Hello,

My fiance and I are seven days away from our first visit to Bali. We were wondering if we needed to buy universal outlet converters so that our electrical products will work in the outlets. We are from the States. Thanks in advance for your help.

it depends on your hotel...some have american type plug recepticals and some do not....why don't you e mail the hotel or just take one for safety sake...

If you are staying at an upscale property, they will have adaptors available.

Excited-you need to put far more thought and concern about bombs on Bali than adapters, and where you'll go during the day and particularly at night that will minimize the risk of you becoming a target.

Quite frankly, I think it's absolutely nutty to go ahead with a honeymoon on Bali on an island where there are two bombers on the loose with the means to bomb again. Someone is hiding them on the island of Bali, you know, they have not remained uncaptured for no reason. That alone should give one GREAT pause.

Do yourself a favor, get yourself over to Thailand, Hong Kong or Japan and have a proper honeymoon without worrying about your safety. You are going against all travel warnings put out by western nations, you know, and you ought to check your insurance as well, because if something happens to you, any life insurance you have may exclude recovery.

The Prime Minister of Australia said it best: "Australians would have to be crazy to go to Bali now."

Spot on advice to heed.

Thanks guys. I have contacted the hotels and they do have adapters. To Spygirl, I will take your reply as a concern for my and FH safety. You are really worked up, but we have decided that we will travel to Bali for our honeymoon. I look forward to posting a trip report upon my return.

You will have the most wonderful honeymoon, you will have the best holiday,the balinese love the lover the honeymooner they are a most gentle loving race of people you will have happy happy memories. As for spygirl she is just a little louppy probly read to many nancy drew books as a kid as for plugs most have them but it still pays to take a coupel with you ...all the best we are going again in jan, i look forward to hearing about your wonderful honeymoon.
God Bless you both..I love weddings

Every other countries around Bali will discourage others to go Bali but hope to support their own countries.

There could be better reasons to the bombings that we know.

I agree with chinesefan had this very conversation a few days ago with my son hes doing his degree in international relations and mastering in the world of the spook, Java is a very poor country they flock to bali for work and most of the knock offs forsale in bali are from java, they are very jealous of bali and just seams a little coincidential that the bombers are mainly from java or hide in java. Give bali a break after the first bomb there was a lot of hungrey people there. I give my full support to bali and will continue to holiday there no matter how many bombs go off, eventuallythey will run out of money and wont be able to buy explosives thats why the last ones were full of shit to do extra damage.

In our hotel we had two types of power points. Never had that before.Very handy. I agree you should just email your hotel.
NOBODY can fail to know about the bombings in Bali so I fail to see why a post about universal converters needs someone telling them where they should be going for their holiday.

Spygirl is a little bit over the top.
My wife & I have just returned back from Bali after a 10 day vacation there.
It is safe to go out during the day & night as there is extra guards/Security on hotels, main shopping areas, bars, restaurants,etc...

Let's face it today you could be in London, Madrid, France, etc and be involved in bombings

I say go for it

Danaman-if I'm "over the top" as you put it, then your post is exceedingly naive and uninformed (I could use other words to describe it, of course, but I'll refrain just this once).suspended).

It's exceedingly naive to say, (not to mention nonsensical) that a location is "safe" simply because YOU went there and nothing happened to YOU. That's completely irrelevant: "safe" does not mean "hey look, I went there, and nothing happened!" One need only look at the facts of the situation, that the Bali bombers have NOT been caught, (one key operative/suspect has apparently been killed this past week though) and that the perpetrators have been aided and abetted by Balinese on the island in their get-away. This should give one GREAT pause. If the bombers were able to elude capture on such a tiny island, even with a massive manhunt, then that speaks volumes about the political situation in Bali-that there are indeed factions operating on the island that are antithetical and hostile to western interests.

One thing we do know about the group carrying out these attacks -the al-Qaeda affiliated Jamaah Islamiya (JI) -their M.O. is to go after soft targets, and far more ominously, to go back to a scene of a previous attack, particularly in and around anniversary dates of prior bombings.

Bali is believed to be quite vulnerable to further attacks precisely because THERE ARE FEW MUSLIMS ON A TINY UNCONNECTED ISLAND, AND A DOMINANT INFLUX OF WESTERN TOURISTS. So in the jihadist world-of infidels v. Islam, it makes perfect sense to use Bali repeatedly as a target location with which to commit murderous acts against westerners.

The Bali bombing of October 1, 2005 was exactly 3 years TO THE MONTH from the previous horrific attack in Bali in 2002. Indonesia's OWN Chief of Police says the island is "not safe."

