Legian, Indonesia
Today was another lazy day and tomorrow probably will be too. It’s my fault for going to a beach resort community located far from most of the interesting natural and cultural sights the island of Bali has to offer – the center and east of the island would suit my tastes more. I spent the morning and a great deal of the afternoon updating the website; I even had to look up how to add a code to my files in order to allow me to increase the size of my menus (very geeky stuff); but now the website is up to date and all the pictures that had been deleted for some strange reason are back – hopefully they will remain uploaded.
I finally left my room at about 16:00 and I walked to the beach through narrow alleyways with endless streams of motorbikes – apparently no one walks in Indonesia if they drive. I passed many massage parlors, shops, bars, and restaurants. I came to the monument on Legian Street remembering the victims who on October 12, 2002 were tragically killed by suicide bombers from Jemaah Islamiyah (a violent Islamist group); one bomb was worn as a vest and another was planted in a car outside; overall, 202 people died (mostly Australian tourists) as a result of the bombings. I then left that somber sight and continued on through more alleyways before finally reaching the beach. Once on the beach I passed many people offering surf lessons and walked south to where a mall is located; from this point I could see the edge of the airport with planes coming in to land. I then walked north along the beach before heading back inland, past the Hard Rock Cafe, in to another narrow alleyway with more of the same stuff as all the other ones. I made it back to Legian Street and walked further north before going back to the beach to watch the sunset. By the time I made it back to the beach, the sun was already hidden by clouds. I then walked further north to the southern edge of Legian Beach, before taking leave of the beach to find a place to eat dinner. Once back on Legian Street I found a Swiss restaurant that is owned by a man from the St. Moritz region in Switzerland; naturally I had to eat here to try to rekindle those fond memories I have of when I was fortunate enough to visit Switzerland. For dinner I had frankfurters and a potato salad, as well as beer (unfortunately the restaurant only had Indonesian beer – no Schweiz bier). After dinner, I then walked back to the hostel to relax some more, which, admittedly, my body probably does need after practically non-stop walking for over two months.