In Reply to: see for yourself posted by haddles on Thursday, 4. August 2005 at 14:33 Bali Time:
...is to get the hell out of there.
People like you are one reason. There are others. Mainly that just about every other square mile of Indonesia is much more interesting.
And this may surprise you... the majority of Indonesians everywhere are fun-loving people, definitely know how to have a good time, are very liberal thinkers and are extremely tolerant towards the quirks that foreigners have. They have their limits, though, and if you cross the line you'll find out pretty quickly.
Kuta at night is just like King Street in Melbourne, but with cheaper beer and friendlier staff. The cheap beer and friendly staff are everywhere in Indonesia. The diminishing factors are centered in Kuta and thin out as you get further away from the Bounty, where the epicenter is.
The only reason I have for going to Kuta is to say hi to some of the lovely people I have met there.
And yes, I will be up at 3am. But I doubt I'd be in Kuta.
And don't feel too smug about being their "meal ticket" either. You stay in foreign-owned hotels and go to foreign-owned bars. The money that trickles through to the Balinese is more like the water they boil the rice in than the meal itself. So tip big, coz two dollars a day isn't enough to put up with your crap.