Bali, Indonesia
 

As most of you know, I am an Aussie. And as some of you may know, Australians are now saying Bali is one of the most dangerous places to visit for us Aussies - if its not terrorist threats or tidal waves, then its being set up with drugs and shot by an indonesian firing squad.

however - before all these warnings my friends and i spent $3000 and booked a 1 week holiday to Kuta, Bali.

Now everyone i know is begging me to forfeit my $$ and stay at home for my holiday... i just dont know who to believe.. should i be brave and still go ahead.. or should i let the media control my holiday and go to the beach in Umina for a week instead??!!

Is anyone in the Cellarfrom Bali or Indonesia or have been there recently? Could you shed any light on my worry at all??

<a href="http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_918.html">Here</a> is the advisory from the U.S. State Dept.

I would still go. However, I am arguably not right in the head.

Lcanal is working there, maybe he can help

Lcanal - Any help??

Some friends of friends just came back from there and said that Australians are being treated as 2nd rate citizens at the moment over there..

Tourism tends to be all about the Dollars, be they Aussie or American.

Tip well and the people will love you.

I would be more concerned about things like the nightclub bombings than being snubbed by waiters.

Overall, what are the odds of something happening, really? 1:10,000? 1:100,000?

Go, have fun.

Go, take pictures, send them to me. :D

Yep, please the nude beaches of Bali.

If i'm going to be blown sky high.. i'll be clad in cheesecloth.. thakyou very mucho!!

;)

I asked the Aussie's here. One one comment today. I'll give you my input tomorrow.

From Paul,

Tell your mate one thing.

The scum bags that are currently in Jail in Bali deserve every fucking thing they get. The sooner the shoot the blobby lot of them the better. They know the penalty for drug running and they still try it, they think the Indonesian are soft and easy to put things over, so they tried running drug through here and guess what "they lost" so shoot the grubby bastards and let's get on with life.

Tell him to come and have a great time in Indonesia, it's a great Country with great people, it only sucks for drug runners "as it should".

I just wish we had the death penalty for drug runners back home in Australia.

If it were me, I would go. Bali is beautiful. You've already paid for it. Don't smuggle drugs. You'll be fine.

Exactly. Don't get done for drugs and then moan about it. You had a choice. Unless you're innocent. But drugs can get planted on you anywhere. Be alert, don't faff with your mobile phone while your handbag gets intercepted, you'll be fine. Stupid tourists deserve nearly as much as the proper drug smugglers.

The whole Corby thing has been blown out of all proportion but it applies when travelling anywhere, lock your fucking bags - Catwoman is right. Personally I think she's probably innocent and had the stuff planted, it's so common it's not funny. Bali is gorgeous, go and don't worry about the whole 'terrorism' thing, it's all crap.

Thanks for all your advice guys, and certainly i will be TRIPLE locking my bags, and getting that plastic wrap lock stuff put on too.. i am even going to film my bag before i lock it up. I hate drugs, and i hate people who push and run them and yes i agree that they all deserve to be shot (not the innocent ones of course).

But the media here is going CRAZY with anti bali reports and corby, and the Bali 9, and riots from aussies toward the indonesians, and the bombings, and the crazy weather.. it does eventually get to you. I guess i will end up going..

watch your step and don't forget the PICS !!!!!!!!

go! have a blast! and i second the motion for the beach pics! :devil: we don't have to see you on the beach topless albeit, that would be fine too! :blush:

well i'll c what i can do ;)

Corby just got 20 Years jail time.. so that has sent one of my friends scared factor right off the dial.

I'll keep y'all posted!

Forget all that dumb stuff if you were living in france you wouldn't even know who she was and would quite happily have a great holiday on an Island paradise.
Do you need a contact person there there to ease your pain? A running friend of my Shari is working in a Spa there.
Check out Bali hash House Harriers on the web and ask them what you should do?

How can anything involving the word "hash" make her feel better about going?? ;)

haha!! Hash HOUSE!!

yeah my defence lawyers would LOVE my contac there ... :)

*jokes*

Thankyou Lcanal.. I will look that up

Hey Wolf either make the effort to visit their web page or back to the ignorance thread.
Flippancy is fun I know but hardly helpful.

What link? I don't see any links. :confused:

www.balihash.com There you go.

Any reference to my helping with toilet training would be supurfluous.
I'm sure you an intelilligent person but lassitude seems to be a desease on the web

Think maybe that link was hi-jacked?

That link is dead. I actually found the real one (I think there was a hypen involved) and saw many pictures of short people drinking beer. And one somewhat scary one of middle aged women showering.

