sure, watching the behaviour of Australians on television in Bali can be cringing & embarrassing
but Bali is an incredible place, with an incredibly deep culture & incredible natural beauty
Indonesia also has incredible natural beauty with very kind (but less sophisticated) people
i travelled by local bus across Indonesia for two months, when i was 23 years old, from Bali to the end of Sumatra
i was an incredible experience including one of immense hospitality
but then, i travelled alone and would reject any backbacker that wanted to tag along with me
for example, i was once in a strong Islamic town (in SW Java) and rode a bicycle to a field where many where watching a soccer match. most of the crowd stopped watching the soccer match and mobbed me for a chat
or in Jakarta, the daughter of a hotel owner let me hire her personal (girly) room due to a shortage of accommodation
or on an island off Sumatra, each evening, the family of the bungalow would invite to eat dinner with them
if a [small] part of Bali is a mess, it is because the tourist influence, particularly Australian, has made is so
but, as i mentioned, the traditional Balinese culture is/was one of the most profound on earth and far more socially advanced than any Western culture
many go to Bali because it is a place of immense social & natural beauty
just like a tiny portion of Thailand represents the industries born of Vietnam War R&R, Bali is the same
Bali is beautiful
in fact, the last time i went there i was paid to go there (my parents were invited to an Indonesian's millionaires daugher's wedding)
regards
In the 1930s, anthropologists Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, and artists Miguel Covarrubias and Walter Spies, and musicologist Colin McPhee created a western image of Bali as "an enchanted land of aesthetes at peace with themselves and nature"
