Island of Bali in Indonesia

Orlando and I had the opportunity of visiting Bali Island from 1/17/08 to 1/21/08 with some of our fellow ISE (International Assignment Employees) friends from Mexico (orange and red shirts) and Brazil (white shirt and blue dress).
We did not even plan on going to Bali until we realized that it was one of the only countries in Asia where anyone of our group (6 people from 3 different countries) did not need a visa to visit. You could actually obtain a visa on arrival (a first for me) by simply paying 10 USD at the airport and in an instant one of the immigration officers would print out a 15 day visitors visa and stick it in your passport, just like that. Caution: At the end of your trip you also have to pay 15 USD to be able to go out of the country and they only accept the money in their currency, Indonesia Rupiahs.
I really did not have high expectations fro Bali. I thought "Since I come from a tropical island why am going to one for vacation?". Boy was I wrong!!! In reality Bali had allot to offer in terms of its rich cultural, natural beauty, tourist facilities and activities.

One of the highlights of the whole trip was being able to ride an elephant for the first time.

The second "must do" activity in Bali is watching one of their tradition dances. This is called the barong (the dragon you see below) Dance.

I actually found the exact same complete dance on youtube if you want to check it out go to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtxiA-YhRfw
The third must do activity while in Bali is to visit one of their many Hindu temples.


I was really impressed by all the rock carvings inside the temple. This was a completely new experience for us because in Japan you can either go to Buddhist temples or Shinto shrine. It is definitely worth seeing for yourself.
The fourth activity I highly recommend is the absolute bargain shopping. As you all may already know where there are tourist there is allot of shopping!!!
You could practically buy any high end, medium end, no end brand for a few dollars thanks to the incredible conversion between the Indonesia Rupiahs and the US dollar (1 USD = 9,336 Indonesia Rupiahs). Every time I bought something I always felt like I made a killing. If you really think about it since the average person in Bali only makes around 200 USD a month if you bought something for 20 USD then they have already made 10% of their monthly salary in a few minutes!!! So at the end of the day; who really made the killing?
The last activity I would recommend is just relaxing by the pool or on the beach. To be honest I was not very impressed (neither where my friends who have experienced the Acapulco and Sao Pablo beaches) by the beach at all. I consider the beaches of Puerto Rico to be the best world wide!!!
On the other hand considering that it is actually snowing in Hiroshima while I'm writing this I would gladly "sacrifice" and go to the inferior beach right about now.

I was very surprised to see the amount of people who asked me about Bali once I got back to Hiroshima. Many of them already had booked flight and hotel reservations to Bali during their kid's February break from school. Once again I had underestimated Bali's tourist appeal. I can only hope after reading this you (the reader) don't make the same mistake.