spicyayam wroteEvery other week you see a travel article with the headline "Lombok the new Bali" or "Sumbawa is the new Bali", so it is interesting to read a different perspective. As much as we expats sometimes like to criticize Bali it is sometimes not until you travel somewhere else do you realize how nice Bali is. Even though it is the end of the dry season, it is still fairly green around our place.
Spicy I think those pronouncements are on par with the legislation that's been coming out of Jakarta also or at best wishful thinking.
I've been to East Java, Sulawesi, Sumbawa, Lombok and last but not least Bali in the last 6 months and none of the other islands can hope to hold a candle to Bali in terms of infrastructure, culture, ecology, economy, friendliness or cuisine.
I met some Dutch business men on Sumbawa that tried to sell me great seaside property for the ridiculous sum of 30 juta/are. Now I'm sure that these vultures got it for a tenth of that price and thought they'd found a gull to squeeze. These are the people touting the "New Bali" around - someone with a private agenda.
I've met, as I'm sure most of us here have, people that have been to Bali 20 and 30 times and it's Bali's depth of culture that keeps them coming back - these other places are lucky to get someone coming once - and most of those were surfers.
