We then stayed two nights in Kuta, a beach town that is essentially Cancun, Mexico for Australians. This doesn't make it any more right. I saw a lot of fat, sunburnt Australian tourists in skimpy beachwear (don't they use sunscreen Down Under?) as well as Asians with cornrows. Also not right. We found the beach to be disgustingly full of litter (Trash Beach Bali.) Of note, Kuta is also where the terrorist bombings occurred in 2002, killing over 200 people, mainly tourists. I think their tourist industry--and therefore economy--really suffered from that; and aside from memorials in town, we noticed a lot of metal detectors and security guards around--nothing akin to what we came across in Cairo, but still noticeably present.
We visited Ubud, a town more inland, which is something of an artists colony (I didn't see any great art but we did see some traditional Balinese dancing and lots of step-like rice paddies.) We also drove up into the mountains to Danau Bratan, a lake nestled in the mountains at about 1200m above sea level and home to Pura Ulun Danu Bratan, another Hindu temple, dedicated to Dewi Danu, source of water and fertility to the land and people of Bali. One of the meru (Hindu shrines) has an 11 tier roof dedicated to Brahma, as well as other smaller island shrines. Indonesia as a country is primarily Muslim, but Bali itself is about 90% Hindu. The temple and the surrounding parks were beautiful and peaceful--it seemed to be a popular place for families to spend a weekend afternoon.
Daily Round-up:
Gigantic bats (at least 5lbs, with 2-3 ft wing span) seen: 2 (testicles in tact--extremely disturbing. Sorry, no pics of big bat balls taken.)
Dead animal carcasses seen (sad): 2 four legged creatures, countless fish on the beach
Mosquito bites: 1
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