Yes - spent about 10 days of my month long tour of Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia about 10 years ago. Here are my Bali recommendations, though I can't surf so I can't tell you where to go for that.
- Kuta Beach is good for only a night or two of madcap drinking. Then we get the hell out of there. Went to Paddy's Bar both nights, which was blown to bits by arseholes a couple of years ago.
- For surfing, Lovina is a good bet. Weird grey sandy beaches but you can also swim with the dolphins.
- Ubud is the cultural capital and worth a visit. You'll get ample opportunity to see the freaky voodoo like fire dances here, and they are worth it. The monkey jungle had one of those little buggers trying to reach in my pocket - you can give it a pass.
- From Bali, we also jumped across to Lombok, which was a nice, relatively quiet island with nice beaches.
There was four of us, and we actually rented a jeep and drove around the island, which was good until the car got towed and we had to spend the morning in the office of the police station, waiting for the rental car guy to come and sign the papers away. They were nice enough to give us a tour of their prison. You won't want to go there.
As for the rest of Indonesia, if you get the chance, Ceylon and the south are great, as is Jojyakarta. Avoid Jakarta - it's even worse than Manila, which is not a great town to spend lots of time in.
|