Dig far enough back through the Archives on Go Backpacking, and you'll find Bali was the first place in Asia I visited on my trip around the world.

It was my first time in Asia, too, so the culture shock hit me hard and fast.

Walking around Kuta my first day, I quickly learned to stop making eye contact with vendors and touts and focus on going about my business.

My first hotel had a beautiful swimming pool, complete with Swedish women. I quickly learned how much those platinum blonde Scandinavians love Bali and Southeast Asia.

I remember it all like it was yesterday, yet here I was, landing on Bali over four years and thirty countries later.

Would it look and feel the same since the Eat, Pray, Love craze took hold?

Upon our arrival from Komodo National Park, we ran into traffic on the ordinarily quick, 45-minute drive from the airport in Denpasar to Seminyak.

This wasn't a little traffic; it was bumper to bumper, reminiscent of the 495 Beltway around Washington, DC traffic.

But, hopefully, it is temporary--the result of a construction project south of Kuta that is ultimately aimed at reducing congestion on the main highway.

Upon arrival at the Kokonut Suites, we were greeted by friendly staff with fresh coconut water and lots of smiles.

We hopped back in our vans almost immediately and drove south, past the airport, to Uluwatu Temple.

Uluwatu, as I learned in 2008, is a popular place to go and watch the sunset. We arrived just as the sun dipped below the clouds on the horizon.

Unlike my first visit to the temple complex, I didn't witness a monkey steal anyone's hat, it didn't start to rain, and I had the chance to attend an exciting Kecak dance performance.

We slipped into the show and were seated on the ground behind the performers.

The shirtless men of varying ages chanted in unison, providing the soundtrack to a theatrical performance involving a love story and a heroic white monkey.

We'd previously seen the same story performed in the Javanese style in Yogyakarta, but I found the version at Uluwatu to be much more exciting.

It was also less than half as long (about one hour), which we all appreciated as well.

The following day, we left for Ubud in central Bali. I have fond memories of my first visit to Ubud, which I did as a day trip from Kuta.

Visiting the Monkey Forest in 2008, I completed a reader dare (bet) and earned myself $20 for getting a monkey to climb on me.

This time around, I didn't feed the monkeys, but I did manage to capture some adorable shots of the babies.

It was interesting to observe how the older monkeys moved around the baby and mother to interfere with the tourists taking photos.

We outsized them, but thanks to survival instincts, it didn't mean they weren't going to try to protect their young.

We also visited Bu Oka to sample the local delicacy, roast suckling pig (babi guling).

I had previously been here, too, as it had been featured on Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations.

My taste for pork skin and blood sausage has not changed, but the tender, juicy meat remains worth the trip.

The suckling pig was a snack, and we'd later have lunch at a restaurant famous for its duck, but I'll be sharing those photos in a future post.

I was signed up to go surfing on our third day, but I was feeling exhausted and unwell by then, so I relegated myself to bed rest.

(See Stephen's post on Bohemian Traveler for terrific photos from his and the others' surf session in Kuta.)

By late afternoon, I was feeling better. I joined the other bloggers, along with our entire supporting crew and a representative from the Ministry of Tourism, for happy hour drinks and dinner at Bali's hottest nightlife spot, the Potato Head Beach Club.

There, we were treated to another gorgeous sunset. Along with India, Bali is one of the few places I've seen purple sunsets.

Dinner at the beach club was one of the best of the two-week trip, and along with the duck restaurant in Ubud, I'll be sharing those photos in a future post.

On our final morning in Indonesia, we were all treated to one-hour Balinese massages at Taman Air Spa.

Over the last four years, I've had massages in a dozen different styles and countries around Asia, and the world and the Balinese aromatherapy massages are still my favorite.

With time running out before my flight back to Berlin, I squeezed in a quick stop at Kuta Beach. It was just as I remembered it, though more developed.

Modern hotels were built amidst the fast-food restaurants, and a stone wall divided the beach from the street. The sidewalks had also been improved.

I was pleasantly surprised by the cleanliness and modern image presented by the new development along the main street in Kuta.

My return to Bali was a mix of reliving old memories and experiencing new restaurants and bars.

The more upscale Seminyak better suits me four years later. However, for the budget-minded who still go to Bali for the surfing and parties (Australians, I'm looking at you), Kuta appears to be heading in the right direction.

