Friday, September 5th, 2003 – Day 199
I was up at 7.00am and got ready. I said my goodbyes to Steve and Tara and got a bus to central. I then caught the Airport train (11.80 AUS) and checked in. Its a nice airport and time went quickly. My Australan Airlines flight to bali was at 10.15am. It was a five hour fourty minute flight.
It ws the same type of plane as my Christchurch to Melbourne flight. the service and good was good but with one movie screen for the wwhole plane is a joke. i was about 40 rows away from it. they showed Bruce Almightly. Pretty preticable. i was luckly that i had three centre seats to myself. i could sit between two to watch the movie and have a lie down. They also showed Finding Nemo. Pixar continues its run of impeccable artistic and economic success (their movies include Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, and Monsters, Inc). good animation.
It was a OK flight and we arrived in sunny bali at 2.00pm. It seems about 10 flights arrived together and there were horendeos ques at immigration. I was there for nearly an hour. Then none of the ATMs worked in the airport and I was luckly to have a few dolalrs to change. I got a taxi into Kuta for a pre-paid amount (available from counters) for 25,000 Indonesian Rupiah (2.75 EURO). I walked around for about 20 minutes looking for a particular guesthouse but ended up without looking at it and getting the one opposite for a single room. The cost was a tiny 30,000 Indonesian Rupiah (3.30 EURO) per night.
It good to be back in South East Asia – land of mystery and frugal living. I went to bed from 4.00pm (when I got to Kuta) until 8.00pm. I was tired. No air-con in the room, just a fan.
But Bali is special. On the 12th of October 2002 bombs exploded the peacefulness of the island. Set off in Legian, Kuta, amidst the popular clubs of Sari Club and Paddy’s, resulting in at least 180 deaths (by 1pm 13 Oct 2002).
From Sydney Morning Herald
Both nightclubs were bursting at the seams. Hot, sweaty, noisy, they pulsated with a frantic life force. Mostly, they were young, single Australians on the make, in beautiful and sensuous Bali for a blowout.
None of the patrons blasting Saturday night into oblivion at the Sari or Paddy’s Irish Pub, the two most popular nightspots along the raunchy Jalan Legian, could have had a hint of the disaster about to befall them.
This was Kuta, playground of Denpasar, a place where the excesses were alcoholic and sexual and entirely permitted.
At Sari’s, aka SCs, the most popular drink was the local Bintang beer, served in huge bongs. With a high thatched roof which let in the rain, it had an uneasy Balinese touch, out of step with the modern beat. It also had the distinction of refusing entry to locals.
Paddy’s was directly across the JL Legian, the city’s busiest entertainment strip, lined with bars and clubs and small shops catering to tourists. A two-storey structure described as a “cross between a Gilligan’s Island hut and a Smurf village house”, it showcased bottle-juggling bartenders, a classic rock band downstairs and techno groove in the huge upstairs room.
After 11 on Saturday night, both bars were full to bursting. Among drinkers at the Sari Club were Australian Rules football teams from Melbourne, Geelong, Perth and Adelaide on season-end trips.
Twenty-five players from the Platypi Rugby Union club from Forbes in western NSW had arrived in Bali only eight hours earlier, checked into their hotel and gone straight to the famous bar.
“I reckon the place had 300 people in there and probably 250 were Australians,” said Simon Quayle, coach of the Kingsley Football Club in Perth, who was there with 19 fellow members. Twenty players from Sturt Football club in Adelaide were also in the bar.
Patrons coming late were unable to get in. They were the lucky ones.
About 11.20am, a car parked outside Paddy’s exploded, blowing up in the front of the bar. A few moments later, a second blast, described as much bigger, tore open Sari’s
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Click on the picture to see it in its original size
Kuta – Bali – Indonesia – T-Shirt on the railings leadings to the bombed Sari Club (05-09-2003)
See Indo Bali and this guardian newspaer Spewcial.
Bali bombing victims by nationality
During the night I went to the newly reopened Paddy’s Bar which was destroued in the Bali bombing (it reopned last month) and Bounty Ship .
Here’s where the tourists go to get ship-faced–it’s built to look like a galleon, with a restaurant on the “deck” and a dance club below in the “hull,” housing a bar and dance floor, with live bands some nights and deejays others. If it sounds cheesy, well, it is. But the club gets lively, with a young crowd. And on Tuesdays you can walk the plank. They’ve got a mini-bungee set-up from a board overhanging the dance floor.
I also went to a bar which was showing a pirate version of American Wedding on a giant TV screen.
The palces were busy but not bustling or full. Went back to my guesthouse around 2.00pm.