What the hell are you talking about? I asked for a fucking link and you lecture me about toilet training. Do you feel ok? :confused:

Wolf,

I don't even have to look. :lol: I can assure you I've seen worse.
It's like a rugby club without the pain.

Thanks for that contact LCanal - shari made lots of sense.. she is defo a great contact!!

Appreciate it

Well i am BACK IN OZ!! I'M ALIVE!! I have SO many stories for you all but it will take me forever to type them all out and i am absolutely exaughsted! I made a great documentary and I am so happy with it and took heaps of great photos. Post all soon!!

Great Lady glad you had a large time. When ya have time speak some Indonesian to this redneck. :lol:

my favourite part of the trip..
 

the rice terraces

i met a monkier...
 

he wasnt so smooth though :)

At the fruit markets..
 

Bartering for YUMMY curry boiled peanuts

rice terraces again
 

i was mesmerized by the hard work that goes into these places. i was told by one man that one rice plant produces approx. 1kg of rice per year!

Smells Galore
 

Some of the nicer smells on the island came from these drying mats.

if you look to the right of this picture you will see mats full of colours... they were drying things like safran, cloves, curry and all this weird herbs and things,, when walking past the smells were delightful.

At the sari / paddys site
 

banners

memorial
 

the memorial. I was shocked at the amount of Australians

more monkying around
 

this one was having a TwEeK!! and i thought his little mate mohawk monkey was too cute!

pullin
 

bong on monkeys!!

kuta driving
 

I was informed (after screming in the back seat "Hati Hati" at the driver (be careful) that there are no rules, no speed limits.. and you dont "really" have to have a license to drive!! i saw 10 yr olds driving motorbikes with a newborn babay riding sidesaddle!!

the main street of Kuta however was very slow (many pedestrians)

more to come but i am going home 4 now...................

Wow, they've got new age whackos in Bali too?

Great snaps, Sparkz!

Outstanding!

These are great. Keep them coming!

Lovin' the monkeys...

allrighty... so i think i had a great time, although i have mixed feelings from my holiday.. some things were absolutely awesome, beautiful, CHEAP and amazing! Others really disturbed me, ya know the dirt, poverty and disgusting vulgarity and desperation of the balanise people. the first two days i was like.. OMG what have i done? i want to go home NOW!! argh!!

But about day 3 i guess i climatised a little and started to really enjoy myself..

went to the AMAZING hot springs, monkey farms, rode through the forests, went to the volcano, went to the big lake and up the kuta mountain, went to the waterfall (couldnt believe there were annoying little hagglers EVEN on the mountan side!! amazing) we went to all the farms and rice terraces, poppies lane, the memorials, had lunch at this guys house who was at the bomings and he showed us all his photos and stories was heaps sad, yeah and we stayed at the Paradiso which was a 6 star hotel and oh my goodness i have never stayed in a place so incredible.. just beautiful!! we had our own servents, and gorgeous lagoon and amzing rooms.. was just the best.

Things that got me down a bit were the begging, the vulgarity of the people (offering s@x, p0rn, drugs and worse).. one shop we went into were were offered s@x with the woman we were talking to/ buying bag from but when we refused the guy offered himself, then his son.. who looked about 3 years old. we were disgusted and i wanted to go home then and there!! it really opened my eyes to what people will do for money when they are desperate. i really hated the way they called you "boss" and "darling" and touched you. i felt lik ei was opressing them.

But all in all i am really glad i went as it was defo a memorable experience, we brought an indonesian language book and dean studyied it on the plane and also learnt a lot of language from our new bali friends, the indo's were astouded by how well dean could speak indo.. they kept saying "how do you know so much? did you do a course? are you from java??" HAhah it was funny oh well i guess he is good for something after all huh!!

they had these wrap up pants they had for sale there= OMG i fell in love with them and got like, every colour and pattern availiable.. i never want to take them off!! i also brought the entire luggage set of the louis vuitton cherrys set (big bags, little bags, wallets purses everything!!) and heaps of clothes, jewellery and carvings.. just heaps of stuff we brought back 3 bags each!!

My favourite part of the holiday tho was definately just relaxing in the sun, drinking cocktails and having a swim whenever i wanted!!! Ahhhhhhhhh paradise...

hot springs were amazing.. ahhh just like a bath but the water had a grainy, metalic feel to it. very soft and inviting!

Kuta Paradiso Hotel
 

if i went back i would defo stay here again.. the place was like heaven....

This lady was hand waxxing a sarong.. then we saw how they worked out the layers of colour and then coated it.. so intricate and so time consuming! then sold then for next to nothing!