A rainy afternoon in Kuta included a trip down to the beach at Pantai Kuta to check on the tourist scene.
The wet season means storms and debris on the beach. I noticed that the tide was out and there was a line of material deposited. There were also large piles of wood all along the beach which had been swept up ready for the dump trucks to gather. I guess there’s not much you can do if you are a local here except hope for the wet season to end and better beach conditions to arrive.
I did see some people out surfing but the powerful onshore winds meant conditions were very messy and I’d rather not be out there myself right now.
Vincent and Akari were swinging through town very quickly to attend a party and then head back out to Karangasem where they have rented the ‘pad from heaven’. I am invited and after seeing the photos must make an extra effort. We met at Pub Bagus on Poppies II just about 10 meters in from Jl. Legian. This bar plays lives sports and pirated DVD movies for the clientele. A small Bintang is 8,000rp which is okay and it is a handy place to meet as its easy to find.
Akari was wearing her latest new outfit, a Balinese inspired piece. Vincent did his best to get into her bad books by repeatedly saying ‘You’re hot baby, you’re hot’ and pretending to burn his finger when he touched her. We quickly caught up and I told them about my new handy place in Seminyak.
I noticed some large family groups of Aussies which is a good sign. The Kuta and Legian area is very user friendly for English speaking groups looking for affordable accommodation, food and entertainment.
At my house this morning I spoke to Wayan the potential new cleaner and from what I gather there was a bit of manouvering between the owner Nyoman and Ketut, the guy I talked to on my first day. From what I can gather each wants to provide cleaning services and before I start agreeing to let people in the house I’m going to get it completely straight who works for who and what the deal is. I might find my own cleaners completely independently.
The layout of my new place is slightly different from the old one in that there is one less series of doors to go through to get to the bedrooms. The old house had an outside front door, an inside front door, then once in the house lockable bedroom doors. This new place has an outside front door and then an upstairs and downstairs bedroom. The good part about this is it takes less time to leave for me as I have less to lock. The bad part is less security. I don’t feel particularly in danger but this living outside aspect to Bali does take some getting used to.
My 12 ft perimeter wall has barbed wire running along it which might slow someone down.
I just changed a $100 bill at the money changer next to Spaghetti Jazz restaurant on Jl. Legian yesterday. They are a straight place and many expats change money here. Like most money changers they award a higher rate for higher denomination bills. The rate for a US$100 bill on Feb 7th was 8410rp = $1, meaning that for my $100 I received 841,000rp. This place does not charge a commission and is located across from Bintang supermarket. It took about 5 minutes to change the money and no ID or paperwork was required.
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Good idea to sort out the cleaners prior to them starting….
Are there many other expats in the area? If so hope they are the ones that get broken into!!!! There is not really any SECURE place, if they want something, they will get it! But as long as you don’t flaunt your goods you should be OK!
Rob, G’Day mate that great news, we’ll grab a couple of boards and head down to Kuta beach. Hitting that dog wasn’t very fun for her I bet.
Tracey, I tink there are a fair amount of ‘bules’ living in the area. Of course the security on these places isn’t the greatest but I don’t have super expensive things and use a safety deposit box.
Hey Nick,
I’m returning to Bali at the end of this month but flying solo this time……because of the new visa regulations and because I’m Irish I got a sixty day holiday visa from the indonesian embassy in London. It’s nearly impossible to get info out of them so fingers crossed on arrival that they don’t try to knock me up for a few more dollors but I’ll keep you posted. Your mate Rob’s friend isn’t by any chance Made Sukasana if so that just proves how small the world is!
P.S. are you american or Australian ?
Just proves how many Mades there are.
Yeah Nick, are you American or Australian?….or Balinese
Hi Nick, like the new house. I’m coming to see you in mid May. Bev is coming later so please remove all dogs from the roads and ask the pizza place next to 96 to order some extra hot chilli for her like last May. Next time you go to the surf school say hi to Otong for me. Did you ever look up my mate Made Sukadana?