DownUnder
Nikon Nomad
I've not posted many of my photos here, and it's time I spiffed up my act a bit.
For those few who may not know, Bali is an island in eastern Indonesia. It's very much an Aussie playground and millions of them holiday there every year. Oddly many seem to believe it's part of Australia. Which causes all sorts of complications, mostly legal.
Recently I was there to attend a seminar on colonial architecture, as a guest as I'm now retired from the profession but I've been photographing old European buildings in Asia for many decades. Being me I cherish my slow lifestyle and quiet pace, so I stay well out of the Kuta-Legian-Seminyak-Canggu tourist playground area, and opt for the peace and quiet of Sanur, which altho' it has greatly changed over the decades and especially so post-Covid, still affords to relaxed lifestyle I enjoy.
While there I did a day trip to Bedugul, a small town located in the central-south part of north Bali (I hope this makes sense). It's not far to travel, being an easy to drive 48 kilometers/30 miles from Denpasar city to the south or a mere hop 12 miles/20 kilometers from Singaraja in the north. It has megaheaps of pleasant and cool, and three quite splendid lakes to see and walk around and enjoy, notably Danau Beratan (in English, Bratan Lake), the largest of the trio, which offers some easy walks along the shores but above all the legendary and very famous Pura Ulun Danu Bratan water temple, one of the most visited religious places on the island of what must be thousands of such Hindu holy sites.
Pura Ulun Danu Bratan can get crowded so it's best to go early in the day. To get there I contacted a reputable travel agent in Denpasar - from (far too) many bad experiences with the breed I would NEVER go with any tout or street agent who hails you as you walk past with a "special offer for you, mate" as these genial shysters happily overcharge the gullible foreigners for such things as car rentals or make up entirely false costs (inflated parking, entrance fees). The agency quoted me a reasonable price of Rp600,000 (+/-AUD $60) for eight hours, an air-conditioned car and the a guide who knew the area and wouldn't try to fob me off with "that's a temple" or "that's a lake" as we raced past a site or worse for me, use a pretext to take me to tourist souvenir shops flogging crap gewgaws at inflated prices. So the deal was done, and the next day at 7.45 AM car and driver were at my hotel for an 8.00 departure. The driver was the agency owner's son with an economics degree, so right away we had interesting things to chat about as we drove up a winding and hilly country road to our destination.
At Bedugul by 9.30 - and six tour buses already in the temple parking lot. Undismayed by the prospect of mobs, I soldiered on, after my driver kindly got my entry pass (at a reasonable cost). He then took my mobile phone number and said when I was ready to go, to phone him and he would be waiting at the main gate. To me, this is Service with a humongous S.
Once inside I was relieved to see today's crowd was reasonable. Not at all overcrowded. There were two sorts of tourists, Japanese (distant but well-behaved) and mainland Chinese (loud and at times pushy as they seem to move about in groups of 20-50, but usually quite well-mannered), and Indonesian tourists who are always friendly, keen to chat to foreign visitors, and supremely polite. The mix was about 50-50 with the first lot moving about in groups, let by their guides, while the Indonesians tended to wander about, enjoy the views, and of course take millions of selfies, often as not with the tourist invited to be included in the photo session. I did wonder how many Facebook or Instagram blogs I eventually ended up being part of, but it was all fun and I was happy to go along with the game.
There is no denying that Pura Ulun Danu Bratan is one of the truly beautiful places in Bali. I've been photographing it since 1972, and while the temple itself has little changed, the area around it has been extensively modernised, in mostly tasteful planting and statuary. Lovely gardens and ancient banyan trees are everywhere. There is also, curiously, a small Buddhist temple adjacent to the (Hindu) main temple complex, which is to the left as you walk into the complex from the main entrance.
I went through (and happily outgrew) my pretty postcard images phase long ago. On this trip I wanted to make images more of the people there on that day, than the temple itself, as (a) I've taken hundreds of color and digital photos of Bali's holy sites, and (b) nothing much had changed since my last visit to Bedugul in 2020. I did take a few dozen fast snaps of the temple complex on its small island just offshore from the main area, but this time I went hunting for people. Many of these photos are taken near the temple which you can see in the not too distant background. The others are in the adjacent park and gardens.
