdrop to our sleep. We enjoyed cool swims in the hotel pools and cold beers from its bar. Our mornings started with views of the breaking waves from the balcony perched over the beachfront.

Bali was, for us, a seven-day rest period and the first opportunity for Jacqui to see her sister Sharon, and nephew Bradley, in person for three years.

We didn’t rest for too long; hiring a local driver, we spent a whole day visiting several local sites, including its main active volcano, Batur. On the way, we saw rice terraces featured in many holiday photographs of Bali. We were struck with how touristy they had become, and whilst planned, they weren’t really productive in design. We also visited Tirta Empul Temple at Tampaksiring, a beautiful site some thousand years old built around a still active sacred spring. Tourists flock here, many to bath in the water flowing from a line of spouts. In many ways, this was quite funny; western tourists, clad in green satin sarongs, held their hands together in prayer as they dipped their heads into the clear, cool water. They had, at least for 10 seconds, found religion, probably unaware of its significance.

Bali is full of temples and natural places, such as waterfalls and protected forests. We visited another temple at Uluwatu, close by, with its own group of mischievous monkeys. Perched on a cliff, visitors flocked to photograph it at sunset and attend a fire and dance show. We also visited a local waterpark (Waterbom) and participated in the obligatory ‘tourist tat’ shopping, something we enjoyed in this bartering nation.

Food (and booze) was much more western in terms of the selection than Lombok, and we had everything within 500m of our hotel, from local Indonesian, Indian, Mexican, and even Burger King. The local larger called Bintang turned out to be owned by international brand Heineken - it tasted like it too.

There were thousands of Australians around, many of whom had come to enjoy the surf, cheap (1/3rd of the cost) tattoos and all-year sunshine (given that most of Australia are currently in winter).

We found Bali generally cheap; however, some prices were similar to that of the UK, a price we believe its main Australian customers will tolerate. Bali has 60-65% of its income pegged to the tourist trade. Many locals spoke of how it had been devastated by COVID-19, which reduced visitor numbers to about 50 last year. Yes, 50 people, from 1.5million.

Bali struck us as a good combination of a ‘western’ holiday destination, with nightclubs, food bars and beautiful beaches, natural offerings, history and inviting people. It’s pretty far from the UK, some 18 hours in flight time, generally with at least one stop.

We enjoyed our time with Bradley and Sharon and departed Denspar after a lovely breakfast overlooking the beach.

M&J