Thread: why do love this island ?

why do you love this island or why are you staying here?
tell me the top 5 thing you love and dislike (was going say hate but very strong word hate is) about bali?

My Top 5 love
The Balinese people
The Balinese food
The beach
The energy of the island
The amount of Balinese holidays ( bali = banyak liburnay )

My top 5 dislike
The Rubbish
Taxi Drivers
The new eye sore building
Crazy tourist on rental bike
I relay cant think of anything els

Top 5 Likes:

1. The weather
2. The geography/topography/scenery/greenery
3. The bars and night life (although this is slowly fading...)
4. The price
5. The ability to buy a packet of cigarettes for less than $2 a pack and smoke that pack without feeling like a leper. I know it's killing me, but it's my choice to kill myself the way I would like to.

Top 5 Dislikes (some are unique to Bali, some are generic to Indo):

1. The serious lack of a straight and accurate answer, ever, about anything.
2. Motorbikes with surfboard racks.
3. Basic hygiene viz the worlds most feral toilets (if you can find one) and an acceptance that its ok to wipe your arse with your hand, then prep food with said hand. Hello, digestive disorder. Nose picking and extra long little fingernails can fall under this sub heading, too.
4. Smarmy, hypocritical, local males who love to slander local women, yet are more promiscuous and unfaithful than Tiger Woods in the Playboy mansion.
5. Tourists from north of the equator and west of India. And Brazil. Scary sh*t.
6. Local bouncers. (though bouncers generally show bad form globally so maybe this isn't fair)
7. All local bureaucracies (Police, Immigration, Banjar etc etc) and their wonderful efficiency. How can so many people achieve so little and then expect their palms greased for a job well done. One of the worlds truly great enigma's, like bigfoot and UFO's.
8. Western owned villa's. Yuk.
9. Bencong and their customers.
10. Young aussie punks with no respect.
11. Litter
12. Unmuffled motorbikes and narrow laneways.
13. Any development post 2005. My god what has happened to Kuta!!!! RIP
14. General driving skills. No hang on, driving skills can't be bad cos there isn't any.
15. Laser pointers.
16. Jimbaran seafood.
17. Sidewalk constructors. Who are these people? They must be punished.
18. Local men interacting with arak, especially on saturday nights. Bad,bad combination.
19. Spending more on temples than schools.
20. Bali Hai Beer.
21. Zebra crossings.
22. Matahari cashiers.
23. Teenagers on motorbikes.
24. Gluggy salt.
25. Departure tax. Just add it to my ticket price, puhlease!
26. Tiled floors on wet days. Still don't get it......
27. Cigarette lighter quality. A BIC is worth it's wait in gold. Don't let it out of your sight.
28. Terasi cooking.
29. The kids with the leather wrist bands. You didn't really want that wallet, did you?
30. Airport porters.
31. 100rp coins
32. Expats comparing how many pembantu's they have.
33. Expats overly proud of themselves for living in Bali, yet battling to scratch 200rp together. Yep, thats living.
34. Local steak.
35. The yes nod while meaning no.
36. Uluwatu monkeys.
37. Monkeys, generally.
38. Henna tattooists and beach pedicurists (worse than monkeys)
39. Kintamani touts (worse than henna tattoists and beach pedicurists)
40. Time share sales people (worse than Kintamani touts)


I think that'll do for now. Hope some of you can relate and get a couple of laughs. Despite the above, the good far outweighs the bad.

Have a nice day!
Adz

Many laughs and there's not much to disagree with except #16. The only meal I've had on the beach at Jimbaran was sangat lezat. And don't even get me started on #3. What's the deal with eating only with the right hand when the cook sure isn't preparing with only one hand. Terlalu yucky. Don't even want to think about it.

I agree with most of Adam's list however,

"2. The geography/topography/scenery/greenery" has all but disappeared in the south of Bali. When we started renovating our place 18 months ago there were sawah on 3 sides of our property. Now we have a mass of villas.

and

"3. The bars and night life" I'm definitely over the night-life here... must be getting old.

Originally Posted by Adam

Top 5 Likes:
Top 5 Dislikes (some are unique to Bali, some are generic to Indo):

1. The serious lack of a straight and accurate answer, ever, about anything.
4. Smarmy, hypocritical, local males who love to slander local women, yet are more promiscuous and unfaithful than Tiger Woods in the Playboy mansion.
7. All local bureaucracies (Police, Immigration, Banjar etc etc) and their wonderful efficiency. How can so many people achieve so little and then expect their palms greased for a job well done. One of the worlds truly great enigma's, like bigfoot and UFO's.
14. General driving skills. No hang on, driving skills can't be bad cos there isn't any.
16. Jimbaran seafood.
19. Spending more on temples than schools.
20. Bali Hai Beer.
21. Zebra crossings.
22. Matahari cashiers.
23. Teenagers on motorbikes.
24. Gluggy salt.
31. 100rp coins

Adz

WOW that's a pretty decent list, No. 1 is so true! It's like in China, yes or no? A definitive maybe! No. 4 balinese men doesn't even know what monogamy is, No. 7: this country will go down the drain (well at least forget the yearly step forward) if they don't change this unefficient bureaucracy, No. 14: what pisses me off the most after 9 years driving here is the pernicious practice of people who want to turn right at a junction and change to the right lane BEFORE they even arrive there, No. 16: Jimbaran Seafood is so overrated and the smoke sucks!, No. 19: I heard that Mr. / Mrs. Average Balinese spend 50 - 60 % of their salary every month for ceremonies...

Cheers!