My photos now.
How this image came out as B&W is a mystery. There must be a color version. If/when I find it I will repost.
This is a different one from the monochrome version.
Spot the mainland Chinese (it's all in how they dress, or undress as in one individual above) from the Indonesians in this one. The sturdy stone gentleman at left is a temple guardian, Bali abounds in such interesting statues. The equally sturdy young gentleman at right is definitely Indonesian.
Indonesian whimsy. A frog in desperate need of an Ibuprofen.
Two of my favorites. These show the island temple without being too 'postcardy'.
I like this one. Indonesians enjoying a day outing, which makes for interesting candid images.
Near the town is the Bali Botanic Garden, dating to 1960, established by then President Sukarno. The largest in Indonesia and different (also better) than the Bogor Botanic Gardens or Bogor Kebun Raya as the latter is known, which is far older (from the early Dutch colonial era) but not quite as tropical-lavish as Bedugul. Well worth a visit, usually rarely crowded but with luck you may spot a wedding party doing post-ceremony shoots under an old banyan tree. I had two hours there and took 100-150 images of the nearby green hills, manicured lawns, lovely flowers and stately trees - I will spare you those.
Across the road from the temple complex are several restaurants with all you can eat lunches, not expensive, food quality nothing like Kuta-Legian-Canggu-Sanur but mostly passable. For me the best lunch place is a cafe a few kilometers out of town on the Denpasar road. Any driver will know it. It has the best food and if it isn't cloudy or foggy (which adds a special charm all its own) the views of the hills, gardens and rice fields will renew your faith in the beauty of nature in Bali.
For those few who may not know, Bali is an island in eastern Indonesia. It's very much an Aussie playground and millions of them holiday there every year. Oddly many seem to believe it's part of Australia. Which causes all sorts of complications, mostly legal.
Recently I was there to attend a seminar on colonial architecture, as a guest as I'm now retired from the profession but I've been photographing old European buildings in Asia for many decades. Being me I cherish my slow lifestyle and quiet pace, so I stay well out of the Kuta-Legian-Seminyak-Canggu tourist playground area, and opt for the peace and quiet of Sanur, which altho' it has greatly changed over the decades and especially so post-Covid, still affords to relaxed lifestyle I enjoy.
While there I did a day trip to Bedugul, a small town located in the central-south part of north Bali (I hope this makes sense). It's not far to travel, being an easy to drive 48 kilometers/30 miles from Denpasar city to the south or a mere hop 12 miles/20 kilometers from Singaraja in the north. It has megaheaps of pleasant and cool, and three quite splendid lakes to see and walk around and enjoy, notably Danau Beratan (in English, Bratan Lake), the largest of the trio, which offers some easy walks along the shores but above all the legendary and very famous Pura Ulun Danu Bratan water temple, one of the most visited religious places on the island of what must be thousands of such Hindu holy sites.
Pura Ulun Danu Bratan can get crowded so it's best to go early in the day. To get there I contacted a reputable travel agent in Denpasar - from (far too) many bad experiences with the breed I would NEVER go with any tout or street agent who hails you as you walk past with a "special offer for you, mate" as these genial shysters happily overcharge the gullible foreigners for such things as car rentals or make up entirely false costs (inflated parking, entrance fees). The agency quoted me a reasonable price of Rp600,000 (+/-AUD $60) for eight hours, an air-conditioned car and the a guide who knew the area and wouldn't try to fob me off with "that's a temple" or "that's a lake" as we raced past a site or worse for me, use a pretext to take me to tourist souvenir shops flogging crap gewgaws at inflated prices. So the deal was done, and the next day at 7.45 AM car and driver were at my hotel for an 8.00 departure. The driver was the agency owner's son with an economics degree, so right away we had interesting things to chat about as we drove up a winding and hilly country road to our destination.
At Bedugul by 9.30 - and six tour buses already in the temple parking lot. Undismayed by the prospect of mobs, I soldiered on, after my driver kindly got my entry pass (at a reasonable cost). He then took my mobile phone number and said when I was ready to go, to phone him and he would be waiting at the main gate. To me, this is Service with a humongous S.
