Recently there was a "Why do I go to Bali" thread which deteriorated into a sh*tfling. I didn't have the time or inclination to get involved then, but I'd like to add my 5 cents (380 rup) worth now.
My first holiday in Bali was almost 20 years ago and I've never been back. Not that I didn't love it; I did, but "so many destinations-so little time". That trip was a holiday with my husband and we ate, drank, shopped and generally made a mess of ourselves in hedonistic oblivion.
The trip I'm planning now, departing end August, will be rather different. I was doing lunch with a girlfriend I've known forever. She was telling me she had to make the trip to Bali to scatter her parents' ashes at Lake Beratan, according to their last wishes. Her sister can't fly for medical reasons; her partner simply doesn't want to go so she was planning to go by herself. "Pick me! Pick me!!" was my immediate response. So we're going up together to have a girlie week based in Ubud.
Fortunately my friend and I have parallel views on what constitues desirable activities. With age comes common sense and this will be a very different trip from my first foray. We plan to do our share of shopping and eating, multiple massages and pampering, a bike riding tour, a cooking class, an ABT tour, dinner and dancing to try and absorb a sense of the culture.
However we also wanted to do "something" without knowing exactly what, to give a little bit back to the Balinese in the upland villages. After reading a post about the Ubud Birthing Centre, and checking out their website (http://www.bumisehatbali.org/ ) we decided this was where we could be most useful. I've been in touch with the Director of Nursing at our local rural hospital and have arranged to buy, at cost, as many of the items on the Centre's Wish List as we can get into our mostly empty suitcases. It's not a big deal, but it will help and we'll have made the effort.
My purpose in writing was simply to make the point that people's views on what constitutes a great holiday will change with time and maturity. We can only hope the obnoxious/shirtless/loud/pissed brigade will get over it with age.