In Reply to: Losing Bali posted by BaliBlues on Friday, 24. June 2011 at 11:57 Bali Time:
being a visitor to bali 30 years ago i was lucky enough to visit a beautiful cultural unspoilt island!Now i hardly recognise it yes many many changes people will say thats progress I say thats sad!Nothing has been done to preserve the culture,landscapes,villages,shorelines etc. etc.meanwhile more prositution,thefts,diseases,and disrespect of tourists keeps snowballing!!The beautiful beaches we once shared with coconut trees and locals who sat and talked now sit and try to flog goods to us where high rise buildings overshadow the coastline,private resorts with own beaches where we once surfed and explored are nearly all gone!Where everywhere we turn theres a new departments store ,where traffic crawls at 10 miles an hour and fumes consume everyone familys on bikes,where we keep windows up incase of theft and begging children weave in and out traffic from gangs who drop them off!Where nightclubs spraw the main street legian with drunken tourists acting like total idiots jumping on bikes and riding like lunatics.Where hotels have lost there appeal due to loud music pumping all night next to rooms where balinese familys leave their farms and villages selling off their family lands passed down through generations to allow people to build villas everywhere - bali paradise???paradise lost maybe????