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Click on the picture to see it in its original size
Kuta – Bali – Indonesia – The Swastika are on most temples here (05-09-2003)
Saturday, September 6th, 2003 – Day 200
Intrepid travelers arriving at Denpasar’s Ngurah Rai Airport information booth looking for directions are systematically shooed off to Kuta. (After all, isn’t everyone going there?) If you’re young, brave, and a die-hard “yahoo” (Australian for face-painter), then maybe you’ll understand why the little seaside town of Kuta burgeoned into an indistinguishable string of seaside municipalities that host one massive and rowdy party. Australian rugby players love it. But hearty middle-aged English couples murmur words like “trash” and “worthless” when describing their experience in Kuta.
You’re probably thinking “Can it be as bad as all that?” Well, it’s not for nothing that the hotels are consistently full. As a rule, I myself try never to stay within a 1 kilometer radius of a McDonald’s, Wendy’s or Dunkin Donuts. But some people enjoy being in the thick of the action. It’s a quick 10 minutes from the airport, especially convenient for Australians in for a quickie weekend in the tropics. Some even maintain a loyal following of beach locals for things like toenail painting, massages, and gifts, resulting in other potential scavengers keeping a respectable distance. But still, Kuta is made up of narrow streets and alleys, with pedestrians crammed between honking, muffler-less cars and motorbikes and some of the most aggressive touts on the island.
The best compromise of all, short of staying elsewhere on the island, is to follow the flow of tourism out of the eye of the hurricane. The beaches just north of Kuta Beach are actually quite nice, namely, the quieter shores of Legian and the downright upscale sands of Seminyak. Some of the best dining on the island is located here as well.
I only got up at 12.00 noon. There are really only two or three busy nightlife places in Kuta and many are full of Japanesse and Bali cowboys. It pretty funny but every second girl here is with a bali boy. Many of these girls (women) are from their 40’s to their 60’s!!! These guys are all over the place trying everything that moves. This site has a 5 page article on them.
You won’t find many cowboys in Southeast Asia. But on one small stretch of beach they have become famous. If you’re a woman in Bali on your own, you can expect to meet a “cowboy.” The Kuta Cowboys don’t like that “G” word – gigolo. They’d rather be your boyfriend, your lover, your companion, or whatever. That’s where the scam begins; marketing is half the reason they don’t like the word “gigolo”.
Kuta’s cowboys think that they have figured out what women want. Kuta Beach on the southern coast of Bali has them for you. Lots of them…
The Bali Coast
Judging from the stories available, a female traveling alone in Bali will probably be “hit on” at least a few times a day. And if she simply goes to Kuta Beach, picks a spot and stretches out in the sun, someone will propose marriage before the day is out. These young “cowboys” of Kuta come by offering free samples of conversation, then selling romance at bargain prices, and soon afterwards selling themselves (in whatever sense you wish to take that).
Be forewarned: it is very much a marketing ploy. And you are probably more of a sucker than a customer in their eyes.
Age seems to be irrelevant; if anything, girls in the 18 to 25 age bracket are neglected a little in favor of women who may have more resources, or be more emotionally vulnerable.
In a 1996 article on Kuta’s boys, author Denise Dowling relays this story:
“Sally is a married 36-year-old nurse from Queensland who brought her teenage daughter to Bali as a graduation present. She and the daughter were at a local disco one night when the singer came over and sat with them after a set. She thought the 26-year-old musician was after her daughter until he invited her to his room that night.”
Six months later Sally had dumped her husband and spent over $7000 on a relationship with this Balinese boy. She’d brought him to Australia and was still living with him.
The cowboys of Kuta will spend your money and rearrange your life in a hurry if you let them.
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Click on the picture to see it in its original size
Kuta – Bali – Indonesia – Temple in Kuta (06-09-2003)
Last night was OK. you get a funny mix of people. Japanesee guys and girls cutting lose is pretty funny. They guys colot r their hair red and spike it. there nothing as fuuny as seeing a spiky haored Japanese guy. Lots of tanned surfers and hard drinking rugby players. Speaking of rugny, I watched Ireland play Scotland on the big screen. Ireland won 29-10. I could not anyplace that was showing the Ireland V Russia soccer game. I had a few drinks and headed back early. Iam tiring of Kutas hustle and bustel, too many tourists. Its just like the sun resorts in Europe that i do not care for.
I have not been tanning myself on a beach for 15 years (when i was a child with my parents). it think its a futile waste of time and vain in its utmost. i ahve gone on one sun holiday (drinking holiday) to Kusadesi in turkey. i think we saw the beach for 20 minutes.
I dont really like Kuta. Its too brash and has too many bottom entry sun tourists. With everybody you pass asking whether you want transport, weed, a girl etc. It ruins the experience. I like the fact that when you take side roads you get to see a better side of Kuta with people making offereings in front of their shop and offereings at street corners, but there are better places in Bali to to and see this. If you are here for a week and want to get pissed (althought they do it in a civilised way here, the Brits do it the proper way in the Greek Islands) then come here, but you will learn nothing about Bali.