Well like any good young Aussie, I've done the obligatory trips to Bali a few times, but have not been back in probably 20 years or so, so my experiences and memories are probably worth diddly-squat !
It used to be a paradise, an untouched, unknown gem with loads of culture, fantastic friendly locals, great beaches (if you're into that) and heaps of character and charm, with all the little art and craft villages dispersed throughout.
Then of course it was discovered, the boom happened and the slightly 3rd world feel, taste and touch vanished when the super resorts and all the rest of it sprang up.
The last time I went over, it seemed like it was a mini-Disneyland-cum-Sandals of sorts. Hated what had happened to the place and have never been back.
Even the northeast coast around Candidasa that escaped the initial onslaught of mass tourism and maintained the "old" Bali eventually got found, as did Ubud and Lombok across the Strait.
By all means, still go, I hear many go for the first time and love it, but for an old stager like me, the current Bali is nowhere near the attractive place it once was. I would in all honesty still probably going there, but I wouldn't stay around Kuta. Maybe the top end of Legian, but Kuta is probably like any popular beach resort area at spring break time, but all year round.
One word of caution, and trying to word this ever so carefully to avoid being OTT. Not sure when you are going, but the principal players involved in the devastating bombing of a few years ago are facing their imminent final sentence and are viewed as martyrs by their followers. As all avenues to negation of their death sentence slowly keep vanishing the day will come soon when they will lose their fight. There could well be a lot of activity by the group they are involved with, in tandem with their martyrdom, and anything can happen.
There is a website called smarttraveller.gov.au run by the Oz Govt that lists all current problem countries and shares intelligence information with we the people. It may be worthwhile keeping an eye on that for any alerts or "don't go" warnings given to us Oz citizens by our Govt, as Indonesia is one of the countries we apparently keep a very close eye on.
Bookmarks