Once inside I was relieved to see today's crowd was reasonable. Not at all overcrowded. There were two sorts of tourists, Japanese (distant but well-behaved) and mainland Chinese (loud and at times pushy as they seem to move about in groups of 20-50, but usually quite well-mannered), and Indonesian tourists who are always friendly, keen to chat to foreign visitors, and supremely polite. The mix was about 50-50 with the first lot moving about in groups, let by their guides, while the Indonesians tended to wander about, enjoy the views, and of course take millions of selfies, often as not with the tourist invited to be included in the photo session. I did wonder how many Facebook or Instagram blogs I eventually ended up being part of, but it was all fun and I was happy to go along with the game.
There is no denying that Pura Ulun Danu Bratan is one of the truly beautiful places in Bali. I've been photographing it since 1972, and while the temple itself has little changed, the area around it has been extensively modernised, in mostly tasteful planting and statuary. Lovely gardens and ancient banyan trees are everywhere. There is also, curiously, a small Buddhist temple adjacent to the (Hindu) main temple complex, which is to the left as you walk into the complex from the main entrance.
I went through (and happily outgrew) my pretty postcard images phase long ago. On this trip I wanted to make images more of the people there on that day, than the temple itself, as (a) I've taken hundreds of color and digital photos of Bali's holy sites, and (b) nothing much had changed since my last visit to Bedugul in 2020. I did take a few dozen fast snaps of the temple complex on its small island just offshore from the main area, but this time I went hunting for people. Many of these photos are taken near the temple which you can see in the not too distant background. The others are in the adjacent park and gardens.
My photos now.
How this image came out as B&W is a mystery. There must be a color version. If/when I find it I will repost.
This is a different one from the monochrome version.
Spot the mainland Chinese (it's all in how they dress, or undress as in one individual above) from the Indonesians in this one. The sturdy stone gentleman at left is a temple guardian, Bali abounds in such interesting statues. The equally sturdy young gentleman at right is definitely Indonesian.
Indonesian whimsy. A frog in desperate need of an Ibuprofen.
Two of my favorites. These show the island temple without being too 'postcardy'.
I like this one. Indonesians enjoying a day outing, which makes for interesting candid images.
Near the town is the Bali Botanic Garden, dating to 1960, established by then President Sukarno. The largest in Indonesia and different (also better) than the Bogor Botanic Gardens or Bogor Kebun Raya as the latter is known, which is far older (from the early Dutch colonial era) but not quite as tropical-lavish as Bedugul. Well worth a visit, usually rarely crowded but with luck you may spot a wedding party doing post-ceremony shoots under an old banyan tree. I had two hours there and took 100-150 images of the nearby green hills, manicured lawns, lovely flowers and stately trees - I will spare you those.
Across the road from the temple complex are several restaurants with all you can eat lunches, not expensive, food quality nothing like Kuta-Legian-Canggu-Sanur but mostly passable. For me the best lunch place is a cafe a few kilometers out of town on the Denpasar road. Any driver will know it. It has the best food and if it isn't cloudy or foggy (which adds a special charm all its own) the views of the hills, gardens and rice fields will renew your faith in the beauty of nature in Bali.
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boojum
Ignoble Miscreant
It looks lovely. But the crowds would depress me. I like less crowded, quieter. But I guess I can't have everything.
DownUnder
Nikon Nomad
I've done something - not sure what - and all the images have disappeared. Grrr!! So I will repost. (Added later: done!!)
Interesting to note the images look much better when one is logged in than they do to your average lurker. A black background helps.
The Bedugul temple grounds are vast and it's easy to escape from the masses. The Japanese and Chinese tend to avoid contact with foreigners. The Indonesians are friendly and approachable but not intrusive, always a delight to be with and around.
If you make it to Bali and want to explore less 'populous' (= tourist-infested) places, there is Singaraja in the north. Out of the way and consequently not so attractive to foreign visitors, so more naturally Balinese. Nearby Lovina Beach is rather a mess but has good facilities and a few excellent resorts. The hills behind Lovina have an old Buddhist temple and hot springs as well as some truly superb ocean views framed by copses of green palm trees, best explored on a motorcycle which you can rent inexpensively for a day, no licence is required but in indonesia it's best to be adequately registered to drive a bike on those crazed Bali roads.
