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I find it amazing Tom that you’ve never mentioned, to the best of my recollection, that you’ve been living on Bali for the past 22 years. I also find it incredulous that if that were true, that you would list your country of residence on your profile as Belgium. Odd too is that English is your only listed language, and judging by your posts, that’s rather amazing in itself. And quite frankly, your posts about Bali in the past have not given me any reason to believe for one second that you been living on Bali for the past 22 years.

In addition, many of us regulars on this forum that live here have in fact met each other on one or more occasion. Off the top of my head I could easily mention three regulars on this forum that have been to my house near Ubud.

As I mentioned earlier, many folks on this forum prefer to take their information from “locals” be they foreign or domestic and that's especially true when it comes to our weather. Many also would love to see a web site or blog link within the profile to back up their claims of living on Bali or elsewhere in Indonesia. As it is, most all the regular posters on this forum that do indeed live in either Bali or other parts of Indonesia do include links within their profile to blogs or websites which back up their claims of residency and long experience here. You don’t and that’s your decision, but don’t be surprised if I don’t just buy into what claim on this forum.

Now, about the beaches on Bali during the rainy season…yes, after a storm they are often full of litter but this depends on how good and quick the clean up, as well as what particular beach. Sanur beach for example is generally very well maintained and cleaned up rather quickly. Some beaches in Kuta, not necessarily so, and the same could be said for Lovina and Amed. However, the beaches in Candi Dasa and Padang Bai (white beach) are also cleaned up rather quickly. It is simply not accurate to say that the beaches on Bali are full of litter during the rainy season, or that swimming and snorkeling is not possible as that is simply not true.

A question for you Tom...precisely what on earth does the fact that I once posted on this forum as Ubudian have to do with this discussion? Can you explain that please? It certainly adds nothing to whatever it is you're trying to say on this string.

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no one can tell what the weather will be next week, nevermind next 4 months. They can predict it, but there will always be wrong predictions.
I've been in Kuta, Sanur and Tulamben in February where it was raining every single day I was there. Not whole day, tho, some days I still got some sun.
The fact is you are going to Bali (should you go ahead choosing Bali) in rainy season. You better have plan that include what to do if it is raining. Indoor massage, or simply drinking kopi bali while watching the rain can be a good way to spend some time.

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OK, so this past September a poster representing the website Weather2Travel wrote in answer to a question about the weather on Bali for January. Hopefully we can all agree that one can expect virtually the same weather in Bali for both those months…January and February. Here’s what they posted:

It is true January falls in the middle of the wet season and there are over 300mm of rain during the month. But there is also lots of sunshine and clear skies to be enjoyed in Bali at that time of year. In Denpasar in January you can expect 8 hours of sunshine a day. 60% of daylight hours are usually sunny; that’s about the same as Sydney in September.

In the mountains and foothills such as at Ubud there will be more cloud and less sunshine, but assuming you are going to be staying somewhere in the south of the island or at least on the coast you can expect the best weather of the day to be first thing in the morning.

Cloud will then start to build during the day and sometime after about 2pm in the afternoon it will rain, perhaps for as much as 2 hours and then clear again as the evening approaches. Sometimes there is no rain on the coast, while higher up it is raining hard. If you are planning a trip to the volcano at Batur or the temple at Besakih it is best to travel really early in the day.

Although high in January, Heat and Humidity, which is our measure of how hot it feels, is not as high in January as it is in December and March. Temperatures during the day usually rise to over 30°C but fall in the evening to around 23°C. I have spent the whole month of January in Bali sleeping without air-conditioning and it was fine. Stay as near to the beach as you can it is always a little bit cooler with more breeze right on the coast.

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In January of this year, long time Indonesian resident and frequent poster timdog had this to say:

Of course you can visit in the wet season!
It doesn't rain all day every day, and Bali's roads are decent. The classic wet season weather pattern is dry and often sunny mornings, cloud building up in the midday, and a torrential but relatively brief rainstorm in the afternoon.
It doesn't always work out that way, of course - last saturday there was no rain all day in the south of the island, but it remained overcast, then on Sunday it was absolutely lashing it down from first light until early afternoon. But if you're there for a week at the height of the wet season, you should still come away with a suntan!

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In April last year (2011), divewench who owns and operates a diving center on Padang Bai, Bali wrote this about January weather:

January is in the middle of rainy season, however, it tends to rain mostly in the late afternoon and through the night. Therefore, you can still get lots of sightseeing done before the showers start.

So there are three views from what I would personally regard as credible sources.

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Thank you for the advise guys & I see I have started a healthy debate too which has to be a bonus ;0)

I think it's the wrong time of year to hit Bali or Indonesia & will look into my other options Philippines, Thailand & Malaysia. I'm with u re Thailand being a great place to visit in feb as I have done it a few times and much as I love it there I would really like to visit somewhere I havnt been ....so gonna look into other options .......any advise on all 3 much appreciated especially about costs in relation to here(although I will post this on right forum of course :0)

Really apreciate the advice anyway & wiadd Indonesia to my list of places to travel too at another time :9)

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Glad you enjoyed the discussion. One might think that discussing the weather would be a lot safer than politics, but one never knows!

Have a great time in Thailand were I used to go at least twice a year for many years. Thailand was my second choice where to live in SE Asia. Malaysia would be my second choice…the Philippines the last.

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I went with Vietnam in the end but thanks for advise I will hit Indonesia some other time when it's not raining ! :0)