Bali, Indonesia - Tips for my trip

[the_main]

I'm headed to Bali with my girlfriend from the 17th-23rd, and we'll be staying at the hard rock hotel in Kuta.

We're only staying for 5days, and are looking for some interesting/exciting things to check out/do. We're both fairly open minded, so just spit out anything you yourself would find entertaining. FWIW, we're both in our mid-twenties.

I've done a bit of research, but would love some first hand accounts. Any and all tips/suggestions are appreciated.

[Cancuk]

Ubud is awesome... but if you're only there for 5 days you might not want to leave the beach.

[thehabit 420]

stay away from Bombs

[michaelantoi]

Dont take drugs of any kind. This may seem obvious to you, however,us Aussies dont seem to get the point. In the last 2 years we have had(IIRC):

-1 girl doing 20+ years jail time
-1 DJ facing 10+ years jail time
-7 20-something's sentenced to life imprisonment
-2 20-something's given the death penalty

[Seputro]

Ease into the Indonesian food as many Western stomachs need a few days to adjust. Mine included even though I'm Indonesian.

I would suggest Nero, it's a nice Mediterranean with a South East Asian flair restaurant in Kuta. Concierge should know where it is.

Oh, hiring a driver might be a good idea too. and HAGGLE.

Spend a morning and early PM at Monkey Forest/Jungle. There you get to feed monkeys bananas as they swarm you and try and take the ones you hid in your pocket. They're much smarter than they seem. And make sure your hats and glasses and securely fastened. Popular scam now is a trainer has his monkey steal this from you, and "heroicly" retrieves it for you by leaping through the jungle, thus receiving a nice tip/reward.

Have fun!

When you leaving? i'll post more as I remember them.

[Cancuk]

[ QUOTE ]
Dont take drugs of any kind. This may seem obvious to you, however,us Aussies dont seem to get the point. In the last 2 years we have had(IIRC):

-1 girl doing 20+ years jail time
-1 DJ facing 10+ years jail time
-7 20-something's sentenced to life imprisonment
-2 20-something's given the death penalty

[/ QUOTE ]

That's intense. What about the mushroom shacks in downtown Kuta? Do they come down on people doing that or is it more pills, etc?

off subject: you ever hang out at "the steps"? good times.

[michaelantoi]

Some were caught with heroin some with weed.

I think they come down much harder on foreigners for publicity reasons and to show the world how much they crack down on drugs.

[Cancuk]

That's intense... they're doing the same thing in Goa, India. So, we didn't do any illegal drugs while we were there (pharma drugs, on the other hand, were a different story).

[Josem]

1) Check travel warnings for Bali. The Australian Government has very stern warnings, especially as it relates to areas that Westerners are known to frequent.

2) I think michaelantoi significantly underquoted the numbers of Australians caught and facing serious penalties - those are just the ones in the public eye. There are several hundred Australians currently overseas imprisoned, the vast majority of which are in SE Asia, and the vast majority of which are as a result of drugs stuff. For a relatively wealthy country of only 20million, mostly law abiding folks, that's a lot of people.

If you break the law, you will face Indonesian wrath.

[Cancuk]

I would say the SE Asian countries to NOT break the law in, (meaning: paying people off is a lot harder/not possible than in other countries)... no particular order:

Singapore
Malaysia
Indonesia
part of Thailand during different times of year


Obviouslly if you're carrying large amounts on you, you're probably [censored] anywhere you go.