Bali Diary

During our last visit to Bali in 2007, we had moved to pre-paid taxi counter after immigration. The amount demanded was Rupaiah 1,30,000. My friend, the irrepressible Bobby Kocchar had looked with bewilderment at the guy sitting at the counter and informed him that his intention was to hire the cab and not buy it.

Currency is the first issue to be sorted out at Bali notwithstanding around 30 counters of money changers, each next to the other, offering the same rate of exchange ! During the same trip of 1997, the women had got exasperated as for 2 days they could not shop anything due to not understanding the exchange rate. I, therefore devised a formula. All shops exhibit the value of chosen merchandise on calculators. I asked the ladies to divide the number by 2 and then hide the last 2 numbers. For example if a purse was costing IDR 3,00,000 all they had to do was divide it by 2 – making it to 1,50,000. Then by hiding the last 2 zeroes the result was the Indian Rupee 1500. QED. My only fear was someone producing a calculator showing the figure in decimals !

Warning : Exchange money with caution and from some place which looks reliable. Many have been cheated by those offering very good exchange rate .

During 2007 we had stayed at Nusa Dua. A gated area having beautiful manicured gardens, nice sea front, all the top luxury hotels and the Bali Golf Course. All top hotels like Grand Hyatt and Westin are located there.The activities there were resort based and for much of the shopping and dining we used to come to Kuta beach area every evening. We would roam around in Kuta; have drinks in some pubs while ladies shopped around and then return late at night after dinner.
This time we had traveled without friends and wanted to be closer to action so we stayed at  Kuta itself. The Ramada Bintang hotel was a beach facing sprawling property near all the action at Kuta. The rooms were nice, the swimming pool was magnificent and location was excellent. The disappointment was the beach and the sea. The sea looked flat and dead .The sand on the beach was black- as is at entire kuta area. A little further north, near the Kuta Paradiso hotel the sea was a lot better with waves. One thing did become clear on the very first hour on arrival at the hotel was that we would have to wait for our January 2012 Goa trip to enjoy the beach and the sea.

We had arrived at Bali after a hectic 3 day trip of Singapore. The body needed relaxation and toning up. The Balinese Massage parlours are there on the entire stretch of Kuta. On day 2, I went for a massage at the top level Bali Ratu spa. It was a huge building with a very impressive reception and many well appointed rooms with attached baths. It started with soaking of feet in hot water full of rose petals followed by scrubbing of feet. A 10 minute steaming was followed by an oil massage. Given a choice from 5 exotic oils, I think I settled for Jasmine. The next day Devicka and I went to another nice spa called 'Karma Spa' at the waterbom park to take advantage of the scheme of ‘pay for one and get one free massage’ . While the back, thighs and calves were massaged with a lot of toughness, the front part of the body was treated gently. So gently that the relaxation was complete. Devicka informed me later that other than the soothing music, all that could be heard in the room was the sound of my snoring !

The main street of Kuta is a narrow road which starts just a little before Ramada Bintang and goes upto Kuta centre.Beyond that you find a few lanes where small shops sell all the fake branded stuff. It is the walk upto the Kuta centre which is interesting. While initially you find a lot of massage places offering foot massage and reflexology, the road opens up a bit near a huge mall known as the discovery mall. There are many shops selling DVD’s on the way and these are pretty cheap offering good prints.

One has to be careful though as if you have a stopover at Singapore on the way back, the penalties are pretty strict there regarding carrying fake DVD’s with you. The discovery mall is attached to a huge hotel called Discovery Kartika hotel, one of the good hotels this side. The mall has all the branded shops and a huge hall selling handicrafts for which Bali is so very famous. The mall has all the junk food joints as well. The steps outside the mall are good vantage points to relax and look at all the crowds go by. Kuta Centre itself has some good boutiques with the kind of stuff you identify Bali with. The store ‘Mata Hari’ is pretty popular with budget customers.

