KUTA
Trip Start
Jan 02, 2007
1
10
56
Trip End
Apr 09, 2007
BALI,
Indonesia
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
KUTA, BALI (GMT +8h)
I arrived in Bali about midnight, went up to the exchange counter, gave the guy one hundred euro and just like that, he made me a millionaire! I think he handed me back about 1.2 million Indonesian Rupiah - 'sweet deal' I thought to myself!
I jumped into a taxi which brought me to Un's Hotel which I had booked a few days earlier - a really nice place in Kuta which is right in the middle between the main strip and the beach and hence, very quiet with a lovely pool and garden. I'd had a pretty long day so I wasn't long falling into a deep sleep.
I had only intended on spending the first night here but when I woke up about 2pm it was a bit late to be checking out & moving on so I decided to stay another night and see what Kuta was like. I got up and went for a stroll down to the beach for some lunch and then around town to check it out. Being the main holiday resort type place on the Island, Kuta has loads of shops and loads of touts outside these shops trying to get you to buy their wares. They were quite amusing for the first half hour but then became really annoying. I had people pestering me constantly as I made my way back to the hotel and while I politely declined at first, I had no option to just start ignoring them. By all accounts, Bali is still recovering (tourist-wise) from the bombings a few years back, so there wasn't a huge amount of people around and therefore, the touts hounded anything that moved.
I sussed out a few car hire places, planned my getaway for the next day and chilled by the pool for the rest of the afternoon. I think I may have been the only guest in the place that evening as the only other people I saw there were the staff.
I can't say that I was impressed by Kuta - I suppose, in busy season, if you're looking for a few mad nights out, it'd be the place to be but I wanted out so having ventured down town for dinner and a few beers I went back and prepared for what turned out to be a pretty interesting drive (in a running out of petrol sort of way!) to Ubud the following day...
