Tuesday, April 23, 1996. Indonesia: Lombok: Ampenan: I went to Bali today. I flew over in the morning to stash some stuff at the airport. Then I went over to Sanur to get some money from the American Express Travel Services office at the Hotel Grand Bali Beach. I bought [Alfred Russel] Wallace's The Malay Archipelago at a bookstore there. Then I hired a taxi to go to Ubud and to raid bookstores there, and bought [Odoardo] Beccari's Wanderings in the Great Forests of Borneo, Tom Harrison's The World Within, and David Attenborough's Zoo Quest for a Dragon. Then [the taxi driver and I] went to Padangbai [so I could] catch the ferry to Lombok. I met Helena Coutaux, a lovely French woman who now lives in England; Theirry, her boyfriend; and two gorgeous young English women, Lucy [Noel-Buxton] and Anna [Harrison-Munay]. The ferry ride was fun. Back at the Hotel Zahir I had dinner with a guy from Colorado, then had a long, deep conversation with Hetty van Dorp, from Holland.
BALI, Indonesia -- Before the terrorists bombings in Kuta and Denpasar in 2002, Bali was thought of primarily as a tropical island paradise. For me, it was a way station, a place I had to pass through on the way to somewhere else. As far as I can tell, I took only two photos anywhere near Bali, this and another one at the beginning of a ferry between trip Bali and Lombok. I took the photos as the ferry approached the Balinese terminal at Padangbai. The view is north toward Gunung Agung, the massive volcano that dominates the northern portion of the island.
