Bali Indonesia 1997

At one time, we had an excellent travel agent (remember them!) that Betsey found in San Francisco and who created several memorable trips for us. This being one of them. We went off to visit Betsey's adopted cousin (mother's sister side) in Bali to take in the culture and sights, as well as meet her fiancé. Lynn was working at one of the five star hotels along Kuta Beach (out of our price range) and was our host for the week. My images are limited as that was early in my photo taking career and the video camera was king (think 8mm cassette). In any event, Lynn and Nyoman showed off their beautiful country brimming with art, dance and spectacular scenery.

We flew Garuda Indonesian from LAX with a stopover in HNL on to Denpasar on a DC10-30. The crew was quite memorable as they seemed to pay more attention to the non-locals on the flight and we were treated nicely. Uneventful flight, easy immigration and a transfer to our hotel on the southern shores of Nusa Dua. Super nice hotel with a fantastic seafood restaurant called Jalla Jalla, which I see no longer exists. We had several memorable seafood meals with an excellent view out on to the ocean.

Our first excursion was out to Ubud, north of Denpasar and deep in the countryside. Since we were there, it has become a major tourist attraction with over 3 million visitors a year. I remember it as a sleepy place.

One downside of using video on this trip was a lack of photographs to fall back on. Including a handful of photos from the many dance events we sampled so you have tasting.

Our Lynn & Nyoman were the ultimate hosts, taking us to places a bit off the beaten path and at times dealing with local officials questioning what two Balinese were doing driving around two foreigners. We suspect they had to 'make a contribution' to the local authorities who believed they were running a tour agent without a permit. Lynn had to show her Illinois driver license on more than one occasion to allow us to continue. And there were a lot of checkpoints where we were told to stay in the car.

Pura is a Bali-style temple, it serves as the place of worship for adherents of Balinese Hinduism in Indonesia. Puras are built following rules, style, guidance, and rituals found in Balinese architecture. We visited several on our journeys including, Pura Ueln, Pura Penataran & Uluwatu along with Tirta Gangga a former royal palace. Incredible architecture and places of serenity and peacefulness. I leave you with images of the places and hope you can find peacefulness in your travels.