Indonesia has the second largest Muslim population in the world (it used to have the largest Muslim population in the world, until India took over recently), however the island of Bali is 90% Hindu. The religion has a lot to do with the mild mannered accepting nature of the Balinese. The people of Bali reminded me a lot of people of Thailand. In my experience Thai are the most accepting (of foreigners) people in the world. While I was in Thailand I never felt that I did not belong there. I think the Buddhist religion of Thailand has a lot to do with their accepting nature. Bali people come very close to the Thai people in making foreigners feel at home. This is the reason why both Thailand as well as Bali are such popular tourists destinations, for Australians and Europeans. In addition, it is very common today for Australians and Europeans to own a second vacation home in Bali. If these foreigners did not feel at home in Bali, I’m sure that they would not be owning homes in Bali in such large numbers. I had the opportunity to see a number of these homes, and there are magnificent villas exquisitely architected and maintained. More about these Villas later.
I wanted to get a sense of the island’s tourist attractions such as the major resorts, the beaches and the more popular (from the tourists point of view) parts of the island. I wanted to check out as many of the nicest resorts in the island as I could. In the process I visited Four Seasons, Bali Grand Hyatt, and Bali Hyatt, and Le Meridien. They were all spectacularly beautiful resorts. I had breakfast in the Four Seasons and lunch in Bali Hyatt. I had a little more time to explore these two resorts. I had a cursory walk through of Grand Hyatt and Le Meridien. As you would expect of the four I’d say Four Seasons and Grand Hyatt are clearly the two leading resorts however the other two were great resorts as well. One thing that I liked in all of these hotels especially Four Seasons and Grand Hyatt, how well the architecture of these resorts blended within the surrounding of Bali. Unfortunately I just did not have enough time to spend that much time ion each of the resorts. My own hotel was in Sanur – Grand Bali Beach hotel. It is a large hotel with a great beach. However it is one of the older hotels and in my scale of 1 to 10, 10 being Four Seasons, I’d give it a 5.5. The golf course Mah-day manages is attached to this hotel. That’s why he booked me in this hotel. He did get a great price – 50% off at $60.00/night. I was not sure initially I would have opted for this hotel, even at the low price. However at the end of the trip I decided it was actually a very good value, simply because I spent so little time in the hotel that spending $300/night at a Hyatt or Grand Hyatt might not have been the best value for the money if I was going to out and about from 7:00 am till 11:00 pm.
Most of the population of Bali is located near the southern part of the island, that’s where most of the resorts are located as well. So most of my exploration was in that general area. We visited this beach called Kuta beach, in the area of Bali called Kuta. This is like Waikiki of Bali. I’m one of very few people to admit that I enjoyed Waikiki when we vacationed there in the late 80’s. The first time we went to Kuta beach after getting into and out of the water I was sitting with Mah-day just enjoying the moment, as I get surrounded by 5 women who gradually claimed all four limbs and my head and shoulder and proceeded to do pedicure, scrubbing my hands off calluses and dead skin and head and shoulder massage. Mah-day took a picture of me surrounded by these old women. The water itself in the Kuta beach was not very nice there were a bunch dead fish floating around. I am sure there better beaches in Bali than Kuta. The beach itself was nice, wide, clean sand and not that crowded. A lot of Australian both young boys and girls hanging out. Kuta is definitely is the place for the young Europeans and Australians to hang out. The Bali bombing took place in one of the night clubs in Kuta. Mah-day showed me the place where the night club used to be now it a monument in memory of the people killed in the bombing.
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