Some places you go because they are beautiful. Some because they are culturally significant.
Some because the booze is cheap, attire is scant and it's far away enough that lapses in judgement are unlikely to catch up to you. That would be Seminyak (and perhaps even more so, neighbouring Kuta).
If Ubud is for temples and yoga, Semiynak/Kuta is for partying. We knew that Kuta was particularly bad for western influence, but in our naivety were led to believe Seminyak was a bit more relaxed. That information was perhaps 4 years old, and it looks like that western influence is spreading aggressively.
Being a somewhat aware Brit, I know that we have garnered a bit of a reputation when venturing overseas. That being; find somewhere hot, actively avoid anything vaguely indigenous and proceed to spend most of the holiday on an organised beach or a pub as similar as possible to the local back home. If you are feeling particularly adventurous, try tapas. Patatas Bravas please. Without the Bravas.
I do not conform to this stereotype for three reasons.
1. I like trying different food. Almost certainly too much.
2. I don't see the point in going somewhere and not seeing any of it.
3. Manon takes the avoidance of any cultural or historical sites within a 5km radius personally.
So wherever we go, we try and experience as many points of interest as possible - and Seminyak just didn't really have any. In a bizarre form of convergent evolution, Seminyak/Kuta has evolved to be just like every other party area for western tourists. The same Irish bars, American BBQs and Italian gelato parlours. Some very pleasant but still very out of place shopping malls. A lot of wankers, the majority having an Aussie twang.
The epitome of this development was at the back of our hostel. A shrine, similar to the many of Ubud had been built around rather than demolished as part of the aggressive expansion. The effect of this was that the shrine was basically bricked in; it could not be reached short of a ladder down from the first floor. Still there, just not reachable. Symbolic, poetic but more broadly, saddening.
So that is Seminyak. A stretch of Indonesian coastline doing its best Melbourne impression, with prices and clientele getting better at that impression every day. We left Seminyak a day early for Uluwatu, and on the way I asked our driver Wayan his view on the growing tourism.
"My worry is this is a green island, and people want to come to see it because it is beautiful. But all the time we make more and more concrete, I don't know if the tourists will still want to come."
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