To Bedugul in the late afternoon and an overnight stay as I've done a few times is the ideal way to see and enjoy the temple without crowds. The complex opens early and the buses usually start arriving after 9.00 AM, by 11.00 it can be a madhouse and the mobs stay until 2.00 PM when suddenly all the vehicles race off and the place is all but deserted. The late afternoons are much less crowded. Bedugul has a good traditional market with many exotic tropical fruits on offer at low prices. Rambutans, mangosteens, even durians in season if you can stand the pungent odor. All safe to eat. Visitors to Bali usually leave saying they are sick of eating papaya, drinking cool coconut water and scoffing Indonesian rice cakes and pastries.
If you want to see Bali before it turns into another mass-tourism shopping mall, now is the time. Mind you, I've said this since the 1970s, but then along came Covid, which has changed just about everything and not always for the better.
Interesting to note the images look much better when one is logged in than they do to your average lurker. A black background helps.
The Bedugul temple grounds are vast and it's easy to escape from the masses. The Japanese and Chinese tend to avoid contact with foreigners. The Indonesians are friendly and approachable but not intrusive, always a delight to be with and around.
If you make it to Bali and want to explore less 'populous' (= tourist-infested) places, there is Singaraja in the north. Out of the way and consequently not so attractive to foreign visitors, so more naturally Balinese. Nearby Lovina Beach is rather a mess but has good facilities and a few excellent resorts. The hills behind Lovina have an old Buddhist temple and hot springs as well as some truly superb ocean views framed by copses of green palm trees, best explored on a motorcycle which you can rent inexpensively for a day, no licence is required but in indonesia it's best to be adequately registered to drive a bike on those crazed Bali roads.
To Bedugul in the late afternoon and an overnight stay as I've done a few times is the ideal way to see and enjoy the temple without crowds. The complex opens early and the buses usually start arriving after 9.00 AM, by 11.00 it can be a madhouse and the mobs stay until 2.00 PM when suddenly all the vehicles race off and the place is all but deserted. The late afternoons are much less crowded. Bedugul has a good traditional market with many exotic tropical fruits on offer at low prices. Rambutans, mangosteens, even durians in season if you can stand the pungent odor. All safe to eat. Visitors to Bali usually leave saying they are sick of eating papaya, drinking cool coconut water and scoffing Indonesian rice cakes and pastries.
If you want to see Bali before it turns into another mass-tourism shopping mall, now is the time. Mind you, I've said this since the 1970s, but then along came Covid, which has changed just about everything and not always for the better.
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boojum
Ignoble Miscreant
Thanks for the tips. I know nothing. I'd love to see it. I'd fly as far as I could on Singapore. I flew them to HK and back and they were just great.
DownUnder
Nikon Nomad
Asian airlines know what they are doing and they do it well. Unlike our so-called national airline Qantas which a well-known media wit aphorised as "quick and nasty, typical Australian service". This was clearly black humor satire and nowadays the Q reputation has picked up a little, but to those of us who recall flying with them in the '80s and '90s it still lags far behind the in-flight comforts virtually every other Asian airline offers. As with all things in Century 21 you gets what you pays for, but to this age 70+ international traveler, coughing up a little extra money for better service is worth spending.
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peterm1
Veteran
Qantas had a reputation for being an excellent airline once but I think that is now long past. They have grown greedy and careless with their passengers or at least entitled - taking their paying public for granted. Their offshoot Jetstar is even worse - it is an abomination in its service. They openly treat passengers like cattle being offhand and demanding to them. My wife and I flew back from Bali once on Jetstar through necessity, and all I can say is never again will I fly with them - I need not go into details here but I can say the staff were abusive and rude. What I call service with a sneer.
yanchep_mike
Always Trying
Been there (Sanur) 30+ times in the last 30 years, man I feel you. Beautiful shots by the way, I must have some of the frog somewhere.