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Note: My visit to Indonesia was in conjunction with a blog trip hosted by the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy. We took all of the trash associated with lunch with us when we left the beach.

Way back in March 2008, when I first visited Indonesia, I learned Komodo Island was known not just for being home to the world's largest monitor lizards, but for the high quality of its dive sites and underwater life as well.

But unless you're a diver, you're probably not aware of the crystal-clear waters, teeming with coral and all forms of marine life in Komodo National Park.

After coming face to face with Komodo Dragons in the morning, we boarded our speed boat for a short ride to Pink Beach, on another part of the island.

Arriving at high tide, we were able to pass over the coral and jump directly off the boat and onto the sand.

When standing on the beach itself, it's hard to see the pink hue, a color given to it from the red coral that erodes and washes ashore here.

Luckily, there's a small bluff at the far end where you can get a better perspective on it.

When I asked about the fact that we were still on an island filled with dragons, I was told they don't inhabit the area where we were.

Pink Beach may be the most popular and visited beach in Komodo National Park, but we were kindly informed it was hardly the only one featuring rose-colored sand.

We were told the beaches of Indonesia get increasingly pretty the further east you go.

And if you look at a map, you'll realize Komodo Island is far from the easternmost island in the Indonesian archipelago.

Once we were all ashore, it was time for lunch. Staff were already making use of a small gazebo to barbecue a fresh seafood feast for us all, including fish and squid.

But our collective attention was on the sparkling waters awaiting us. A few people from another tour were already on the beach when we arrived.

One girl in a red bikini was sunbathing on her own, clearly in a state of bliss. A few of the guys in her group were lounging around in the shallow water further down.

At one point, two of them decided to race, bare-chested, the length of the beach. That certainly caught all the girls' attention.

Once lunch was hastily consumed, we grabbed the snorkeling gear.

The shallow depth of water, combined with the sunshine, allowed for terrific visibility. I've never seen so much live, healthy-looking coral in my life.

There were dozens of fish species too. I even found Nemo!

If it weren't for the high likelihood of getting sunburned, I would've spent all afternoon swimming around.

Emerging from the waters, I reached into a plastic cooler and pulled out a cold Bintang beer. It was the perfect way to cap an epic day of dragons and clownfish.

During our time at Pink Beach, the first group left, and another arrived. By the time we were ready to leave, just before the sun had begun to set, the tide had gone out.

Stephen, against others' advice, and in what turned out to be one of the funniest moments of the trip, tried to swim to our boat, anchored further out.

He soon returned, shouting that we should not try to swim out. He'd discovered, the hard way, that there wasn't enough water covering the coral for him to swim.

Instead, some locals with dugout canoes helped shuttle us from the beach to the boat.

Between both the dragons and the snorkeling, Komodo National Park exceeded my expectations. With short, direct flights from Bali, it's going to quickly become a trendy side trip for visitors to Bali.

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Note: My visit to Indonesia was in conjunction with a blog trip hosted by the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy. We took all of the trash associated with lunch with us when we left the beach.

The stories began on Rinca Island.

A park ranger ambushed in his office when the door was accidentally left open.

An elderly villager attacked. A local child killed.

Our guides seemed to take it all in stride, having grown up amongst endangered Komodo monitors, the world's largest living lizard, all their lives.

As a visitor, I was both fascinated and increasingly worried.

The only tool guides carry to fend off aggressive Komodo dragons, as they are more commonly known, is a carved, two-pronged stick.

The lack of weapons, even a hunting knife, reminded me of my game walks in Botswana's Okavango Delta, where it was illegal for the local guides to carry guns.

Instead, the guides' knowledge of dragon behavior minimizes the potential for tourists to find themselves in dangerous situations.

And if such instances do occur, they could be handled by non-lethal means by following the guide's instructions (which, I kid you not, may include climbing up a tree).

Rinca Island

It was a few minutes' walk from the pier leading to a stone gate, welcoming us to Komodo National Park.

To recognize and further protect the dragons, the park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991.

Beyond the gate was a small village, where we met the guides who would be taking us on a walk to observe the dragons. Rinca currently offers visitors two short trail walks, two medium walks, and one long walk.

For safety reasons, all visitors are required to walk with a guide, and no visitors are allowed to sleep overnight on the island.

