nomad4ever

In spite of the recent Immigration Experience at Denpasar Airport by 2 female travelers from the Philippines, I was wondering, what your opinion might be about Racial Profiling at airports.

Currently a story is making waves on Blogs and Facebook, how 2 Filipina were allegedly obtained, held and questioned for 1.5 hours upon immigration without initial suspicion, or justification – obviously simply because they were traveling to Bali being Citizens of the Republic of the Philippines.

The debate, if their treatment was justified, is heated and sparked plenty of controversy so far. Here is what happened:

written by Chris

In a recent development that may seem like a two-sided sword, 2 of the most famous and notorious American Fast Food Giants make inroads by coming to Bali.

While that would certainly mean more options for fast food and pizza lovers, some might argue also that the original character of Bali might get spoiled even more.

The island is pretty much splattered with foreign franchises already, especially in the over-developed South, where Burger Joints and American(-ized) Fast Food Franchises like McDonalds, A&W, Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts or KFC are operating outlets in abundance:

written by Chris

Regional Flight Travel in Asia has come a long way over the last decade. While flights around the region used to cost hundreds of Dollars until still in the late 90’s, this changed dramatically with the introduction of Budget Airlines in Asia, just a few years into the new millennium.

Nowadays, brands like Jet Star, Tiger Airways, Cebu Pacific Airlines and Air Asia are common household names, who revolutionized the ways people in Asia travel. Especially Air Asia, ‘World’s best low-cost airline’ in 2010 (according to Skytrax) deserves further mentioning, if you have no money to waste and plan to fly as cheap as possible in Asia.

written by Chris

The Philippines and Indonesia are 2 of the favorite travel destinations in South East Asia for the readers of this website. Quite a few islands in the Philippines, as Bali in Indonesia are very valid options for Expats and early retirees to stay long-term and enjoying the good life in those equator paradises.

The times of expensive flights to reach them are luckily over with the introduction of budget carriers a few years back. Still, it was so far a hassle, if you wanted to commute from Indonesia’s prime holiday destination Bali to one of the other island paradises in  the Philippines. Will that finally change very soon?

written by Chris

I was asked many times over, to update the Cost of Living spreadsheet on this page. Time is definitely ripe for an update, as prices in Bali soared over the last 3 years.

The economic crisis, a weakening Euro and an Indonesian Inflation (unofficially in the double digits) did all their part as well to change Bali from a backpacker’s paradise into a full-blown ‘Tourist Dollar Money Making Machine’.

Tourist numbers rose already to pre-crisis levels in Bali and are still climbing steadily. While most prices also went clearly up, there are still a handful of exceptions.

written by Chris

Just a short note, that this website won an Award of Excellence by IGLU, one of the biggest travel companies in the UK with millions of people visiting their portal site every year. IGLU has won many awards based on their hard work and dedication to the traveling customer, who they offer many holiday destinations to, as well as a range of information.

Okay, now this is what will happen next: the link back from their page will send some of their ‘millions of visitors’ over, to increase my traffic tremendously.

written by Chris

When I made my assumptions last October, that Benigno (Noynoy) Aquino III might be poised to become the 15th president of the Philippines, nobody expected that the results would come in so clearly and undisputed.

Usually laughed-off Aquino as a ‘mental’ or bespectacled pseudo-intellectual, who only came to political power due to his name, proved his critics wrong by winning yesterdays elections for President of the Philippines by a wide margin.

What happened on election day, how did those numbers add up and above all, what can this beautiful yet starved country expect in the coming months ahead?

written by Chris

Over the years, the 3 Gili Islands in the north-west of Lombok have been famous with backpacker tourists.

White sand, crystal-clear cyan-blue waters, no police on the islands and a carefree attitude and tolerance of the locals drew budget tourists in droves.

Recently, the islands also attract a different crowd, disco or party seekers who didn’t find their place at the Full-moon parties of Thailand and even upscale developments change the face of those gems in the Lombok straight.

Is it already too late to let your hair down here?

written by Chris