The Bali town every Australian knows, but few ever actually visit

On busy Gajah Mada Street, the lino floor of the Bhineka Djaja cafe is lifting a little, and fading faces gaze out from framed photographs and yellowing newspaper cuttings hung a little crookedly across the wood-panelled walls. I try reading them, but they’re all in Indonesian.

I turn left down beside the enormous Badung Market housed inside what looks like a vast bunker or multi-level car park, make my way down Sulawesi Street, and merge into a forest of vivid colour. I am in the textile quarter where dozens of small family-run shops display fabrics of every shade and texture, contrasting with the mildewing concrete of the building above.

Then I spot him – virtually the only other Westerner of the day – a grizzled older man in denim and a grey ponytail who moves like a slow ship. He passes close by, but his eyes remain fixed ahead. The sort of fella, I imagine, who found himself washed up here one day long ago, and has no intention of being discovered.Around the corner, another market. This one selling all sorts of live animals – fish, large lizards and myriad birds in cages which seem far too small.

The man is friendly and tells me he is 75, and that his wife died 10 years ago. He inherited this shop from his father, who set it up after emigrating from Hong Kong in 1952. He is happy to pose for a photo and stands in front of a large glass cabinet holding ghetto blaster tape players from the ’80s, all still in their boxes.

We take a long walk and emerge beside a large open park, the site of the infamous 1906 Badang Puputan. Here, the monument tells me, the king and his followers emerged from the old royal palace to confront the conquering Dutch army and, rather than be subjugated, drew their kris, or sacred daggers, and killed themselves en masse, the noble women tossing their jewellery towards the Dutch in defiant mockery. Up to 2000 people, it is believed, died here.

Source: Financial Digest (financialdigest.net)

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