Travel Guide:

In April 2007 I spent two wonderful weeks in Bali.  When I travel, I go to learn from the people, to feel the real place, to try life the way the locals live. And in Bali, I found some of the kindest and truly most beautiful people I could hope to find.  Spirituality permeates the island, as does the natural beauty and the grace of its people.

The first several days I stayed of necessity at Le Meridian hotel, since I was at a business meeting there. A lovely hotel with stunning ocean views. But  a lovely hotel designed for Westerners is not why I was in Bali----and such hotels are unnecessarily expensive I think.  If I had to stay there again, I would opt for one of their villas  which had a far more authentic feel.  One  real plus of this particular hotel is that you can see, and walk to, the temple Tanah Lot, a beautiful Hindu temple actually on an island in the ocean----but so close to land you can walk out to it at low tide.  Built, as I understand it, about 500 years ago.

One day during this meeting, I took the opportunity to travel by bus to the north of the island to view eye surgery in a mobile unit donated and supported by contributions to the John Fawcett Foundation.  For US$25 or so donated, an eye surgeon removes a cataract and implants a world-class lensAll free to the villagers. .  She sits there so simply, barefoot, in the beautifully equipped air-conditioned mobile surgical unit, and removes about 15 cataracts a day. The next day each  patient returns, bandages are removed---and sight is restored.  Many of her patients are older adults blind from birth. Bali, as an island population, is quite inbred, and congenital cataracts are common.  Babies blind at birth.  The Foundation identified one family with seven children blind ----and removed all the cataracts for them. What a change for that family!  I happen to be a medical doctor myself, and I watched her do surgery thru a teaching microscope.  Her technique was so beautiful---I would let her do cataract surgery for me!

I avoided the big tourist areas  and visited only one real city-----Ubud, which is up in the hills kind of in the middle of the island.  It is fascinating---the traditional marketplace is like a rabbit warren,  a great place to bargain for local crafts (and the vendors do expect you to bargain.) I bought gossamer-weight silk scarves with lovely gold thread running through them----about US$3.00 each. Easy to pack, and great gifts. In Ubud, there is a huge  ancient temple and next door to it in an equaly ancient palace, there are performances of local dance and music by children.Many local restaurants, great food.  Plenty of small hotels, which I can't comment on because I didn't stay there. I would tho, on another trip---just to get a second day to wander the streets of Ubud, see the Monkey Forest  (yes, you also see monkeys in some of the smaller villages--right out on the street, and you do have to keep a grip on your stuff as monkeys do behave like monkeys and take off to the treetops with what they can grab.) Some friends liked  the hotel there called (I think)  Bali Spirit.

I  had a chance in a group to see a local performance in a small village, of the Ramayana myth.  Study the myth a bit ahead of time---those who did not, were bored and puzzled by the whole thing. I loved  it.

Okay, a few of the problems in Bali.  Public health issues.  Driving thru the small villages, you see a system of open stone-lined  aquaducts flowing from the beautiful mountaintops  down thru the villages to the sea.  That is the water supply. I saw,  in the space of  a few miles, how the flowing water gets used.  One naked man in the water  ( in a country where modesty is paramount, I was a bit surprised), then in a little while, a group of women washing clothes in the flowing water, soaping them on the adjacent rocks and rinsing them in the water.  A few young girls, also surprisingly naked, splashing each other with the water for play.  A dog  peeing in the water  and probably just having a great time getting all wet.  A woman whose house was built on stilts out over the aquaduct, tossing a  wooden bucket-fu l of some liquid off the porch into the water.  

The village I stayed close to, not one home had a water tap.  The aquaduct is their supply.  Yet in almost every little village, I saw an enterprising person selling bottled water by the road. 

Then there's the issue of trash disposal.  People just burn it.  That probably worked great until the advent of plastics.  They burn the plastics too, right in their yards---volatile chemicals and all.  Similar issues as we face with  air pollution.

Poverty is rampant, and tourism  (the major industry) is still down since the bombing of the tourist nightclub several years ago. I felt quite safe in Bali---much safer than many places in the US.

 I'd return to Bali in a heartbeat.