First of all I’d like to pay my respects to all of those who have suffered and may have lost someone dear with the Bali Bombings. I went to the Sari Club in May, 2002 when I was there on vacation, its just unbelievable what happened. My deepest condolences.
Other than that it is a beautiful place with great people. Although Indonesia is a Muslim country, Bali has predominantly a Hindu population, although their belief’s do differ from the Hinduism practiced in India.
The main action area is Kuta, whereby I resided at the Club Bali ( RCI affiliated ). Bali food is good although they have rice in some of the dishes as a side item, it is not accompanied by curry or gravy of any kind . Try eating plain dry rice (not pleasant – feel like a refugee ). Besides their menu’s are so minimal. Hardly any items present on the menu. Their restaurant Industry has a lot to learn from us Indians ( where some restaurants have Indian, Chinese, Thai and Continental under one roof – albeit all tasting the same, Still). Infact at the restaurant at the view point of an active volcano, there was chicken , lamb and beef dishes on the menu, but when the host came to us she said “ I’ll tell u something, theres no lamb or beef”, so obviously there was only chicken. Great. Food’s cheap though and tastes good. That Bali beer is great tasting, can’t remember its name. A lotta restaurants to choose from including a Hardrock café.
The shopping’s great at Kuta – do bargain. Our hotel had a free bus transfer to the shopping area, although taxi’s are very cheap – don’t bother about the meter, decide in advance. Do not entertain hawkers, there will be a lot of them telling you to fill forms and stuff. The Hawkers in that trip to the Volcano are crazy, one of them sat in out car and refused to get out until we bought something. SO BE CAREFULL do not even inquire from them cause then you have to buy something. There are a lot of snorkelling areas, every hotel has its own suggestions. Do visit the Labuhanbajo or Lamborgan island (difficult name to remember ), where a trip there cost us US $35 per person ( depends on the mode of transport there – sailboat, medium and speed boat ), I had opted for the medium, includes a whole day trip with snorkelling gear, kayak boats, unlimited rides on underwater submarine and banana boats, with a couple of speed boats to take u to any part of the island, a great lunch and transfers from the hotel. It would be a day well spent.
As for culture they have the Bali Dance, a certain place has this, costs around 50, 000 rupiah per person, if you like Bharatnatyam dancing, you might enjoy it, else you will sleep through it. What was even worse that after spending 2 hrs at this place, we had the same thing in the evening – complimentary of the hotel, and it was better than the one we had spent for. Damn. Do visit their temples.
Forget the white water rafting, go to Himarchal Pradesh, also I didn’t visit the west side of the island which I was told has better beaches. Maybe will do in my next visit there.
One more trip which should be avoided is that temple which over looks a supposedly great sunset. Our guide took us there thinking that there were no sunsets in India. (Costly – cause u gotta pay to see the sunset as the vantage point is in the temple complex + the guide charges arnd 250, 000 rupiah). Infact he asked me “ In your country, do you have sunsets “ – I think he thought I was from Pluto.