There’s a saying among Indonesian, “ you’ve not been to Bali if you haven’t been to Kuta”
So, this time, we’re exploring a part of Kuta. Kuta is a famous destination for Indonesians and foreigners, especially Australians. You can find many Australian chains and even food that caters to them. For example, there are some Gloria jeans around and burgers that cater to Australian taste. There’s also one good place I love called “Fat Tonny’s Kuta” which serves the best burger in the area. Not only that, this area has a pretty mixed population and almost all-over-the-world cuisine can be found just around here. You can find some five stars hotel to home stays, even the food that is made by chefs like Jamie oliver. Overall though, this is pretty basic Bali that you rarely see over social media as in this place, the beach is okay but it's a shopping haven and also fine dining.
Ever since my school days, the school trip to Bali has always included Kuta. It should never be missed and the locals enjoy gazing at foreigners doing surfing, trying to talk to them or even just looking at how foreigners tanning on the beach. I used to hear people getting shocked over bikinis because in Java, they rarely see people wearing bikinis on the beach. I also had my fair share of creepy experiences around Kuta as I even lived nearby Kuta back in 2018 for about two months. I tried almost all the restaurants and warungs around the place and I can quite say I have some great and not-so-great memories around the area. Now, if I were to choose, I definitely enjoy the Canggu and Ubud scenes more than I enjoyed Kuta. But, if you are a party-goer and like rowdy nights, Kuta is where to go.
Kuta is also known for its beautiful sunset while chilling on the beach with a bottle of local beer, Bintang. I didn’t do that part even when I had the chance to because I was already exhausted and just wanted to get something done. This time though, I just want to take my mom to Beach walk, a shopping mall located in the heart of kuta facing the ocean. In this shopping mall there are plenty of international brands and also things that are hard to find even in big cities around java. My mom has never been to a beach walk and it was her first time. I wanted to know how she’s going to react seeing all the expensive items and branded fashion stores around. I mean, there are some that we could afford but we would rather have the budget aside for other experiences.
“ So, we’re just going to window shop and not buy anything”.
She’s right. We weren’t going to buy anything as almost all the items here are sold at twice the price. Before entering the beach walk , there’s like security guard who asked us to show our vaccination card. They also checked our bag just in case we were bringing something illegal to the place. What I like about this place though is the supermarket where I used to shop and also the view of the shopping mall that is facing the ocean. There’s also the biggest and most fun candy shop called candylicious where my mom and I walked around. We wandered through the shops checking out the chocolates and the candies without even buying them. As you can see in the picture collections, there were plenty of reese's and herseys. But actually there were more. I didn’t get the chance to capture the photos. After checking out the place from down to top, we started getting pretty exhausted and tired.
Pepper Lunch
We were pretty starved at the time as we visited the beach previously. So, we tried scanning the mall for the most affordable and best deal. We ended up eating at a chain restaurant called Pepper Lunch. It’s available anywhere but since my mom needs rice in her meal and that restaurant has the best deal out of the places we’ve scanned. My mom got some rice and I got pasta with salmon. The taste was just so-so, it was chain and I definitely regretted going there. But it was the only meal that was affordable and also able to make my mom full as it comes with rice and chicken. Only the next day, I felt redeemed as we finally got to eat something delicious in Ubud.
My mood that day wasn’t great. I didn’t like how crowded the place was and it threw me off that apparently, this is the holiday season. The crowd at the mall and outside it makes me dizzy. So, I ended up buying flights home and decided that I would go back earlier than I had planned. I did not even bother checking Kuta and just wanted to get back to the hotel. But on our way, we stopped at the Krishna shopping center. and the next day, we would go exploring Ubud and around.
It was the trip that brings me back to memory lane and I told my mom what I did when I lived in Bali. That time, I should have been in university but I ended up just vagabonding in Bali and living my best life trying to be a full digital nomad except at the time, I wasn’t that stable. So, the experience was quite whack. Looking back, I’ve grown into a better person and the area sort of reminded me all the crazy thing I did and the fun days of my early 20’s.
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 | 𝘔𝘢𝘤 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧-𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘺𝘦𝘥 𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘫𝘢. 𝘈 𝘵𝘺𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦, 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴, 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘯𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘺. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘫𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘺 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘺, 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘭, 𝘯𝘰𝘰𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘴, 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘵𝘺, 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘺𝘭𝘦, 𝘤𝘺𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘶𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴. 𝘐𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦, 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘫𝘰𝘺𝘴 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘷𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴. 𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵, 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘱𝘷𝘰𝘵𝘦, 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬. 𝘈 𝘳𝘦-𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘨 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥. |