Bali Part 1 - Kuta/Seminyak/Kerobokan

In mid-December I took a short 5 day trip to Bali on a shoestring budget. Once piece of advice - Bali is not for people with shoestring budgets who are travelling solo. It was a lot more expensive as I had expected and I suppose if you have time to use local transit and really dig to find cheap places to stay, it's do-able. Anyways...

I arrived near midnight on a Saturday night and the first thing I noticed walking out of the airport was that I wasn’t mobbed by taxi drivers. Although they asked if I needed a taxi, they were not nearly as aggressive as others I have encountered in Asia. I was first offered 120,000 Rupiah (Rp) for the ride to Happy Day Hostel in Kerobokan, I asked for 80,000 (Lonely Planet tells me that Seminyak, just south of Kerobokan costs up to 70,000Rp) and was turned down. So I walked away to go check with the counter and a few steps later the cabbie agrees to 80,000Rp. First negotiation - done.

On the way it was dark, of course, but there were definitely some similarities to Sri Lanka. Motorbikes riding near the shoulder, lines on the road are just suggestions, and little shops and eateries along the way. As we got to Kuta and through Seminyak, things got more touristy and quite a bit nicer. Reminded me of Sri Lanka combined with Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Got to the hostel where the security guy handed me my key and was happy to walk into a 10 bed dorm where 4 UK gals were still up. Quickly got settled and caught some zzzz’s dreaming of surfing the next day.

Pura Petitenget - A temple in Kerobokan near my hostel. Loved that it was very un-touristy and no one was in it.

Bright and early I woke up and met a nice couple from England having breakfast in the common area. We chatted over breakfast then while they figured out what to do for the day I headed down to Kuta to go catch some waves. Catch some waves… well, just a few. I’m not so good plus the guy I rented the board from put me on a 7 footer “beginner” board. To be fair, he did come out into the water and helped me out for awhile which was awesome considering I rented the board from him for 50,000Rp for two hours (I probably could have negotiated for 10,000Rp less, but that was a pretty fair price!). He was a pretty cool dude because when I realised I didn’t have enough money to cab back to the hostel afterwards he offered to take payment the next day. How trusting! I told him I wasn’t sure I’d be back, so I gave him the cash and decided to walk along the beach north back to the hostel.

Local satay vendor.

Walking along the beach was quite enjoyable. Although asked quite constantly if I wanted a sun bed, a gentle “no, thank you” was enough to stop them from asking and often was answered by a “you’re welcome” or “have a nice day”. I really couldn’t get over how nice the Balinese were – a few even engaged in a short conversation with the standard “Where are you from?” and “How long are you here for?” even after saying no to them. So nice.

What I thought were fish tanks were actually display cases of food!

After returning to the hostel I spent the afternoon contemplating whether or not to head to Ulu Watu or wait to do that until the end of the trip. I decided to wait then went back to the beach at late afternoon to try to catch the sunset. To my surprise, the beach was filled with locals with some vendors selling treats in what looked like fish tanks on top of their heads. I stopped by a guy roasting some corn on his trailer and a lady squatting over a small grill making pork satay. I took that back to the beach and enjoyed the setting sun and watching the locals enjoy some family and friends time. A superb way to end the day!