Terrorism fears shouldn't prevent Bali visit

By Dan Day, McClatchy Newspapers

KUTA, INDONESIA - Bali beckons.

In the aftermath of deadly terrorist bombings in 2002 and 2005, Balinese artisans and merchants are eager for the people of the world to rediscover their enchanting island.

Although the U.S. State Department warns Americans about traveling in Indonesia, I ventured to Bali for a few days in January with my brothers and my older son.

Although worries of a terrorist attack never completely left me, I quickly succumbed to the island's tropical charms.

We split our time between magnificent beaches of the southwest and the enchanting central mountains. Here are some of the highlights.

Bali, a volcanic island in the Indonesian archipelago just south of the equator, is lush and exotic.

Along the coast at a resort in Seminyak, we indulged ourselves by watching the sun set gloriously into the Indian Ocean, the sky turning from blue to orange to crimson.

In the central mountains, we passed spectacular tiered rice paddies.

In Ubud, we saw Balinese children swimming gleefully in the river running through the valley nestling our hotel.

We also toured the Mandala Wisata Wenara Wana, or sacred monkey forest sanctuary. Paved walkways took us through a jungle preserve for long-tailed macaques -- cute monkeys with a hankering for bananas and little tolerance for close-up photography.

Everywhere we went was a shopper's paradise. The exchange rate between the American dollar and the Indonesian rupiah is generous, and the number of stalls and shops was overwhelming. They sell everything from beautiful batik weavings and silver jewelry to flip-flops and other trinkets.

Although prices are fixed at larger stores, bargaining seems to be one of Bali's national pastimes. The street merchants were the most aggressive in Kuta, following us out of their stalls and pestering us to make offers on T-shirts and necklaces.

The style was much more relaxed in Ubud and surrounding villages, where we watchedbasket-makers at work in their shops.

Some of the best time I spent was wandering through the villages around Ubud, where I got a close look at the exotic architecture of public buildings and family compounds. The people are mostly Hindu, and incense offerings were placed at thresholds to most homes and shops.

One morning, I encountered scores of children walking to school, all of them in uniform and the girls seemingly all in pigtails.

We were fortunate to hear a couple of performances by gamelan orchestras, a style of Indonesian music that depends heavily on drums, gongs and other percussion instruments. We saw only part of a traditional Balinese storytelling dance and left wanting to see more.

One of our last stops was at the international memorial to the victims of the Oct. 12, 2002, terrorist bombings in Kuta that killed 202 people from several countries. Attacks in 2005 at Kuta and Jimbaran beach killed 23 people, including three bombers.

It was a sobering experience to see a monument to the victims of despicable violence in such a beautiful place.

The people of Bali are trying to overcome the bombings and bring back tourists. Although security checks at Denpasar airport actually seemed less thorough than what American airports demand, our luggage and our taxi were searched before we could pass through the gate to our resort in Seminyak. At a restaurant in Kuta, security guards ran metal-sensing wands over us before we were escorted to our table.

Many of the merchants and ``taksi'' drivers politely asked where we were from. They were glad and a bit surprised to see Americans back in their shops.

I look forward to the pleasure of returning someday, for their sake and mine.