I was warned that Bali would be different when I returned after decades away. But I was still FLOORED by the reality...
A Gen X Aussie has shared his shock at how drastically Bali has changed from a cheap holiday paradise to an Instagram-obsessed hotspot.
Craig Lambert, now in his late 50s, told Daily Mail Australia he first touched down on the island in 1988 when he was a young man looking for adventure.
Then, palm trees lined modern-day high streets, surfing backpackers roamed the dusty roads, and a singlet cost just 50c.
But when Mr Lambert and his wife returned to Ubud this year, the tourists of today just left him and his wife scratching their heads.
'It was my first trip back to Asia in many years, seems like a lot of places are now for TikTokers and Instagram types,' he said.
'There was one lady we saw in Ubud in the huge resort we stayed at who would do laps around the resort wearing full makeup and carrying yoga equipment.
'She never seemed to go do the yoga – just walked around taking selfies and wanting to be seen.
'That seem a bit odd to oldies like my partner and I.'
He said the 'vibe' had changed. The old-world charm of 80s Bali had been replaced by cookie-cutter development you could find anywhere in the world.
'It felt like a real adventure for a young bloke in his 20s. This visit I can see how much Bali has grown to cater for the tourists,' Mr Lambert said.
'The malls could be anywhere in Australia and it's not as cheap as chips anymore.
'The singlet I bought for the photo cost $6, the one in 1988 probably cost 50c.
'There's a lot of men in the stalls now and some can be quite pushy, enough to make the missus and I want to avoid going in. Back in '88 I remember having lots of fun with the stall owners bartering. It was a hoot - this trip not so much.'
Mr Lambert said even the beaches had changed.
'There were no places set up with chairs for drinks if I remember correctly,' he said.
He shared a 'before and after' picture near the Sari Club Bali Memorial, exposing just how much had changed in the last few decades.
The photos were shared on Facebook with many social media users lamenting the drastic changes.
'Maybe it is the beautiful sunlight and the greenery in the top photo... but Bali back then had such a positive, happy vibe to it,' one wrote.
'Somehow that got lost along the way, I really miss it.'
'Old Bali had its quiet charm, untouched and raw. Today it's different: busy, built-up,' another woman agreed.
'You haven't changed a bit,' a third quipped.
Bali was recently deemed the world's top destination to avoid, with tourism-driven development and well-documented plastic pollution pushing the island to the brink.
In the past two decades, the sector has eclipsed the island's other industries, including its declining agriculture sector.
Bali has remained the top travel destination for Australians, with 1.3million visiting in 2024.
Australians were put on notice by Balinese officials earlier this year, as many locals have been left upset by the increasing numbers of poorly-behaving tourists.
In March, bizarre footage emerged of a tourist being wheeled on a trolley through the streets by security staff with his wrists and ankles tied.
'Drunk foreigner causes chaos at Y Sport Bar, Legian – starts hitting people,' the caption to the video shared on the bali.info.official Instagram page said.
Legian is a popular tourist area of Denpasar located between the bustling hive of Kuta to the south and Seminyak to the north.
Commenters on the clip commended the way security staff handled the situation and said it was 'tough to find the balance between being welcoming as a tourist island and letting tourists walk all over us'.
'Gotta admire the way this was handled,' one said, while another added: 'This kind of tourist we don't need in Bali. Jungle behaviour!'
One viewer branded the incident 'Bali Bogan strikes again!' as another posted: 'Looks like they're taking him to a dumpster... Give him another Bintang.'
The man's nationality was unclear, but the incident came after Australians were caught up in a brawl at the famous Finns Beach Club in nearby North Kuta earlier this year.
Five tourists had a fight with about 15 security staff in that incident.
