Idul Fitri is the Islamic holiday that marks the end of the month long fasting of Ramadan. Many Indonesians from Java will return home for the holiday and a large number of domestic tourists will visit Bali for the holiday.

Police will be monitoring the massive movement of people leaving and entering Bali through the port of Gilmanuk where ferries connect Bali with Java. Not only will there be a high chance of traffic accidents, police fear terrorists might target the holiday period to enter the island of Bali.

Generally a good time to avoid travel if possible and many government offices, including immigration, are closed during the period.

We tried signing up with Speedy internet at our house in Lovina, but there’s no telephone available. I tried the 3G service here and it was extremely slow.

Our last option was to use Spicelink. They attached an antennae to our roof to get the internet and I pay around US$100 for the service. The service is ok, but not great. It seems at least once a week there is some kind of trouble. I understand that telecommunication infrastructure is not great here, but it is very frustrating.

Today, the internet is working fine, but for some reason Google is not work working. It’s amazing how reliant I have become on Google search, Gmail, Analysitcs and Adsense. When I called their customer support, they tried to tell me it was a problem with Google itself! I know Gmail sometimes have some outages, but I don’t I can recall the Google home page to have ever been down. They then said it was a problem with their proxy server.

It would make feel so much better if they just told me that from the start.

Here is a list of websites you can advertise your Bali properties for sale or rent for free.

Bali Expat – we have free listings available on this website
Bali Classifieds
Bali Advertising
Craig’s List Indonesia

US based sites:

US free ads
Classified Ads
https://plus.google.com/113212473164357926503/posts

Bali, Drs. IMB Merta, M.Pd Kabid Pengkajian PMPTK (peningkatan mutu pendidikan dan tenaga kependidikan) menyatakan akan memeberikan tunjangan profesi untuk Guru – Guru ( PNS ) Nonsertifikasi. Menurut Kabid ini, Setiap Guru akan di beri jatah tunjangan sebesar Rp. 1 juta. Sementara itu tidak di katakan apakah nilai tersebut akan mendapatkan potongan pajak penghasilan atau tidak.

“Schoolies week” is an Australian tradition of high-school graduates having week-long holidays following the end of their final exams in late November and early December.

Fueled by alcohol and drugs, the celebrations sometimes turn ugly. Schools in Australia have been quick to act to try and create safe venues for students, sometimes banning alcohol.

A travel agency “Unleashed Travel” is now adding Bali as a destination for schoolies tours, basing them in the Bounty Hotel, Kuta. Kuta is already pretty famous for drunken Australians on holidays, walking around shirtless carrying open bottles of Bintang beer.

I hope that the travel company warns their customers of Indonesia’s strict drug laws, where sentences of 10 years for carrying the smallest amount of drugs, is not uncommon.

The Australian government has upgraded its travel warning for Bali and Indonesia on their Smart Traveller website after the recent bombing which killed three Australians.

- We advise you to reconsider your need to travel to Indonesia, including Bali, at this time due to the very high threat of terrorist attack.
- On 17 July 2009, terrorists detonated bombs at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta. Australians were among those killed and injured.
- There is a possibility of further terrorist attacks in Jakarta and elsewhere in Indonesia, including Bali.

I am Kuta right now and it seems to be business as usual, but I am sure the travel warnings will have a negative impact on tourism here.

Since the bomb attacks, security has been stepped up and police are on a high alert, so it’s probably a safe time to travel as the terrorists will be laying low for a while. The problem is when some other news gets the attention of people and they forget about the chance of bombings.

Beberapa minggu lalu saya berlibur ke pantai kuta. Kuta yang di kenal sebagai tempat surfing, dan pusat souvenir bali. Kuta adalah lokasi pariwisata yang banyak di minati oleh turis terutama bangsa australia atau biasa di singkat dengan sebutan Aussie, karena selain murah untuk berlibur, bali juga tempat yang asik untuk surfing bagi kebanyakan turis asal Australia. Kebanyakan wisatawan yang asal negara sendiri berlibur ke bali untuk berbulan madu, atau untuk berbelanja. Selain bisa bermain di pantai, beberapa siswa/ siswi pariwisata juga bisa praktis berbahasa inggris dengan beberapa turis yang ramah dengan masyarakat sekitar.

Satu hal yang sangat saya sukai adalah melihat indah nya bali di saat Sunset menjelang hingga sunset itupun tertutupi kabut malam. Benar – benar keindahaan yang alami. Buat kamu – kamu yang sudah pernah main ke bali,silakan untuk kembali lagi di saat luang. Dan buat kamu – kamu yang belum pernah ke bali, silahkan menikmati indahnya Sunset di pantai kuta yang indah.

Jason Scott McIntyre, 33 has been charged with drug possession and drug use for carrying about 5 grams of hashish in Kuta, Bali.

The possession charge carries a sentence of 10 years jail and drug use a maximum of four years.

From the Australian newspaper:

Arresting officer Cokorda Alit said he found Mr McIntyre stumbling down the street talking gibberish.

“He said he got the drugs for free from a woman,” Alit told the court.

“He admitted that he was using it and his urine tested positive.”

McIntyre is from Humpty Doo, a small town in Australia’s Northern Territory approximately
Mr McIntyre is from Western Australia but has been living most recently in Humpty Doo, in the Northern Territory, about 40 km from Darwin.

People having their bank accounts hijacked from ATMs is not new, but there seems to be frequent reports of it happening in Bali and other parts of Indonesia. This post from the Bali Pod forum got my attention, even though it was from 2005.

Most western banks have returned the money to customer’s accounts, but Indonesian banks may not be so quick to return the money.

Here is at least one report from an Australian newspaper, dated March 2009:

Darragh Brady, 25, said he went to withdraw money but found his account empty, with about $1800 taken in seven instalments.

“The cards were copied or skimmed in some way,” he said.

Mr Brady’s friend Stephen Matthews, 24, got a call from his bank, ANZ, asking him about strange transactions – but $2900 had been taken out.

They said they wanted to warn other travellers.

“We know a lot of people travel from Darwin to Bali,” he said.

“The bank’s saying it is insured but obviously we have to prove it was fraud.”

The two men had returned from Bali in January and the money was taken out last month.

I have been traveling in South East Asia and China for the past two years and touch wood, I am yet to have a problem. I also heard the scam is wide spread in the Philippines.

You can see how criminals can obtain your pin number and card details here.

Indonesia has reported its first cases of the A-H1N1 virus and is stepping up controls at its ports, especially with visitors from Australia.

Anyone displaying flu like symptoms at the airport will be placed in quarantine until they are cleared of the virus.

Australia has reported three deaths from the virus and around 2,873 cases of the flu.