Kuta Beach and the myriad of high-end stores, along with the huge tourist popularity and the seemingly never ending Indonesian merchants roaming the beach, on the hustle to sell you anything from sunglasses to temporary tattoos and renting lawn chairs for a ridiculous 50,000 rupiah per hour, and even it’s lack of clear water that we experienced at Pandawa Beach previously, was actually a destination that turned out to be a great day overall.
We began the day at the request of the kids, of course, inside the indoor/outdoor shopping mall. I had promised each of the girls a squishy to help lure them into being excited for this trip to the beach. If you don’t know what a squishy is, do not at all worry, as I hadn’t a clue until I met Mama’s kids, and if you’re curious, Google them, because I just don’t get the mass appeal for them here in Southeast Asia. Being as I’m not in Bali Indonesia to splurge and shop, but rather to stretch my money as long as possible and also live as the do locals rather than worrying about hitting the tourist spots, I really wasn’t too much into browsing around the mall. My favorite part about it was the amazing air conditioner that I had found that was a killer spot to stand under and cool off. That said however, if you plan to come to Bali to shop, then just about every major, expensive brand that you can imagine exists right here, so you will be very happy.
Okay, so cut me a little slack for that picture. It’s only a Lego statue. Anyhow, I was ready and just about counting the minutes until we can cross the street and find our spot on the beach. This is when the barrage of hustlers hit hard and often, and were extremely good at pretending not to understand the words “no thank you.” In fact, this part came very close to turning my day negative, because there is just something about a pushy salesman that drives me absolutely fucking crazy. I suppose that it’s just an adjustment that I need to work out in my own mind and not take it at all personally, seeing as how these people are doing what they need to do to make a living, but I’ve got to warn you, if you’re not a bit stern with them, they will not leave you alone unless you buy something that they are selling. Also, it needs to be said, that in Bali, there is almost always a tourist price and a local price for most items, and at Kuta Beach, you are definitely in tourist price central, even if you have you have your Indonesian friend with you.
After making my our way through this little (or more like moderate) obstacle, and when the sales people finally figured out that we weren’t there to shop, the day instantly turned great again, as we found our own spot on the beach with our big beach towel. We set up our bluetooth speaker, took out a few snacks for the kids, and began to really soak in and enjoy that amazingly synchronized feeling that I get from combining great tunes with the sights, smells and feelings, both mental and physical, that come along with being on a beach in the tropics. Once this feeling of near perfection had sunk in, it was most certainly time for a swim.
One interesting observation that I have to point out here, and also what made the swimming here quite possibly the best salt water swim that I’ve ever had, was the fact the sand was as smooth as silk and felt wonderful under your feet. No hard rocks or little pebbles. Just very fine and smooth feeling sand, from the beach all the way out to the waves of the water. I’ve never really been a barefoot type of person, and while I feel rather tough and fearless to most all of life, I’ve always felt less effective without shoes, in just about any situation. Yes, that may sound a bit odd, but never the less, this beach was perfect for someone like me, who feels similar. As for the water, everything about it, despite the lack of it being clear like it was at Pandawa, was fantastic for a swim. It was the perfect temperature to cool off, but yet not too cold at all. The tide was seemingly predictable and safe, which made it a world of fun to take Mama’s girls as far out as they would dare to go to body surf the waves. In fact, the girls loved the swimming here so much, that we couldn’t even get them out of the water for easily over two hours. It finally reached a point where my aging ass needed to just sit down and relax, at a spot close enough to the water to where I could keep an eye on them. Even that was fine with me however, as the day was progressing and the looming sunset was adding to that wonderful, harmonic feeling that I get from tropical beaches.
Mama and I kept ourselves busy as the kids continued to swim by playing with features of my phones camera, such as the picture taken above. I’m a life long Sonyphile by the way, so I use an Xperia Z3, for anyone who might be wondering. By this time, as the sun continued it’s descent below the horizon, it was pure bliss to take in that feeling and that beautiful sight as our day at Kuta Beach was beginning to turn to night.