boojum
Ignoble Miscreant
Current airline travel seems a step below Greyhound bus service. I am a large 6' tall and a flight back from the former Yugoslavia through Zurich was horrifying. The seats were fine for kids but not adults. I flew on a KLM affiliate thinking I would fly on KLM. It was awful. It discourages any further air travel.
peterm1
Veteran
I am with you! I find myself avoiding any travel that involves a requirement for air flights. I am so over the whole experience which in general is bad and frankly demeaning. From getting to the airport and being threatened with fines for stopping to get out of the vehicle, to exorbitant parking fees if you do need to park, to the whole check in / intrusive security BS, to getting on the plane and having to fight to get space in an overhead for your carry on because other ignorant a holes want to commandeer space that should be yours, to dealing with cabin staff who want to treat you like cattle, to being ripped off for anything you want or need while on the flight, then sit with your knees about your ears because there is no leg room, to the dealing with immigration and customs at the other end and then having to wait interminably for a cab and paying through the nose once more when you do manage to get one because the airport has thoughtfully been situated 40 miles out of the city. Everything about it is a PITA designed to make your experience a living hell.
DownUnder
Nikon Nomad
When you fly always book a seat in Economy just behind the First Class/Business Class partition. Lots of leg room. You pay for it but it's a reasonable cost and well worth it, especially for those long long long flights, AUS to Europe or North America. At my age I've decided it's only money, and with most Asian airlines a little $$$ well spent can go a long way to buy comfort.
A tip on this - book early, there is always a lot of demand for those 'leggier' seats.
In the so-called good old days almost every airline plied us with in-flight drinks, mostly to shut us up and keep us suitably tranquilised. Which with some Aussie airlines backfired badly, often on the AUS-Bali bogan flights. Now they make you pay for your booze, and many restrict you to what many consider a ridiculously small limit. Me, stopped drinking alcohol on flights in the 1990s, so Prohibition is your problem, not mine. One should remember that airlines like Royal Air Brunei are no-alcohol but their in-flight service is always superb, and now and then their airfares are almost affordable.
Well written. One of your (so many) messages is, when you fly with a bucket airline you inevitably end up sitting in a bucket. I keep a personal list of these so-called buckets - Jetstar is on it, ditto Air Asia with its lousy cattle-sheep-class flights, similarly Qantas (tho' our once-super good so-called 'national airline' Q goes on and off my *hit-list depending on the experience I've had when I'm forced to fly with them, which varies depending on the in-flight staff, some good, others lazy and downright rude). The night flights are surely the worst of all for any sort of service, it's as if they expect their passengers to just shut up and try to sleep, in the latter case, well, good luck to that...
Happily for me when i fly in and out of Indonesia for new tourist visas, I can go with one of several smaller airlines with good flights at affordable cost. Batik, Citilink, Scoot (this one is Singapore-based but flies to many Indonesia destinations. Airfares range from AUD $50-125 for most flights. I recently did Surabaya-Penang for AUD $32 one way, which amazed me, but I then had to cough up AUD $120 for the return flight from Kuala Lumpur, but evened up and halved my flights came to AUD $75 each way - and Penang's small but centrally situated airport is an absolute delight of a place, far better than the two massive KL internationals.
As for the dropoff-parking mess, you are likely referring to the infamous Tullamarine Airport in Melbourne, now privatised, which explains it all, if it doesn't pay immediate money returns they try to get rid of it. Thanks, Victoria state government, for that privatisation stuff-up...
When I fly Bali-Indonesia I usually go in via Jakarta (for a relaxing weekend in Bogor, wandering around the beautiful Bogor Kebun Raya, the botanical gardens there, founded by the Dutch and expanded by Stamford Raffles and later by dedicated colonial Dutch botanists, who put their entire careers and a few of them their lives into this project) or Surabaya. The latter airport is small but well serviced and flying in or out is usually quick and painless as after all very few tourists bother with Surabaya anyway, a pleasant but nothing much of anything place that rates maybe one day and overnight on the way to either the Bromo Mountains or beyond to Central Java or Bali. The cost for this is < AUD $100 more than flying into the meat grinder atmosphere of the new but near-totally disorganised airport in Bali, but oh my, the peace and quiet that extra money pays for. Not so useful if you are flying to Bali, of course, but let's bear in mind there is much more to Indonesia than Bali unless one is into shopping, getting about on mostly boring and expensive tours to Hindu parish churches, sad zoos or coffee tasting - admittedly there are many pleasant aspects to Bali but the mad tourist-sheep mob race isn't one of those and is best avoided in favor of more civilised places like Sanur or north Bali.
