Bali leaves different people, with different memories, largely dependent on 2 things, their mental state coming out here, and the experiences that follow. I’ve met travelers and tourists who love everything Bali and refuse to be talked out of it. Others come looking for ‘Maui beaches’ or ‘beautiful spiritual people’ and end up on a beach with plastic garbage and street touts.
The healthiest attitude is to expect things / people to be different from what you’re used to, hope for the best, but don’t expect it all to go smooth. Bethenny Frankel from New York (‘if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere’), couldn’t make it in Bali, after the dirty ocean water, gave her an ear infection. Reading Bethenny’s account of how she is one with the Balinese, taking yoga classes and surfing etc. we see how some of those third world realities can disrupt a person’s day.
As many people know, at various points along the coast, sewage is discharged into the ocean, including at the airport, Canggu and up near KuDeTa. Remember that old saying ‘don’t eat yellow snow’? In Bali, don’t surf in brown water.
As far as Indonesia goes, Bali is a walk in the park, and compared to India, its a resort. Still, you can see things like Bethenny described, including nasty toilets, flies on food and bad service. I hope her ear infection cleared up and will bounce back into the Bali surf, on her next visit.