So the question is this: Most people practice risk management in their daily lives-they don't go to places in their own cities that they KNOW there are high crime rates, or where there have been repeated crimes. When you're on holiday, particularly on a honeymoon, do you want to have to be constantly thinking about your safety when you're thousands of miles away from your support systems and country? About whether your hotel or the tourist restaurant you visit on the beach is suddenly going to be bombed? I think most sensible people do NOT want to put themselves in such a situation. Sure, chances are that nothing will happen, (but statistically, your chances of getting killed or injured in an attack on Bali are actually quite high, compared to other places in the world: you have to remember that those silly ".0001 statistics" of dying in any given day that people like to bandy about DO NOT accurately reflect a given situation at a given period of time: if you take the number of tourists killed or injured within the past 5 years on the island of Bali, you'll see your "statistical chance" of encountering real harm there will skew alarmingly upwards).

So D-the upshot is, if you want to stick your head in the sand and ignore the facts of the situation, (and I can tell you that security companies throughout the world are advising their companies that it is too unsafe for their employees to travel here now) that's up to you, but don't provide false assurances to others of Bali being "safe" based on your one-time tourist trip, when it clearly is not. 6 Americans, Australians and an assortment of other westerners-all who were clearly the targets in the attacks of a few weeks ago-give the lie to that nonsense.

We are leaving for a short vacation in Singapore, Java & Bali next week and staying in Hyatt Hotels! Some of our friends are busy warning us about staying in Hyatt or other American hotels since the Jordan bombing.

A couple people questioned our decision whether it's safe to fly Northwest Airlines which operates the oldest fleet among US carriers. Still others mentioned the bird flu which spread from Vietnam, Thailand down to Indonesia. I reminded that they forgot it already spread to Europe.

While we appreciate all the warnings that people give for free, we can't be paranoid and let those thugs in Bali, London or France bully us. If it's our time to die/get hurt it'll happen anywhere even in our own homes.

Argueably, we may be safer to stay close to home but we may very well be BORED TO DEATH !!!

Now about those converters, does anyone know if... I forgot my question already. I'm sorry about your post Excited but happy honeymoon and congratulations to you & your fiance.

Dax--you're mixing apples and oranges-you can't lump all places around the world together-(I mean France? rioting in the 'burbs where no one goes compared with terrorist bombs targeting tourists? please!) that's pointless and irrelevant to the discussion.

For the reasons mentioned above and others, Bali stands in a unique position relative to other places that have experienced a terrorist bomb, even places like Jordan, which was just targeted by al-Qaeda. None of those other places has a long-time, home-grown well-supported, al-Qaeda-financed terrorist infrastructure in their midst, none of those place as vulnerable as Bali to repeated attacks-it is for these and other reasons that western nations have current and updated Travel Warnings out to their citizens to avoid Bali-and for none of those other places you mentioned.

Until the situation there has stabilized (and it has NOT at this point) it is difficult to imagine why anyone would want to plan their honeymoon in a place that is so vulnerable to future attacks. It makes no sense.

"long-time, home-grown well-supported, al-Qaeda-financed terrorist infrastructure"

That describes the terrorists in New York/Boston. My wife refused to take the NY metro for that reason, but,at least she's willing to go to NY last summer. We plan to avoid the main party drag in Kute. From what I know Bali is a traditional Hindu island not moslem. We've been to Bali before and met very wonderful friendly Hindu natives. I don't argue the fact that Al Qaida cells exist there as they do in the US. Perhaps we are more able in preventing terrorism in the US, but I think it's impossible to prevent it 100%.
Nevertheless I do appreciate your sincere concern & anxiety.

I'm with the travelers who say it's a personal decision. I fully appreciate the risk of terrorism (and so many other calamities like dengue, malaria, getting hit by a motorcycle crossing the street, all of which have happened to friends and acquaintances) but I still choose to live and travel in Indonesia. I would never tell anyone that it is 100% safe but, you know, I wouldn't say that about London, New York, or many, many other cities either. Anyone who's uncomfortable should stay home.

I don't really agree with the distinction between bombing with tourists as targets or just random bombings in public places. Whether you're a commuter on a Madrid train or a diner at a Bali restaurant doesn't make much difference. Terrorists are everywhere (even Australia) and a major feature of terrorism is the element of surprise.

Enjoy Indonesia and let us know what you did and what you liked. I was in Bali last week and will be going back again in a few days. It is very quiet right now and the people are very appreciative of your patronage. Security is constantly improving. I wouldn't say it is foolproof -- it is a beach resort not an armed camp -- but people are a lot more alert than they were a few weeks ago. I feel that Ubud and all of Central and Northern Bali is absolutely safe. I'm still a little uneasy at the popular beachside restaurants, but they now have guards and even dogs at all access points.

ExcitedforPR: Take adaptors, they're not too much to carry and you might find it quicker/easier to use those than wait for hotel staff to deliver them. Last year, we found 2 different types of outlets in our room.

Wish you all the best for your marriage and a happy honeymoon.

Wow! I do have a one track mind - I thought this thread would be about outlets, as in shopping! Hehehe ... that's why I love Fodors - never dull!

Hello all,
Happy New Year. My husband and I are back from our fabulous honeymoon in Bali. I have posted a detailed trip report. Thanks so much for all your planning assistance.