After spending most of my time in Indonesia in very local places I’m actually enjoying being in a “tourist ghetto” again. As I plan to cycle across the Australian outback it is probably a good thing to spend a few days in a more social setting. In some ways Kuta already feels like being in Australia. The shop owners usually say “how is it going mate” as you pass by. Almost all tourists here are Australians.
One night I found myself at a Couchsurfing beach party having a few glasses of the local Bali wine with people from Indonesia, the US, Canada, Holland and Russia. There are also plenty of night clubs around. The most famous is probably Skygarden. Travellers on a budget like the place because they serve free drinks in the beginning of the night. Of course they hope you will then continue to buy more drinks afterwards. I solved that problem by simply leaving my room without any money.
The sunset at Kuta beach is beautiful, but I’m still not sure if it can compete with the sunsets at Palolem beach in Goa.
It was not all beach and party. I was also spending some time getting ready for the Australian part of the trip. One day I took the bike and went for a 30 km ride into Denpasar, the biggest city on Bali. I wanted to go to a bicycle shop because it would be cheaper to do maintenance here than in Australia. The problem was that the shop didn’t have any of the needed parts and the mechanic was on holiday. I will get the job done in down under.
After five days in Kuta I was ready for a new continent.
I vote for Goa 😀