The second time Will and I had traveled to Bali. The first time we travelled the majority of the island but this time we decided just to stick with Kuta Beach.
Kuta Beach has a pretty bad rep with a lot of experienced travellers and surfers. It’s very commercial, overcrowded, the surf isn’t good and the place is crawling young Australian Boguns (Chavs).
We had 6 days before our flight to the Gold Coast, Australia so wanted a convenient place where we could surf, drink, and re-stock our wardrobes – all for very cheap, hence Kuta Beach. Also we planned on meeting HODR volunteers; Lucy, Tara, Elizabeth and Louis there.
Last year we stayed at ‘New Arena Hotel‘ on Poppies Lane I, It was really nice – helpful staff and clean throughout. We spent our first night there this time and it was terrible, the complete opposite, funny how places can change so much in one year – 180,000Rp/night – please stay away!
We moved to a hotel just down the road; ‘Kedin‘ – this place was the bees knees, new, really clean, and helpful staff. A nice pool with afternoon shade. A 2 minute walk to Kuta beach, perfect location. Kedin – Everything we were after.
I found a great spot for hiring a surfboard. Most people hire boards off the beach but this can be pricey as they charge per the hour (30,000/hr). For a great deal and awesome service for hiring a surf board I highly recommend;
Boardhouse; Agung Market No.3 Jl. Poppies Lane I Kuta – Bali (0361) 763615
Boards 35,000Rp/day – you can also chop and change your board; I tried three different boards with no bother.
Bali is fairly pretentious with lots of surfer wannabees trying to look the part (including Will and I). Will decided he wanted to try look younger and more edgy so got his ear pierced. This just made him look like more of a homosexual – his choice of earing was a large pearl.
and yes he got HODR volunteer Tara to do it instead of going to a shop.
Sunsets on Kuta are pretty amazing, each evening we ventured down for a sunset surf and watched the sunset armed with a cold Bintang – life couldn’t get much better.
Bali is well known for it’s lively nightlife. We went out a couple of nights but weren’t very impressed. Bounty nightclub seemed like the place where everyone ended up. It was all too much like Magaluf or Faliraki for my liking.
The stint in SE Asia was over. I was sad to be leaving a part of the world I’ve grown so found of. Heaps of beautiful places, adventure, and with everywhere so cheap it makes money a less important factor when traveling. But my travels go on and Australia is next, so all is good!
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Bali…pretentious? Try massively bogan!!
Come on, you are really running behind with this blog thing! :) haha