All this has convinced me we should start a travel tips thread here in RFF. A lot of useful information could be posted and exchanged and we should not forget the many places everywhere to be visited, also a few camera tips for travelers. One would be how to deal with that harsh tropical light when photographing outdoors. Many can do this supremely well but me, when I'm out and about for important shoots like old architecture etcetera, I have to bracket my Nikon exposures to do three separate images or the bright daylight can easily do me in.
PS Thanks peterm1 for the Like even while I was editing what I wrote!! We must be both making good use of a quiet Sunday morning at home.
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peterm1
Veteran
I agree with all you said. I used to be in a job that involved weekly travel all around Oz. So, I flew Q regularly and was provided with a membership of Qantas lounge by my work to make the whole thing more tolerable. That at least made it a little more bearable as I could check in, in the lounge and because they knew I was full fare paying passenger (so I could alter flights at the last minute to meet business needs - so no discounts for me) they tended to treat people like me with decorum and a little consideration. Not so now, I fear. That "woke" sh$t who was the last CEO who recently departed, took Q down market in many ways all while prices went up and up and up. But they were the best of a bad bunch. I only ever flew one of your "bucket" carriers when there was absolutely no alternative at all. And only with well gritted teeth!
peterm1
Veteran
peterm1
Veteran
Thank you Downunder. I will remember your words of advice about flying to / from Bali via Jakarta. BTW the worst shemozzle I ever experienced was flying back from Bali using Jetstar (not because I wanted to but because for some reason it was the only flight available to Bali in and out of Oz at that time when we originally booked. Our bad experience was not entirely Jetstar's fault but was partly to do with security concerns at the Bali airport. We had to go thru security no less than 7 times to fly out. Each involving chaos and a long wait. And each time required "wanding" and presentation of passport, ID, booking proof and or seat allocation details................................
-When we arrived at the airport before even being allowed into the building;
- Again at the book-in desk when we went in;
- Again at another desk where the bags had to be physically dropped off;
- Again at another gratuitous security barrier somewhere in the guts of the airport before we were allowed to go through immigration;
- Again before being allowed to enter the departure lounge;
- Again, this time because it was Jetstar who was too cheap to use an airbridge we had to line up to get on a bus to take us to the plane and we again went through security in the line up;
- And finally again when we alighted from the bus and lined up again to get on the plane.
I do not know if this level of security was or is normal at Bali airport or if they simply had some intelligence about an imminent threat. I do know it made me more, not less nervous.
We eventually got seated and had booked and paid for exit row seats but without Jetstar telling us the window seat at the exit row we were on had the emergency slide which took up ALL the leg room - leaving perhaps less than 30cm (less than the distance from bum to knees) for the poor passenger (my wife) in that seat. Christ knows where they were supposed to put their legs while seated. I had previously flown on another carrier where this happened and it turned out on that occasion to not be too bad because I was allowed to put my legs up on the top of the emergency slide container and lay back a bit to sleep. Not so with Jetstar who had a woman who was at least 50% bull mastiff as a member of the cabin staff who AGGRESSIVELY and very rudely demanded she put her feet on the floor. (No polite requests with Jetstar - which is one reason they are on my permanent shit list.) Needless to say I ended up doing the gentlemanly thing and taking that seat but I will never forget nor forgive that bloody airline!
-When we arrived at the airport before even being allowed into the building;
- Again at the book-in desk when we went in;
- Again at another desk where the bags had to be physically dropped off;
- Again at another gratuitous security barrier somewhere in the guts of the airport before we were allowed to go through immigration;
- Again before being allowed to enter the departure lounge;
- Again, this time because it was Jetstar who was too cheap to use an airbridge we had to line up to get on a bus to take us to the plane and we again went through security in the line up;
- And finally again when we alighted from the bus and lined up again to get on the plane.
