Kuta, Bali: Paradise for Australians?
Arriving in Bali it was the middle of the night and we collapsed in bed excited to explore the next day. The rumors I had heard about Kuta were that it was overcrowded, over touristy, and full of Australians. When we set off walking towards the beach this all proved to be true with American fast food available at almost every corner: KFC, McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s – take your pick.
We were about fifteen minutes from the beach and were soon greeted with a giant ornate Balinese gate welcoming us out to the sand and surf. The beach is an okay beach, not stellar, and it’s full of people selling bracelets, sarongs, massages, surf lessons, drinks, etc. we walked our way down from Kuta, through Legion, and into Seminyak.
Kuta is said to be the party area, Legion a bit more laid back, and Seminyak more upscale. Along the beach it’s hard to distinguish the difference but the number of vendors does decrease as you get further from Kuta. As we were entering Seminyak it started to sprinkle and we made our way inland to explore the towns.
The town streets were lined with shopping and overpriced restaurants slowly making way for more bars as we neared Kuta. There are numerous Billabong and Rip Curl stores along the Main Street as well. So what’s there to like in this area? If you seek them out, you can find small temples hidden behind the buildings sitting on the curbs or if you wander down side streets there are smaller restaurants with more Balinese charm in addition to less expensive food and shopping – all of the stalls you could ever dream of
. We made our way all the way back and through the streets to near the airport before we cut back to the beach for sunset. While admiring the sun, we stumbled across a band celebrating a shopping malls anniversary. We stopped for a bit to enjoy the band including the lead singer whose shirt was for Las Vegas, Arizona and eventually some traditional dancers came out and a choir, and around that time we decided it was time for dinner. We wandered down the main beach front road and turned off on a side street. Almost every restaurant had live music and we eventually settled for one with cheap food and a good band. While Kuta might not have as much charm, it was certainly cheaper and livelier than Australia!
The next morning we made plans to meet up with our Jamaican-British friend, Kasa, we had met in Cairns to simply go and enjoy the beach. Our meeting point: Hard Rock Cafe which is of course in Kuta. We met outside and wandered on to find lunch and ultimately the beach! James surfed while Kasa and I warded off vendors trying to sell us everything while taking turns enjoying the warm ocean – not as refreshing as further South! As the sun got stronger we moved back to the shade, and by that I mean we moved to beach chairs by purchasing a drink. Feeling hot and slightly crispy we were relieved to watch a storm roll in and took off for a midday break before regrouping for dinner and a night out.
For dinner we ended up walking almost all the way back to Seminyak but ended up finding a cute little place off the main road featuring, you guessed it, live music and cheap food. I tried their avocado coffee which was delightfully creamy but I think overall I prefer to eat my avocado and drink my coffee. Post dinner it was down the main road leading through the towns and back to Kuta but first we made a stop at a reggae bar for a few drinks and some music. It was fun to be together again and the next day James and I were off to Gili Trawangan and Kasa would join us later there.
