Balinese Sunset

Trip Start Nov 12, 2008
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23
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Trip End Apr 30, 2009


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Where I stayed
(Kuta hotels)

Flag of Indonesia  , Bali,
Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Back on the buses through the Indonesia hinterland, up hill, down dale and past the rice fields.  Taking the ferry over to Bali and arriving very late at night, we finally found ourselves stationed in Kuta Beach.  The main tourist hub of Bali, it has a beach, restaurants and various and many bars.  It also has perhaps the greatest concentration of Ozzies and dutch people outside of there native countries.  The order of the day is get your boardies on, get your shirt off and slap on the suntan lotion.  Also we discovered if your Scandanavian (there were quite a few) the strange beach uniform includes mandatory pants underneath your swimshorts, even when youre swimming!!
This place really is all about relaxing during the day, surfing and then hitting the many and not very varied clubs at night.  The beach was a dissapointment, it was thin and dirty, and the water had that strange foaminess associated with the quick and forceful expulsion of bilge!  But it is primarily a surfing haunt, and it was quickly noticeable that the breaks were many and at times spectacular.  Luckily, our guesthouse had a nice pool around which we spent our days sunning, watching the younguns trying to chat up the ladies, watching the younguns fire high-powered air propelled BB guns at each other, and watching the old men waddle around in the skimpiest Speedos you ever did see in your life.
The weather was a mixture of very hot sun and the odd, biblical shower.  This combined at night to create a lovely brand of stinking hot humidity.  No aircon, and one poxy fan, combined to make sleeping a bit of a chore, and the necesity to take many showers quickly took hold.  Also it also combined to make the room smell like a port at low tide which, combined with the prevelance of uber-blood thirsty mozzies, probably provides an accurate description of our 5-star living.  Never mind, it wa cheap, and close to the action.
The action consists of a long strip of bars, thumping out music, watered down non-brand drinks and full of young tourists.  I stress young, and im not even old, but these were young.  17 and 18 year olds getting very very drunk, dancing with their tops off (for the boys) and then doing pretty good impressions of the face-hugger from Aliens on their equally drunk and suspecting prey.  I felt old...
Getting far from the Madding crowd for a day, we hired a car ( a beast - 1996 Suzuki Jimny with no-mod cons, barely a clutch, styrofoam brakes and a third and fourth gear that needed to be sweet talked to work) and drove through the pouring rain to Ubud, a funny little town inland known for its bohemian culture and art.  Driving through the green (very green) rice fields and past silly amounts of temples, the town boasted a plethora of art shops selling very cheap artwork.  Ranging in size from place-mat to entire cathedral wall, they were many and varied within the shops, but quickly you notice not many and varied between the shops.  somewhere, deep in the Balinese hinterlands is a factory pumping out the same stuff!
We decided to leave the maddening crowd, and head to the Gilis.
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