One of the things I was thinking a lot about before our travel to Indonesia was the current situation caused by the latest earthquakes in Lombok. Once we heard the news about the huge earthquakes in August, we weren’t sure whether we should travel to Bali or not. The reasons? We didn’t know if it would be safe to be in Bali and what would be if more huge quakes would strike the islands. Another reason was that I didn’t want to make holidays where other people just lost their homes and families and got injured. It didn’t feel right. But as you know, we ended up travelling to Indonesia and also to Bali and here is why:

Indonesia sits in the Ring of Fire

First of all: earthquakes are not unusual in Indonesia as it sits in the “Ring of Fire”. The Ring of Fore is the area where 90 percent of the earthquakes on our planet take place. The area covers around 40,000 miles and is home to most of the world’s active volcanoes. Many countries located in the area of the Ring of Fire are sitting on the edge of tectonic plates, that are constantly moving. I won’t get into more details about tectonic plates and all that stuff, because I don’t want to bore you. 😉 It’s just important to mention it, as it is the reason why earthquakes are everything but unusual in Indonesia.

So to keep it short: these plates move and sometimes they move against each other, and this results in stress, and the released stress results in an earthquake. Usually, the earthquakes are not as huge as they’ve been recently, but it is something that can happen anytime anywhere in Indonesia. It’s something you need to know before travelling to Indonesia because even when you haven’t heard anything about huge quakes, they do happen. They actually happen every day. Just google “Earthquake Indonesia”, and you will see the latest earthquakes, their location and magnitude.

Before we move on to the second reason why we travelled to Bali, I want to mention that I am not an expert when it comes to earthquakes and Co., but that’s what I read and heard. If you want to know more and are not sure whether you should travel to Indonesia or not, make sure to inform yourself about it.

Bali needs the tourists

The biggest conflict for me was to make holidays in a land where people suffer, to post beautiful pictures where others just lost their homes and families. But cancelling the plan to travel to Bali and spending our holidays somewhere else didn’t seem right as well. Not travelling to Bali would mean that I would ignore what happened in Indonesia and all the problems caused by it. And I didn’t want to ignore it. Also, Bali needs the tourists.

When we were in Bali, I saw stats about the earthquakes causing a major drop in bookings. ForwardKeys, a market research company from Valencia, says that the bookings for Lombok decreased by 26 percent and for Bali, it was more than 40 percent. This is a LOT considering that the bookings were constantly rising before the huge earthquakes. Seeing these numbers just confirmed, that my decision was the right one.

Due to all the tourists, the island life changed a lot. The locals changed their life; they changed quite a lot due to the tourists. Just imagine the tourist wouldn’t come anymore, the locals would be left behind with nothing and would have to change everything again. Does that make any sense? I hope you guys understand, what I am trying to say here. 🙂

If you want to go to Indonesia, don’t cancel your plan because of the recent huge earthquakes. Inform yourself, be aware of it and prepare yourself. Indonesia is one of the most beautiful places I’ve seen and especially Bali makes me speechless whenever I am there. I fall in love with this island again and again. It’s the colours, the people, the atmosphere, the smell – it’s just everything!