For the last couple of days I have been in Bali at the Grand Hyatt in Nusa Dua. It's really something: immaculate manicured gardens, pools and bars, all overlooking a startling white beach.

It's my first real "resort" experience here. Earlier trips have pretty much always been with friends, staying in one of the thousands of private villas that make up much of Seminyak and compete with rice farmers for land. I've tried out a couple of the boutique hotels, such as the Allila Manggis, two hours up the east coast, and the Tugu, with its imposing bale bale and sombre garuda.

At the risk of sounding like a complete prat, I am beginning to tire of the myth of Bali. What do I mean? Well, I am slowly realizing that, while wildly different, the Tugu, Grand Hyatt and the plethora of villas and hotels that dominate the island are all selling the idea of Bali, an idea which has pretty much nothing to do with reality.

Don't get me wrong, I like a bit of gamelan degung now and then as much as the next bloke (!) and the handmade cinnamin and bali lime soap in the bathroom is a nice touch. Overall, very pleasing to the eye - and mind. Very nice.

Of course it's bloody nice. The land has been stipped and rice paddies drained. The nipa palm has been replaced with the more pleasing (and flowering) kamboja and vast tracts of buffalo grass lawn have been installed. As a finishing touch, water ponds have been stocked with koi and lillies, in a bizarre pop-cultural schism. This is a seriously impressive production, designed to sooth and assuage the hyper-stressed Westerner left tweaking and wide-eyed after a plane trip across a continent and seven time zones.

Which is fine. I'm not going to begrudge some travel-weary tourist his five days in "paradise". But what I find a bit grating is the deduction that, by comparison, Bali is some sort of Hindu sanctum, a refuge from the rest of the archipelago. For many of the expats, Bali is somewhere we go to "re-energise the soul" - to use an expression I have heard more than one bule use.

It's an uncomfortable comparison: Bali and Indonesia as a whole. Bali is largely Hindu and Java - and the rest of Indonesia - is (of course) largely Muslim. By implication, the Hindu Balinese are supposedly serene (read: "placid") as opposed to the predominately Muslim Javanese, who are... well, what?

The sad truth is that, even putting aside the inane stupidity of comparing Jakarta to a resort, if you bother to step outside gated confines of Nusa Dua, the only real difference is the beach. There is the same bustle and scramble, the same poverty and and even the same mad traffic.

It's not the island that's different. It's the attitude of its visitors. I suppose what I'm trying to say is that if a man needs to go to a resort to "re-energize the soul", then he probably needs to take a good hard look at his life.

For paradise with a conscience, try East Bali Villa. All profits go to the East Bali Poverty Project.