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Telegraph
39 minutes ago
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Is the end of the dreaded airport queue in sight? Not quite
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The Sun
41 minutes ago
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My mum abandoned me and gave me to a cult – we were fed LSD, beaten, bleached & waterboarded to keep us under control
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Now, over four decades on from the abuse, Ben shares his story of growing up in the "Kai Lama" compound, where children were locked in with barbed wire and tortured. FIRST IMPRESSIONS Anne first started out as a yoga teacher before turning to a more 'spiritual life' and eventually believing she was Jesus Christ reincarnated. She was born with the name Evelyn and had three marriages in total - the first coming to an end when her husband died in a car crash, which led to her 'spiritual awakening.' She met English physicist Dr Raynor Johnson in 1963 and the following year, they set up a group dedicated to spreading a surreal combination of Christianity and Hinduism, with Hamilton-Byrne at its centre. Her final husband, Bill, became the person who led the doomsday cult with her in the 1960s, when the world faced existential threats like nuclear warfare, the Vietnam War and the spread of communism. 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PICTURE PERFECT FAMILY From the outside, the family looked picture-perfect as they lived on their compound in Victoria, Australia. Life at Kai Lama seemed healthy and even advanced for its years; it featured yoga, exercise, vegetarian meals, meditation and education. Ben lived on the remote property and was raised alongside dozens of other children for 13 years and recalls living with 28 other kids at one point. "Growing up, it was Anne and Bill, they were mum and dad; and then there were foster kids, and they were kids of other sect members, who would either come up on weekends or stay there for stints of a couple of years," Ben, told the BBC. "The greatest amount of kids at any given stage was 28," he added. Anne and Bill brought up the children as their own, even dressing them in matching outfits and dying their hair bleach blond to appear like a real family. I loved them in their little smocks and jeans and the long hair and ribbons. 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Ben recalls seeing his siblings being beaten with a belt, and says they were given LSD 'as part of an initiation ritual.' 'I was watching her being belted with a buckle and she's being beaten to the point where she's wriggling out of her clothes,' he said of his sister, Sarah. 'Hearing her body smash across the balustrades - it was horrendous to know they had the power to do that and would do it,' he told the MailOnline. She had this ability to be able to be so warm, so loving, so caring, and yet at the same time so manipulative. Ben Shenton Ben says Anne's most effective tactic was to keep the children from forming bonds with each other to keep them all in line. To weed out misdeeds in the children, Anne would perform group interrogations by beating them until someone came clean. Ben said he stayed compliant to avoid punishment. "This was the evil genius of her. She understood that if she could separate us, isolate us, make it so that we couldn't build relationships with one another and punish us, then she could control us," he said. "Anyone who's lived under domestic violence will know the living with fear, the walking on eggshells, the currying favour of those in authority, or the absolute rejection of them, the hatred of them, the love-hate relationship. "It's domestic abuse on steroids," he said. Now, Ben believes Anne was a sociopath or psychopath. "She had this ability to be able to be so warm, so loving, so caring, and yet at the same time so manipulative," he said. 'The Family' Cult Timeline 1968 The Family begins to 'adopt' and acquire children to create a 'master race'. 1974 An official school is set up for the 'master race' children at the Lake Eildon property. 1978 Anne Hamilton marries William (Bill) Byrne and they take the surname Hamilton-Byrne. 1983 Police visit the Lake Eildon property to search for a missing girl. She is not found on the property. 1987 (14 August) Combined police raid on sect property at Lake Eildon. Anne is overseas. Bill is present at the raid but is not charged. The children are removed from the sect and placed into care. 1987 (Oct/Nov) Bill flees to Hawaii to meet Anne. 1987 (12 December) Detective Lex de Man is called to investigate. He learns about The Family. 1989 (about June) Lex de Man writes a report recommending Victoria Police commence a criminal investigation into The Family. 1989 (11 December) Operation Forest Task Force commences. 1993 (4 June) Anne and Bill are arrested in the Catskill Mountains, Upstate New York. 1993 (17 August) Anne and Bill are extradited to Australia. 1993 (31 August) Anne and Bill appear in the Victorian Magistrates' Court, charged with conspiracy to defraud and commit perjury by falsely registering the births of triplets. 1994 In the County Court, Anne and Bill avoid prison and are fined $5000 each. 2001 Bill dies, leaving Anne to lead a diminishing group of followers. 2019 At 97, Anne lives in the dementia wing of a suburban Melbourne nursing home. CAUGHT IN THE ACT It wasn't until 1987 that the cult was finally searched by 100 police officers and the children were rescued. At the time, a 15-year-old Ben was doing his scheduled yoga class when police stormed in. His sister, Sarah Moore, had managed to escape the cult at 17 and headed straight to the police to tell them what was going on. Not taking any chances, police stormed the property and rescued six children, including Ben. While he was reluctant to go with them at first, he soon realised this was his path to freedom. He recalls: 'I think I got this epiphanal moment, realising this is the ticket out of here. So I just I let go, and I went with them." It was only then that Ben found out he was not their biological son and was handed over by his mother Joy, who stayed in the cult as an 'aunt'. At the time, Anne was in Hawaii while Bill stayed on the compound, but he wasn't arrested. Later, he went to New York to meet Anne before the pair were arrested and extradited back to Australia. While many of the children came forward with claims of abuse, both Anne and Bill were only charged with conspiracy to defraud and perjury by falsely registering the birth of triplets. The pair were spared jail and fined just £2,300 each for the crime. Detective Lex de Man, who investigated the case, says evidence of abuse was unable to be taken to court despite multiple victims coming forward. Detective de Man recently told The Age: 'My only regret is she was never held totally to account for the misery she caused to the former cult children. 'I have no sympathy for the woman I consider the most evil person I ever met in my police career.' LIFE NOW Ben moved into foster care when he left the cult, and while lying on his bunk bed with fresh pyjamas and a meal in his tummy, he realised he'd never go back to The Family again "I realised then I (didn't) have to do this anymore, I'm free. I don't need to go back," he said. "That, to me, was when I shut the door." Four decades on, Ben is a proud husband to Rajes and a dad to Ellie and Callum, who live in Perth, Australia. He has written a book on his time in the cult, Life Behind the Wire, and runs the organisation, Rescue The Family, to raise awareness on cult manipulation. In 2019, Anne passed away while in a Melbourne care home at the age of 98 and Ben has reconnected with his biological mother. "What Anne did was evil. She used the name of Christ to give herself validity. She used a belief system," Ben said. "Justice was not done." 9
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Millionaires' war escalates after homeowner complains about size of his neighbours' boat
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