There’s a nauseating article all over the Fairfax press today titled “Bali: why bother?“. In it Age journalist Carolyn Webb talks about her recent holiday to Ubud, Bali, where touts harassing her to buy things and offering her transport on their motorbikes ruined her holiday. The souvenirs were too tacky, the streets were too noisy [...]

Crikey intern Alison Drew-Forster writes: The December Australian Traveller issue has been released and features the “The hottest destinations for 2011“ as well as the top 10 “Warming Up” destinations for the coming year. Predicably many of the winning destinations are in Queensland, with the Sunshine State scoring one of the top 10 destinations, and three [...]

Parents across most of the Western world take for granted that their child will be born and raised in a healthy environment. Families in Indonesia don’t have the same luxury, especially those living next one to one of the many coal-powered electric stations.

Welcome to Slide Night, where we delve into our travel photos and tell the stories behind them. This week it’s Crikey intern Patrick Tombola’s turn. Patrick writes: I had been talking to two of the four women in the photo for some time. My fixer/translator told me they had lost all their family nearby during the Padang [...]

Ashlee Betteridge reports from Bali on its day of silence to mark the beginning of the Hindi Saka New Year. Yes, commercialism does take a back seat in Bali, at least once a year.