I couldn’t get a flight from Yogyakarta back to Bali in time to catch my flight to Bangkok, so that means I have to stay another night in Bali. Yeah, life is tough, boo-hoo.

Since it didn’t matter much where I stayed, I decided to check out Seminyak, north of the Kuta/Legian area. I stayed here, at Vila Lumbung, on my first trip to Bali about five years ago, and haven’t been back. The area has become popular with people who want to be close to good restaurants and a bit of nightlife, but find Kuta/Legian "too touristy". They may be on to something.

My base for the night is Resor Seminyak, which I remembered from my first trip as being on the beach, which Vila Lumbung, nice as it was, was not. The spelling is correct by the way - there’s no ‘T’ in Resor. My superior room was very large, and while it was a bit tired, considering it costs just a third of what the other hotels along this beach charge, it’s good value for money.

Outside of the hotel, Seminyak has become a real foodies paradise, with many of Bali’s best restaurants just a few steps from the resort. For starters, there’s one of our old favorites, La Lucciola. Then there’s the new king of the block, Ku De Ta. If those aren’t enough, there’s also Hu’u and Living room. If you’re looking for something just good and cheap, there are also several small Indonesian waroengs along the street as well.

Perhaps the best thing about Seminyak is that you can walk down the beach or down the street without being harassed by stall vendors. While there are some nice boutiques and galleries along the road, there are no t-shirt stalls, no CD shops and not even much in the way of swim-wear stores. You can have a quite leisurely stroll down the street without being hassled, although you do have to watch out for cars since there is no sidewalk in most places.

I’m close to the end of my trip to Indonesia. I arrived in Yogyakarta last night for a quick visit. You may have forgotten, but this city was badly damaged by an earthquake just less than a year ago, in May 2006. There’s been good progress on recovery, but you still see a lot of construction everywhere, especially at the airport.

Last evening, we walked along Malioboro street, which as usual, is lined with stalls selling batik, wood carvings, batik, clothes, batik, souvenirs, and did I mention batik? There is a lot of batik on display. We were even directed to a gallery off the street that had a large selection of batik artwork on sale. There were many nice examples, in many different styles. I ended up buying a small picture for my niece.

This morning, on the way to the airport we’re going to a couple of the old Hindu temples around Yogya. The first stop is Candi Sambisari, a tiny temple that was only discovered in 1966, having been buried by ash and dirt for nearly a thousand years. It now sits in the deep depression after having been excavated.

The next stop is the Prambanan complex. I’d first visited here five years ago but wasn’t happy with all my pictures. Unfortunately, the temples were badly damaged in the earthquake, and now you can’t go into the be towers any more. They’ve only cleared a path just inside the wall, where you can walk past the chapels. They’re busy trying to put them back together and make them safe, so you may be able to see them again one day.

After two days relaxing in Ubud, it’s back to work in Bandung. Getting here involves an hour-plus drive to the airport in Denpasar, a two hour flight to Jakarta, and then another two hour drive to Bandung. But getting here was worth it, when I found out that my place for the next two days, the Novotel Bandung, provided free internet. That’s right, free internet. All I had to do was ask the front desk for a cable (which they freely gave me) and I was off and surfing!

This was all the more pleasant a surprise since the Novotel’s sister property in Bali, the Kuta Mercure, wanted to charge me five times the going rate in internet shops to use the internet connection in the room. Really, I’d gotten used to hotels charging $5 for a can of coke and I can almost work out why they need to charge $2 for a free local call, but why do they have to charge so much for internet access? In most places, they’re paying a relatively small fixed monthly fee, which probably works out to just a few cents per room per day. There’s little or no maintenance or support required, if you do it right, so why don’t more hotels give it away? With their attitude of over-charging for everything, I sometimes wonder why hotels don’t charge you for electricity, but perhaps I shouldn’t give them any ideas!

Anyway, today I did what most people come to Bandung to do: shopping! My Indonesian host had a shopping list from his wife, and I realized I needed a jacket for my upcoming trip to the USA, so I went along. We ended up at Summit, which I’ve been to before. It’s on ‘Riau’ street, at an intersection that also has three other outlets (all of them, include Summit, reportedly owned by the same person.) Regardless of who owns them, most of the outlets carry more or less the same thing, but not in every color and size combination. So, finding something is usually a matter of going from one place to another until you find something you like in your size, in a color you like. That’s why clusters like the one around Summit are so popular. I went through four stores before I found the jacket I liked in my size. Going through all that trouble is worth it, when you end up paying only about US$30 for a leather jacket!

Another well know outlet shop is Rumah Mode, which has the added advantage of several food outlets so you can minimize the amount of non-shopping time!

Before I embark on a grueling (as usual) trip through the rest of Indonesia on business, I’m treating myself to a few days of rest and relaxation at Payangan Hideaway. Actually, it’s one of the owners who is treating me to this little break.

The word ‘hideaway’ is extremely appropriate for this place. It’s about 30 minutes outside of Ubud, the old royal city and ‘arts’ centers of Bali, high up in the mountains away from the beaches. The property sits on the side of a steep valley, and feels very isolated. There are just six villas, arranged in pairs moving down the slope towards the stream at the bottom. I have one of the larger ‘Padma’ villas. The villa is surrounded by a small ‘moat’ filled with ornamental fish. Inside the large main room is a king size platform bed, with nooks on either side, and a large TV getting lots of channels, as well as a DVD player. The headboard of the bed forms a small wall, behind which is a sort of walk through closet leading to the bathroom. In the bathroom there’s a nice tub, plus two separate showers - one inside and one outside, through a small back door.

Next to the room is an large outdoor pavilion, where you could lounge in the late evening, sipping cocktails while you watch the mist roll down the valley. Behind the pavilion is a small kitchenette in its own little building, in case you want to do any self catering.

The other four villas are a bit smaller, although each pair has their own special features. The next pair down, for example, each have a small outdoor jacuzzi. At the bottom of the valley, down about 300 stairs, is a spring that feeds into the river. Some believe the spring has magical curative powers. There’s a beautiful little shrine and rest area built around the spring.

You can see some pictures of Payangan Hideaway in the photo gallery. Personally, I generally prefer a place that’s within walking distance of shops and restaurants, but if you want to ‘get away from it all’ you couldn’t get much further than this. See their web site for more information and bookings.

I’m back on Bali again, at the start of a long-ish business trip, with a little bit of pleasure thrown in, hopefully. I’m just stopping for one night in Kuta to take care of business before heading on to Ubud for a couple of days. This time, I’m staying in the Mercure on Legian beach, which is not bad at all.

The hotel is right on the beach, next to the Hard Rock Hotel. From my fourth floor room, a small balcony gives me a good view of the beach and the surfing action. The hotel pool is right outside my room. Yes, the pool is on the fourth floor, and has an ‘infinity’ design that allows you to sit in the pool and look right out to the ocean. The room is quite comfortable. It’s un-carpeted, which frankly makes a lot of sense for a beach hotel, especially as it’s rather hot right now. The stone tiles are nice and cool on the feet.

This is the low season for Bali, when it’s still quite hot and often rains late in the day. Still, there are more than a few tourists around. The place is hardly deserted. There’s a bit of construction going on here and there, but nothing really new.