For the handicrafts Devicka and Sanya did travel to Ubud – the handicrafts or the art centre of  Bali, extremely popular with foreigners. For the lovers of handicrafts and paintings and bags, this is a must visit place. The ‘monkey forest’ road has some lovely shops and the Ubud main market is colourful. The Ubud area is around two to three hundred meters above sea level and surrounded by rice fields, which makes it noticeably cooler than then other tourist destinations in Bali. Neighbouring villages are well known for unique bamboo crafts and furniture, wood ,stone carving and many other crafts.

Ubud is also famous for its regularly nightly traditional dance performances, which are part of the traditional culture and are arranged for tourists on a regular schedule. Hindu-Balinese ceremonies take place on a nearly daily basis.

Tip : Go to Ubud early as shops shut there by 5 PM. But don't go to the volcano which taxi drivers like taking you to. You will get fed up with the hawkers there. When you go to UBud hire taxi for the day and ask him to wait for you. 

While Devicka and Sanya were at Ubud, Kartik and I were sliding into water through different means at the Waterbom park just a hundred yards from Discovery mall. Waterbom park is a huge surprise once you enter it as from outside, it doesn’t appear to be as large as it actually is.

The slides are exhilarating and the splashes in water are a great respite from the hot sunny afternoon. There were 8-9 good slides and a separate kiddies area, but what really did impress me was the organization and efficiency of all the attendants and the supervisors. One had to wait for around 10 to 15 minutes in a queue after climbing more than a 120 steps to the tower. But once you came hurtling down and splashed into the water, you were ready to climb and wait again.

This time I did not venture out of Kuta so did not go the  great sea food wharf of  Jimbaran bay. We had a dinner at the Bubba Gump shrimp co. (remember Forrest Gump – the Tom Hanks movie ?) and enjoyed the prawn meals there.

Devicka stuck to a rack of Pork ribs and found them to be delicious. Café Batan Waru , is an old favourite of mine and is attached to the Bali Garden hotel . This café served some great food which included fish roasted in banana leaves, Balinese smoked duck, Grilled chicken in Manadonese chili and shiitake mushroom sauce and the very popular Nasi Goering ( fried rice with shrimps, chicken and vegetables). Gabah restaurant and Bar is a fancy place in the corner right across Kuta centre and is expensive with limited choice . Unless you go on the day they serve buffet. A huge new restaurant has come up right onto the pavement - it is called the Railway restaurant and bar and has a huge stage for band performances. It was a multi cuisine restaurant and food was decent. Another noticeable addition since we last came was the huge sea food place near the Kuta Paradiso hotel. We didn’t eat there but it seemed that it was like a food court. It must be pretty popular as it was always full.

IFIORI- a plush Italian restaurant opposite discovery mall had a nice atmosphere and great music. A plush Indian restaurant called the Queen’s of India, right outside the Bali Dynasty resort always had more Aussies than Indians. I wouldn’t know how good or bad the food would be as Indian food was not on my list of priority.

On October 12, 2002 at around 11 PM, a suicide bomber detonated a bomb at Paddy’s club in the Kuta night district. People who ran out of clubs faced 2 more powerful bombs kept in 2 separate cars, which were detonated just as people exited the nightclubs. 202 died (mostly young foreign tourists) and many were grievously injured with lost limbs and lifelong of misery. Bali was devastated for many years as it lost its tourists. Now, the tourists have started growing again and the bomb devastated area has started partying once more. A memorial constructed there is a grim reminder of that fateful night. The area is referred to as' ground zero' now.

In India too there has been a talk of creating a ‘ground zero.’ It’s just that with atleast a couple of blasts a year in different parts of the country, the Government is finding it difficult to finalise just one spot .

The people of Bali left a very good impression on us. The hotel staff, the shop-keepers, the cab drivers- they were all very gentle, polite and respectful. They know the value of tourists and realise that their livelihood depends on them. They would all thank us for coming to Bali and ask us to come again soon. I hope one day this realization will dawn on those in our country who depend on tourists for livelihood but show scant respect.

(The Memorial at Ground Zero)