After a short briefing, we only needed to walk a few meters before spotting our first dragon, camped out in the shade underneath a building.

Like all reptiles, Komodo dragons need to regulate their body temperature continuously. In the early morning and late afternoon, they search for food.

During mid-day, when the sun is strongest, they lie in the shade. After sundown, they return to their nests at the forest's edge or in the ground and sleep through the night.

The dragons on Rinca Island are smaller than those on Komodo Island, however, because Rinca is also smaller, the density of dragons make them easier to spot.

Nearby, an emaciated dragon with two broken front legs also lay motionless, except for its eyes. The injuries occurred years earlier, probably in a fight with another dragon, yet it continues to survive.

Komodo dragons do not actively hunt their prey. Instead, they rely on camouflage, and patiently wait for prey along game trails. There, they execute surprise attacks.

Our guide, for example, said he recently saw a Komodo Dragon eat an entire monkey in a single bite.

As a result of this behavior, the injured dragon is still able to catch small prey, which unwittingly walks in front of it.

In addition to small animals, such as monkeys, common prey includes deer, wild boar, water buffalo, and horses.

The larger prey, such as the buffalo, can require up to 20 dragons working together to take down.

It's this violent image of multiple dragons ferociously attacking an animal that has stuck with me from the little footage I've seen in nature documentaries.

Under the kitchen was another dragon. I was astounded to see the villagers sitting casually on the elevated staircase directly above it.

The dragons are drawn to the kitchen by the smell of food, but the people and park have a policy against feeding them.

We walked a short distance further, out of the village and into the forest, to a dragon's den.

From our perspective, it was a short mound of dirt with two holes used to enter and exit.

Unlike orangutans, dragons re-use the same nests, perhaps to save themselves the work of always having to build new ones.

Dragons reach their sexual maturity in 6-8 years and can live up to 50 years.

Interestingly, female dragons can birth male dragons without mating, but to produce female dragons (and therefore ensure the survival of the species), they require intercourse with a male.

This might explain the ratio of over three male dragons for every female dragon. Perhaps the ladies like to see all those males fight over them? It might be their way of ensuring a strong mating partner.

Male dragons, we were surprised to learn, have two penises. Science has yet to explain the purpose of their second reproductive organ.

Mating season occurs every year between July and August, with the females laying 15 to 30 eggs in August and September. It can take 8-9 months for the eggs to hatch.

It's common for young dragons to live in the trees in their first few years, to avoid being eaten by their elders.

While I would've liked to follow the trails further into the island, our time was limited.

We returned to the village, where we enjoyed lunch in a newly built, open-air building while watching long-tail macaques run through the surrounding fields.

From Rinca Island, we left by boat to visit another, smaller island, for an afternoon of snorkeling.

Komodo Island

If Rinca Island was the teaser, arriving on Komodo Island was the main event.

In 2008, during my first visit to Indonesia, I was aware of Komodo but passed up the opportunity to join a friend for the trip, which required two days to reach from Lombok, the island just east of Bali.

I always imagined Komodo to be an unfriendly and ugly place, so my preconceived notions were immediately smashed when we approached the clear, turquoise waters washing up against the beach.

Disembarking the boats, we walked down the long pier and onto the island. Local guides greeted us immediately, carrying their tell-tale sticks to fend off aggressive dragons.

I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that we didn't even need to leave the seaside village to get our fill of dragon action.

The dragons on Komodo Island are larger than those on Rinca, growing up to three meters (nine feet) in length and weighing up to 150 kilograms (330 pounds).

It's a common misconception that they are poisonous. Still, it's up to 50 different kinds of bacteria in their saliva that can cause infections and death in prey (and human victims), not venom.

After the dragon bites its prey, death does not always come immediately, especially with the larger animals.

Instead, the dragon will follow the injured prey, for several days if necessary, until it is further weakened, or dead. Then, it feasts.

In the village, a large, alpha male Komodo dragon was especially active upon our arrival.

It was interesting to see deer just 20 meters away from their predators. Such a site is common during safaris in Africa, as well.

Toward the end of our visit, we followed an enormous dragon onto the beach, where the direct sunlight fully illuminated its scales and colors.

Komodo dragons are capable of swimming several hundred meters out to sea.

After seeing the dragon on the beach, we walked back to the pier and hopped in our boats for an afternoon of snorkeling.