Another aspect of this beach that made it even more exciting for me, was that just to the south of where we were situated, you could see the western tip of the runway at Ngurah Rai International Airport, and thus watch all the jets on final approach. This may not sound like much to some, but I should note that I am a massive aviation enthusiast, making part of the fun for me on this day, simply explaining and teaching Mama about every plane that we watched land. I was happy to teach her the type of plane, the type of engines of each plane and the amount of thrust that they put out, the airline of each plane, and of course detailed accounts of my own experiences on all the ones that I have been fortunate to fly on thus far in life. I’m not entirely sure she was excited to learn this wealth of aviation related information, but she certainly did a great job of pretending so, to make me happy. You can see in the video, the view we had of the planes on final approach.
Shortly after the sun had set, there was a very short fireworks display that we watched, that was coming from about a kilometer to the south, down the beach. My best guess was that they were coming from Waterbom, the famous water park here in Bali, but I can’t confirm this, as we were not close enough to really sat for certain. This can also be seen in the video. On a side note, we can also see this fireworks display from way off in the distance every evening from the balcony of our third floor apartment. Also, now that we had packed up all of our beach stuff into the small pack that we brought with us on this adventurous day, everyone had to pee, which was the perfect way for the kids to coax us to get them back to the mall across the street for one more quick round of window shopping and dreaming for them. This made for a second montage in the video about the stores included in this mall.
Finally, after what had now become a very long day, and I was starting to feel just a little bit of fatigue at this point, we made it out of the shopping area and set off on foot to attempt to find a more feasible pick-up spot to call for a Grab Car in order to get back to our apartment. Of course there were taxis all around, but anyone who has read my prior blog posts knows that I do not at all deal with the hustling taxi drivers in Bali. Well, this had opened the door to yet another experience, as we ended up walking for so long, that we were able to get a closeup view of what the Kuta nightlife was all about and what it had to offer. Of course, nothing that we could really immerse in and try, seeing has how we had the kids with us, but certainly close enough to get a good idea of the places that I would want to experience in a bar hopping like situation in Kuta, should ever there be a time in life where I get a few friends together and embark on such an adventure. Most of the places seemed to be playing mostly old school, hip-hop and dance tunes, while a few of the places had a live band playing. On the whole, it was not all that different than nightlife anywhere else in the world, and especially back home, as I am from the San Francisco Bay Area after all. At one point, a short, older Indonesian man grabbed my arm as I passed by the entrance to an alley and literally said, “need marijuana?” Fortunately Mama and the girls were walking a bit ahead of me at this point, and I just politely said “no thank you.” I’m not much of a fan of weed in general, and have spent a great deal of my younger days instead, having a blast trying and enjoying just about every other drug, which I don’t regret, by the way, as many drugs, when respected and used properly can be a mind opening experience that will ultimately make you a more caring, loving citizen of the world, but I could spend an entire blog on that topic, so I digress. That’s not to say that I wouldn’t take a hit if a joint were passed to me here in Bali at a given time, but as for where we were, and having read of the extremely tight laws here pertaining to drugs, I had absolutely no interest in rolling the bones with some random dude who pops out of an alley, and ending up doing life (or death) in an Indonesian prison. However, that occurrence, albeit minuscule in the grand scheme of things, merely added to the “interesting” aspect that all combined to make for such a wonderful and fun day for me.
Between the clubs and bars, were mostly all just more shopping, with very interesting items placed out front, to try to get every tourist’s last rupiah out of their wallet before they head back their hotels for the night. I admit, I indulged, and bartered a low price for a package of wooden penis key chains. What can I say? They were spontaneous and comical, which are two adjectives of life that are among the top of the list of what describes me. That was about when Mama had finally found us a Grab Car driver, and soon after that, we’d be on our way back to the apartment, with Inas, the little one, having fallen asleep on me as I held her in the front seat of the long ride. On another side note, there was a moment here where I knew that I loved this little girl as I do my own, and that I would protect her with my life. It wasn’t so much the distance that made it long, but the traffic getting out of Kuta was bumper-to-scooter. Haha, get it? Bumper-to-scooter? I kill me!
Check out the video that I’ve included in this blog to see a bit of what it’s like around Kuta Beach in Bali Indonesia, and if you enjoyed the information that I’ve written about it here, consider giving this blog an up vote. As always, I’m interested to hear of your experiences, or perhaps answer any questions that I can in the comments, as I leave you with one last picture on the sunset over Kuta Beach.
