Shandelle Battersby: What price paradise?

Once you get to the touristy beach areas, Western society and globalisation smacks you right in the chops. Photo / 123RF

Urban Bali is a slap in the face after a few days in the gentle jungle, writes Shandelle Battersby.

I recently made my first trip to Bali, a place I'd previously avoided - sharing Kuta Beach with the likes of Schapelle Corby has never really appealed. But I was pleasantly surprised by Indonesia's balmy island.

The Balinese are lovely, gentle people, the country is beautiful, and, for us, spending nine hours in a plane to get somewhere pretty great is no sweat. I laugh at your nine hours!

I spent most of my time just north of Ubud but had one night in Seminyak, a beach area just south of the dreaded Kuta. Boy, it was a culture shock after coming down from the slow-moving jungle, with its lush greenness and picturesque rice paddies.

Not to go all Eat Pray Love on you, but the simplicity of life for rural Balinese is definitely appealing. It's all about family, community, faith (the majority are Hindu), food, and working the land to provide for all of the above. Of course, money is an issue and the work is back-breaking, but the country is a great advertisement for the idea that the less complicated life is, the happier you are with your lot in it.

But once you get to the touristy beach areas, like everywhere else I've been in Southeast Asia, Western society and globalisation smacks you right in the chops.

Many of the popular beaches are dirty and littered with cigarette butts and rubbish. In Seminyak there are luxury resorts and exclusive beach clubs everywhere but the footpaths are broken and the roads full of potholes.

Shop owners and taxi drivers harass you. Hawkers harangue you. They're just trying to make a buck but man, it wears you down after a while.

While eating lunch one day, I eavesdropped as a couple of Aussie girls were engaged in conversation by a hawker selling garish artworks of Bob Marley. He used every trick in the book to keep them talking. It took about 10 minutes for the hard sell to start, and then the girls' politeness began to deteriorate, finishing with a firm "no".

The guidebooks tell you not to even make eye contact with hawkers but it's not really in our nature to be impolite - I've found it's best to shake your head with a slight smile and keep on walking.

This is the price for a slice of paradise, though. If you want nightlife, shopping and eateries alongside picture-postcard beaches in Southeast Asia, you've got to take the good with the bad and suck it up.