Believe it or not, we would be snorkeling off Komodo Island.

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Note: My visit to Indonesia was in conjunction with a blog trip hosted by the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy.

Stumbling out of bed, I skipped the shower, brushed my teeth, and stepped outside into the cool darkness.

Craning my head toward the night's sky, I was greeted with a scattering of white stars. It was a good sign.

In a trip filled with early mornings, getting up at 3 AM to watch the sunrise over Mount Bromo in East Java was the earliest.

We'd been warned to dress warmly, as temperatures can drop close to freezing, but I didn't even find a hat or gloves to be necessary.

Upon meeting the rest of the group outside the entrance to Java Banana Lodge, we piled into a caravan of 1970's-era BJ40 Toyota Land Cruisers for the short ride up to the lookout point.

After 15 minutes of twisting and turning in the dark, we reached the parking area at the foot of a dirt path leading further up Mount Penanjakan (2,770 meters). From here, we were on foot.

It was hard to see in the pre-dawn hours, but the entire path at this point was covered in a fine layer of grey ash from Mount Bromo's latest eruption in 2011.

At 2,292 meters, Mount Bromo is hardly the tallest mountain in Indonesia (that would be the 4,884 meter Puncak Jaya on the island of New Guinea), but it draws a crowd on account of its setting.

The walk to the lookout point took 20 to 30 minutes. By 4:30 AM, a crowd of several hundred tourists and their guides had arrived for sunrise.

Coffee, tea, and snacks were being sold by the members of the indigenous Tengger community, whose ability to wake up at an ungodly hour every morning amazed me. 

While the Javanese are predominantly Muslim, the Tengger practice Hinduism.

Our guide handed us surgical masks to help protect against the ash being kicked up by everyone.

I felt funny wearing it at first, but later, it'd be essential to hiking on Mount Bromo.

The first signs of sunlight began to appear behind a horizontal band of clouds hovering over the horizon.

Unlike the sunrise at Borobudur Temple, it appeared we would be in for a colorful sky.

Forty-five minutes later, at 5:15 AM, I was watching one of the most spectacular sunrises of my life.

The sun also cast a warm glow over Mount Bromo and the surrounding Sea of Sand, the name given to the vast plain between us and the volcanos.

Almost as soon as the sun had risen, groups were already leaving the lookout point for the drive down and subsequent hike to Mount Bromo's crater.

Our group lingered, taking photos, and was, therefore, one of the last to make its way down the mountain.

Upon reaching the Sea of Sand, we began driving over a carpet of grey ash.

In the parking area, we were immediately approached by locals offering horse rides to the crater.

A few people in our group chose the horses, while the majority, including myself, opted to walk.

It was at this point that the surgical masks became necessary.

A lot of ash was being kicked up by the people and horses as they walked to and from Mount Bromo.

The closer we got to the volcano, the deeper the ash.

At the point where the incline to the crater begins, the ash in the middle of the trail was several inches deep.

Walking became more comfortable on the edges of the trails, where you were more likely to connect with solid ground.

My camera had begun giving me lens error messages, the result of ash getting into the spaces around the lens.

I began to choose my moments more carefully, to prevent further damage.

The horses let off their passengers just before stairs leading to the crater's edge.

Here, the winds whipped ash across the side of the volcano, making the surgical masks or any face-covering a necessity.

The staircase had seen better days, though the broken steps and rails seemed fitting considering its location on the side of an active volcano!

We were informed that if you watch the sunrise from Mount Bromo's crater, you can see the red from magma in the crater. 

During the daylight hours, though, you were only able to see the smoke.

I've hiked around the active Arenal Volcano in Costa Rica, and as a kid, walked up to flowing lava in Hawaii, but this was the first time I'd peered into the crater of an active volcano.

Surprisingly, there wasn't an odor of sulfur in the air.

See also: Hike to Diamond Head Crater

The walk back to the vehicles went a lot faster. The scene on the valley floor was reminiscent of Egypt and images of the Middle East.

But instead of a sandstorm, we were shrouded in volcanic ash.

I worried about the health of the indigenous people and horses, who were there every day catering to tourists and trying to earn a living.

In the distance, we could see a lookout point halfway up the mountain from where we watched the sunrise.

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My visit to Indonesia was in conjunction with a blog trip hosted by the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy.