Before we came, the place had been described to us as "an Australian ghetto not located in Australia" - it's reputation due to the beach for good waves for surfing and cheap bars which together with the fact it's pretty close to Australia all mean that this is a pretty popular destination for them. Much in the same way Ibiza and Malaga are for us Brits due to proximity and cost.
Having spent the previous week in tranquil Ubud, Kuta seemed a world away despite being only an hours drive. The streets were jam packed, hawkers hassling you at every moment selling anything from clothes, sunglasses, jewellery, crossbows (doubt I'll get that through customs) and sometimes other banned items...in Kuta you've also so many branded shops and fast food restaurants around that you certainly don't feel as if you're removed from your normal culture to come to 'paradise'.
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| Kuta beach |
Aside from that however, it has a great, long and sweeping beach with shallow clear waters and good waves that appeal to all types from your wave jumpers, bodyboarders and of course the surfers. Plus with all the commercialism you can at least rest assured that you can get anything you need!
We spent the first few days lazing on the beach, jumping in the waves before hiring out a body board for the day - I had only surfed once as a kid so wanted to build up to a full surf board - and we both had a great time with the body board. I got a real buzz out of it, especially when you discover that sensation of catching a wave just right and gliding along with it effortlessly. Come the end of the day I'd enjoyed it so much that I had rashes all over my torso, arms and even my chin! So that's what those t shirts are for....
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| Beginner coming through! |
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| Wipeout! |
My birthday
May 10th was my birthday and I started the day with my birthday tradition: every year I wake up and do a ninja flip (where you lie on your back and flip to standing), the reason being that as long as I can still do it, I'll still feel young. This was yet another successful year I'm glad to say - the day I fail I think I'll descend into a life crisis!
Having researched what there was to do here, nothing piqued my interest like the local waterpark called Waterbom. It boasted it was the best in all of Asia too, so despite a less than reasonable entrance fee I was in no doubt where I wanted to go.
The park itself was immaculately clean and well run, I really was surprised. There were all sorts of things to do such as different sized slides, a lazy river, swim up bars and more. I went on all rides at least twice, as did Claire for all but one - the scariest called climax where you stand upright in a booth before having the floor fall away from your feet after a fear inducing countdown, after that you proceed to fly around in the tube at high speed. Our overall favourite was called boomerang where you both got onto a double inflatable sled, went down a steep drop, up a large wall and then backwards on yourself to the finish. I don't have any pictures of all this yet as we took our water camera and haven't developed it yet so this stock image of boomerang will have to do:
Later on we headed out to a place called Havana club that had tempted me to come the night before with it's "spicy chicken wing challenge" where you win a t shirt and a place on their wall of fame for finishing all the wings and sauce. I'm someone who loves his spice - despite having IBS - and I had actually failed to be blown away by spice so far in south east Asia, which really surprised me, so I thought this "challenge" would be nothing. I was wrong. Boy was I wrong! I've had spicy curries, Mexican and the like, I've even withstood phall (hottest curry you can usually get in the UK), but this bowl of chicken wings was a different level! They were nearly pure chilli and I needed a constant beer supply to help me through it. What didn't help was the waitress bringing them over, pouring a shot of tequila over them, then setting the lot on fire! I wasn't sure if I could finish them as I had tears running down my face and my tears felt like they were on fire too! With the coaching of Claire though I did it and claimed my prize as well as my place on their wall of fame; challenge complete. Although I did fear repercussions the next day...
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| The spiciest wings I think I'll ever have, fully underestimated them |
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| Feeling the burn... |
Following our meal we headed to one of the big clubs where we'd been offered free entry and free drinks for an hour, although when we got there the blue drinks put us right off as Claire had heard not to trust the local vodka. After all this we decided to head home as the chicken wing challenge had taken a lot out of me.
The rest of our time in Kuta
The remainder was spent mostly sunbathing on the beach or by the pool. Knowing the rest of our trip in Italy would be lacking beach time we took the chance to top up our tans while we still could. We wanted to surf as well, but the waves became too volatile for the rest of the week for beginners to dare try surfing, which was a shame but I've resolved to try my hand at it more upon our return to Bournemouth!
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| The sunsets here are stunning. Perfect to sit and watch with a cold one! |
At this point we were both very much looking forward to reaching Italy and Rome in particular as it is our favourite city in the world, plus we both felt we'd had enough of Asia for now.
The last few nights of our stay we would wander down to the beach at sunset before dinner as the view was incredible down there. Half the population did the same thing however which made it busy, but it also meant there was no shortage of popup beach bars to get a bintang (fantastic local beer) and enjoy the view.
The other main highlights of our stay was some of the food we ate, we found two particularly great places; an authentic pizzeria with a wood fired oven called pronto pizza (on poppies 1 and ran by an Italian too, so you know it's good) and a hip, Asian restaurant called fat chows that did Vietnamese, Thai as well as Balinese cuisine. At fat chows (on poppies lane 2) we had amazing lumpia (local spring rolls) and had better Thai curries than we did in 2.5 weeks in Thailand itself!
In all, I'd return to Kuta for the surf, that's for sure but we were told that better spots can be found further south at Uluwatu etc. It may be that we've done our time here, but there's still plenty in Bali we didn't do as well as the rest of Indonesia. Of all the places we've visited, Bali is definitely the one we'd most likely return to, we would revisit Ubud plus we would go to the volcano and head to the gili islands.
Our stay here showed us the different sides of Bali, the old cultural part in Ubud that has done remarkably well to retain it's character and identity, and then Kuta which was only built for tourism anyway - and it shows.
I read somewhere that people think Bali has declined due to too much tourism since the film 'Eat, pray, love" was released and inspired the world to visit Bali and if that's true then that is a shame as it would've been nice to see it beforehand. That said, the trick is to head off the beaten track here and you'll find that it still can be that place over the rainbow.
We left Bali on a 8am flight to Shanghai, stayed there for a night and then flew 14 hours to Rome on a plane watching movie after movie to keep us entertained whilst being surrounded by Chinese in matching tracksuits doing exercises up and down the plane. So now we get to spend the rest of our time away in Italy feasting on pizza, pasta, gelato and wine!
Asia has been a real experience, one that pushed us to our limits at times, but it also gave us unforgettable memories too, so it's goodbye for now and ciao Italia!!
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