In Reply to: excellent story............. posted by bunbury gal on Wednesday, 10. August 2005 at 18:13 Bali Time:
Our two had a great time. I'd love to say that they went wanting to learn more about a different culture, but this wasn't true, and if we were too earnest about it I think this would have put them off. It worked really well giving them an easy intro via the Hard Rock but just using it as a sleeping base, and doing a range of activities which exposed them to the "real" Bali (warts and all).
Took them to one temple only ("boring") and to one Balinese dance performance ("quite good, but don't want to go again").
Best approach was getting out of hotels and into the streets, and also activities such as the Bali Budaya cycling (which I raved about), which introduced them to lots of real Balinese people and culture in a much more interesting way than we could have done on our own.
One of the of the greatest things they got out of the trip, I think, was an appreciation of a different lifestyle, a different value system, and the fact that they could interact with and relate to the wonderful Balinese people. The more contact you have with Balinese people the more likely this is to occur.