Bali rising

Over a beer in a hotel in Oz, I mentioned to an aussie that my next destination was Bali, Indonesia. "Why the hell do you want to go there? They all hate us!" He almost spat over the table. I tried to reason with the guy that the hate of a few medieval religous fanatics shouldn't stop you going to visit a place. He wasn't being convinced though and muttered into his beer that what I was doing was stupid and dangerous.

The Bali bombings of October 2002 have left a big scar between the two countries. Over 200 were killed and 88 of those were Australian. Relations between Jakarta and Canberra have been pretty poor ever since. When suicide bombers blew themselves up in Kuta Square in 2005 a bad situation was made worse. Tourist numbers that were dramatically down, plunged further still, and now there are 50% less Aussies and Japanese visiting than in 2001. Since Bali was the prime overseas destination for Antipodeans, that's a lot of people for an economy which relies heavily on tourism to cope without.

After a few days in Kuta beach, the centre of tourism on this small island I was wondering what the place would be like if it wasn't for the bombs. The place is maddeningly busy! The beach and streets are teeming with visitors. This is high season and just getting across the street can be an exhausting process. Motorbikes and small jeeps are everywhere. If you're really brave you can rent one from any of the guys on the street. I looked at the traffic and gave it a miss.

Kuta Beach is the big attraction and I grabbed a surf board and headed in to the waves. Surfing is a huge draw here and there are many big breaks along the coast. As I'm fairly amateur at it I was glad just to be able to stand and follow the surf in. Guys behind me on th the bigger left handers were zipping along and producing mean cut-backs and drop-offs. If I had a year practicing every day maybe, just maybe I could get that good!

Three days was enough for me in Kuta and now I'm in Ubud to get the lowdown on the culture, visit some cool temples and go chill out in a spa. Ahhh........