Hello Steve,
I have enjoyed travel for the past thirty years and it is only the lack of $ that stops us these days, although we do go to Bali each year as it is not so far away from our home in New Zealand.
Our eldest son moved to the United States in 1985 so we would visit each year and then go on to Europe as it was not so far from the east coast, Washington DC where he was living. We eventually tired of travelling through the USA and would meet up in Hawaii which was half way for all of us. He is now living with his family in Dresden so we endeavour to visit Europe every second year. This suits us as it is easy to stop over in Asia on the way and back home from Europe.
Bali is the place that we love to return to; our first visit was in 1974 and we were hooked. We went again in 1978 and then in 85, 90, and since 1995 have been going each year, and occasionally twice a year.
At the moment I am in the process of writing a piece about why I love Bali, this is mainly for my friends who cannot understand why we continue to go there each year, some of them have not enjoyed their visits, have been put off by the constant hasseling to buy, and do not look past the usual tourist areas of Kuta and Nusa Dua.
Anyway Steve, I will be logging into this forum from now on, and adding my own thoughts. I have a number of photographs which we took on our first visit, and if you are interested I could post some of them. It is particularly interesting to see the street scene in the seventies with donkey and cart, bicycles, and very few cars or motor cycles.
Our last visit was in June with our daughter Deanna and her husband Marcel as well as my sister and her husband. We stayed in Sanur, Seminyak, Candidasa and Padangbai, as well as our favourite place Ubud. This was our first stay in Padangbai and we spent a few days at a new resort on the top of the hill called Bloo Lagoon, this was delightful and we particularly enjoyed going to the Blue Lagoon beach each day. I gather that you spent most of your time around Thailand - we really enjoy this country and have visited about seven times. Climate wise Bali is preferable for us as the best time to visit Thailand is November to April, and this is when we enjoy living in New Zealand as it is our summer. We always like to go away during our winter which is from May to November, and Bali's temperature is best during our winter months June, July August, September. Anyway that is enought for the moment. Good Luck to you with the forum.