I would start my Balinese experience in Seminyak where the nightlife was right up my alley.  Seminyak is also known for its restaurant scene and I found a great breakfast place right away followed by a great Malaysian Chinese place.  Give me a good plate of char siew rice and a fruit smoothie and I'm in heaven.

I did not expect Seminyak to be urban at all.  Cars and motobikes are whipping by quickly.   There are lots of smells.   Taxi drivers stand on the sidewalk trying to get you to take a ride.  It's really hot outside.  Where is the island paradise everyone talks about?  I see posters for pool parties with ladies with fake bookies in little bikinis.  That's great and all but am I in the wrong place?

I am told that the nightlife is great but then I hear stories about needing to dress up at the door or the bouncer turns you away.  That's not the nightlife I'm looking for. 

Maybe the beach is nice?  I took a long, hot walk to the beach to see what's up there.  The water was kinda brownish.  Ok, so this part of Bali is more like Coney Island in Brooklyn than the tropical beaches of Samoa.  I tell myself if I can rewire my brain to understand what this place really is, I think I can appreciate it.  I also knew that there was more nature up north in Ubud.  There is also the gay nightlife scene to look forward too. 

After all of this processing and reprocessing came acceptance.  I ended up using Seminyak as my hub in Bali between my trips to the different islands of Indonesia.  I accepted that it was a city.  I figured out where to get a good, cheap meal.  I also figured out that I could get my airconditioned hotel room with a pool for around $20/night.  When the weather is so hot outside, you want a nice pool to hang out in.  Apparently, I like pools with trees and Balinese shrines around it.

I would do one day trip to Tanah Lot temple, not realizing how far it is from Bali.  The sunset there was remarkable, as well as the sheer number of other tourists.  I, however, found a fish restaurant overlooking the water with barely anyone else there.  On my way out of the restaurant, I came across someone's giant bet bat hanging upside down.  He had a blond mohawk.  Then I went to see a traditional Kecik dance where there dancers repeat the words "kecik kecik" over and over again for an hour.  I loved the costumes and the passion the actors had.

The nightlife scene was hit-and-miss.  There are lots of vacationers who come to the gay bars to oogle and oggle at the ladyboy performers.  The performances were really awesome though.  Each queen had a choreographed dance with backup dancers.  Sometimes wives would awkwardly bring their husbands to the bar and then ask people like me to have a conversation with him to make him uncomfortable.  It's like typical drunk behavior stuff.  Nothing too offensive.  I ended up befriending a bartender at Bali Joe.  He took me around on his motobike and we watched the sunset at the beach.  These are the kinds of special moments you can easily find in a place like Bali.

Enjoy these photos of Seminyak, Bali.  There aren't any photos of the crazy streets, you'll just have to go and see them yourself: