Back in Denpasar, Bali - January 2008

My journey back to Indonesia began on Sunday, January 20th with me departing Thompson. From there I flew to Winnipeg, then to Vancouver, Hong Kong and finally Denpasar, Bali, where I spent the night. My friend Selvi has a cousin, Adek and her husband Ben, who live in Denpasar. She contacted them to see if they could show me around. They were unavailable but arranged for Zakwan (pictured here to the left, standing on Kuta beach) to be my personal driver and guide.

During Christmas I picked up a Lonely Planet guide book for Indonesia. Based on its recommendation, rather than staying in the Nusa Dua area, as I have previously, I stayed at the Ramada hotel on Kuta beach. This is a short drive from the airport where I was met by Zakwan. Kuta beach, in my mind is far superior to the beach over on the east side at Nusa Dua! Plus there are many shops available, something not present in the Nusa Dua area.

One of the sites Zakwan showed me is the Peace Monument shown in this next photo. This is located on the site of the bomb blast that killed a large number of tourists a few years ago. As you can just barely see, their names all marked on the tablet in the centre.








Adek and Ben have a small jewelry shop and there are many other shops in the Kuta area, all within walking distance of the hotels. The Ramada, while not quite as nice as the Conrad Hilton it is still a very nice place with swimming pool and is right on the beach. One of the shops I passed was this one. Note the carvings with characteristic Bali motifs. But what really caught my eye was the authentic portrait of ... a north American Indian! Outside another nearby shop were two large statues of NA Indians! Not exactly what I was expecting to find here.

For the very first time I went for a swim in the Indian Ocean prior to going to bed. That too was quite the experience in that the water is very warm!

On leaving Denpasar I had a good view of Gunung Agung, the largest of the volcanoes that are present along the north-east side of Bali.

To come - life at Soroako!