In Reply to: Lots of tourists in Bali at the moment.. posted by balibarbie on Wednesday, 22. June 2005 at 08:13 Bali Time:
We spent 2 weeks there at the beginning of June and I couldn't believe how quiet it was. There was no one around, even Kuta was really quiet at night. We spoke to a lady in her 50's from Germany travelling alone and hoping to make new friends; she checked into a small 20 room hotel in Sanur and she was the only guest. I have no idea what hotel it was but it was a real downer for her although you would think she would book into a larger hotel wanting to meet people. Anyway I was slightly worried about the lack of people there in early June although the stats say the tourists are still rolling in but I think people are probably discovering Ubud and even further North nowadays to really escape from the more tourist areas. Bali has had a bad wrap of late in the media and I think that is turnig people off. We all have our opinions about certain issues going on but its the Bali virgins that are being turned off by it all and not so much the regulars. Perhaps nowadays people plan a holiday and say Hmmmm, Bali or Fiji (for example) and the latter is becoming what people perceive as a safer alternative. Look dont get me wrong, I love the place but I think things aren't going very well at all.