This is an account of my visit with Guy to Bali from September 16th-26th 2005. Click on the camera icon to visit the gallery section. Warning: pics are large so let your browser or some plugin size them for you...

We started our trip, or rather I started my trip two days before Guy arrived, in Sanur, which is a one of the more sane towns of Southern Bali, which accounts for most of the mainstream tourism to the island. The town of Sanur isn't anything special but it touts a more relaxed atmosphere than Kuta or Denpasar. I spent two days relaxing by the pool and doing some light shopping and exploring until Guy arrived. Dinners here were quite sophisticated while remaining cheap by Western standards (a three course dinner for two at the more upscale places along Sanur's main street stayed well under $30US, though it's entirely possible to have a decent meal for under $4US). Nothing much to report from here, other then that our hotel, the Taman Agung Beach Inn, had a cute and well maintained pool area and that there is still plenty of shopping around here if you're not in the mood for Kuta or the like.

The traffic noise and our general desire to be far away from everything prompted us to ditch the mainland on our third day, so we took a boat to Nusa Lembongan, one of three small islands off the Balinese mainland, which have recently been expanding their tourist capacities and infrastructure. That being said, there were absolutely no cars on our island, and most of the 7000-or-so inhabitants worked the seaweed plantation which surrounded the island at low tide. This made snorkeling and swimming rather difficult, but we hired a boat that took us to some pretty neat spots with corals and large colorful fish. The sunset from our hotel was also quite stunning, thought the roosters keeping us up at night kind of dampened the experience slightly. Don't go unless you're into water sports and beach-combing.

Getting a well-rounded Bali experience without at least one or two nights in Ubud seemed impossible, as this mountain town claims to be the seat of cultural, artistic and craft life on Bali. Since the Balinese are known for their spirituality, a large number of dance- and musical forms, as well as innumerable arts and crafts (carving of all sorts, sculpting, various styles of painting, and an impressive array of cloth making, including various grades of Sarong) Ubud promised to be quite a treat. While there are no beaches near Ubud (it sits at about 500m above sea-level in the hills) its core and surroundings do offer anyone interested in any of the above (and shopping 'til you drop) the full monty, including numerous nightly dance performances, of which we only managed to catch a Kecak and Fire dance. From here we also went to visit the Mount Batur volcano and lake, some picturesque rice patties and a sacred monkey forest with the matrilinial bands of macaque monkeys in it (pesky creatures who will steal everything you can't hold onto).

We finished our trip with a sunset dinner at Jimbaran Bay, which unfortunately was target to one of the suicide bomb attacks a week later on October 1st 2005. I sincerely hope Bali will once again bounce back from this poor publicity. We found it to be a place of kind and gentle people, some truly stunning destinations (as well as a real treat for anyone with a penchant for haggling for trinkets, but never mind that too much.)