I do not know if this level of security was or is normal at Bali airport or if they simply had some intelligence about an imminent threat. I do know it made me more, not less nervous.
We eventually got seated and had booked and paid for exit row seats but without Jetstar telling us the window seat at the exit row we were on had the emergency slide which took up ALL the leg room - leaving perhaps less than 30cm (less than the distance from bum to knees) for the poor passenger (my wife) in that seat. Christ knows where they were supposed to put their legs while seated. I had previously flown on another carrier where this happened and it turned out on that occasion to not be too bad because I was allowed to put my legs up on the top of the emergency slide container and lay back a bit to sleep. Not so with Jetstar who had a woman who was at least 50% bull mastiff as a member of the cabin staff who AGGRESSIVELY and very rudely demanded she put her feet on the floor. (No polite requests with Jetstar - which is one reason they are on my permanent shit list.) Needless to say I ended up doing the gentlemanly thing and taking that seat but I will never forget nor forgive that bloody airline!
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DownUnder
Nikon Nomad
Again, peterm1, your comments re Jetstar reminded me of the old joke about Garuda in the 1980s and 1990s when it was one of the worst Asian airlines - they have now greatly improved their act - which went: "Fly Garuda, you get the service you deserve."
Flying to Bali via Jakarta will add about AUD $100 each way to your airfare. Citilink and several other good domestic airlines offer many flights a day to Bali, and the air service to and from the island no longer shuts down in the early afternoon as it did a decade ago. When I fly to Indonesia from a visa hop in Malaysia, I plan to stay in Bandung or Bogor for one or two nights. Bandung is no longer the jewel in Indonesia's old colonial empire as it was even twenty years ago, but Bogor offers the lovely Kebun Raya botanical gardens, well worth a day's visit. One or two colonial era hotel still offer splendid services and memorably luxurious room decor. An hourly bus service from the airport to Bogor is fast and efficient and in 2023 it cost A$13 each way. The travel to Bogor is about 90 minutes, it bypasses the worst of jakarta's traffic - the heavy yellow-brown pollution haze hanging over the city in the distance as your bus races along the tollway is something to behold - and Bogor is a smaller, laid back and pleasant destination with excellent hotels all an easy walk from the bus terminal - and the gardens directly across the street.
The Indonesians are more security-conscious in Bali. This may have to do with the terrible events of terrorism there in the early 2000s. They are super sensitive to any terror threat and at times this can slow down international departures from Ngura Rai airport, a vast cavern of a place and to my mind, not efficiently designed. Domestic flights not so much but the queues at the scanners in the departures area can be long and slow, all the more so as none of the on-duty staff intend to ever die from the effects of work-related stress.
Flying to Bali via Jakarta will add about AUD $100 each way to your airfare. Citilink and several other good domestic airlines offer many flights a day to Bali, and the air service to and from the island no longer shuts down in the early afternoon as it did a decade ago. When I fly to Indonesia from a visa hop in Malaysia, I plan to stay in Bandung or Bogor for one or two nights. Bandung is no longer the jewel in Indonesia's old colonial empire as it was even twenty years ago, but Bogor offers the lovely Kebun Raya botanical gardens, well worth a day's visit. One or two colonial era hotel still offer splendid services and memorably luxurious room decor. An hourly bus service from the airport to Bogor is fast and efficient and in 2023 it cost A$13 each way. The travel to Bogor is about 90 minutes, it bypasses the worst of jakarta's traffic - the heavy yellow-brown pollution haze hanging over the city in the distance as your bus races along the tollway is something to behold - and Bogor is a smaller, laid back and pleasant destination with excellent hotels all an easy walk from the bus terminal - and the gardens directly across the street.
The Indonesians are more security-conscious in Bali. This may have to do with the terrible events of terrorism there in the early 2000s. They are super sensitive to any terror threat and at times this can slow down international departures from Ngura Rai airport, a vast cavern of a place and to my mind, not efficiently designed. Domestic flights not so much but the queues at the scanners in the departures area can be long and slow, all the more so as none of the on-duty staff intend to ever die from the effects of work-related stress.
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