Kuta Paradiso

... Legian Beach is a nice and clean place to stay in Bali. A little bit off the hustle and bustle but still in walking distance to all the clubs. We walked to the party area with lots of clubs, drunk people, lots of restaurants, massage salons, etc. Had some dinner and went back to catch up on sleep.

... und die Leute gingen nach Hause. Die Asche d** V**storbenen wird ins Me** v**streut, wie man mir sagte, imm** unt** d** Anteilnahme d** ganzen Familie und des halben Dorfes.

Es sind solche Erlebnisse und Orte wie Ubud, die Bali **st zu etwas Besond**em machen, auch wenn die meisten d** Sonnen- und Surfurlaub** davon kaum etwas mitbekommen. Natur ist schön, ab** **st wenn in dies** Schönheit auch eine kulturelle Blüte entsteht, wird das Ganze einzigartig. Von dah** rangi**en ...

Let's skip the (mostly) unpleasant memories of Gili T. and move straight on to Kuta. Kuta is in the southwestern part of Bali. It is the Mallorca for Australiens. The Southeast Asian version of Ballermann.
Hundreds of pubs, clubs and shops line the narrow streets. You can get Gucci, Versage, Quicksilver, name it, they got it. All fake of course. One Billabong shop on every street corner, while inbetween hundreds of smaller shops sell sunglasses, Bintang (the local beer) shirts and ...

... a ticket (plus an apology from the agent for the tickets "being more expensive than usual") it was cheaper than going over land...the downside was that we were skipping a few places in Java "but maybe we'll see those on the way back to Jakarta". Yes, the Indonesian island paradise of Bali... "Sorry, no room here...big festival, we closed!" Hmmm, that didn't sound good. "What, you not know tomorrow Nyepi Day??...Everything closed!!" Oddly enough, the ...

... 2nd floor of a building with decent pricing. I ordered a Balinese specialty dish that was rice with a side of spinach and grated coconut. Lisa ordered a spaghetti dish and we enjoyed a tranquil meal looking down Monkey Forest Road watching the tourists walk by. Lisa's dish was 15,000 Rp and mine was 10,000 Rp but for the first time in Indonesia, there was a 10% tax added to the bill. I thoroughly enjoyed my dish and plan to sample it again soon from different ...

... real people, not a gussied up site for tourists. It was living and breathing (quite literally. one of the pools had black volcanic water bubbling up). It was awesome. somebody else's picture: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rachel_and _aaron/337026842/ Something to understand : none of these sites are just one room or one cave. They are more like big complexes with ...

... economy going down). But it was very hard to deal with also, because they become more aggressive and desperate with us. The sweltering heat and the constant borraging put a bit of a damper on our anniversary, but we made the best of it and found a cozy patch of the black sand beach that was in the shade and relatively free of hawkers (people selling stuff). I forgot to mention that we saw the temple Ulu Watu before we ...

... the world's largest muslim country, alcohol is sold freely and there is a thriving and open gay scene. The news is filled with Suharto's impending death, but I think most people, like me, just wish they'd picked him in their dead pool. Apparently, there are 20,000 temples, large and small on the island, but I can only vouch for the 19,000 I have seen - they are everywhere, and they are kinda cool, but often chock-a-block next to a ...