Meeting Teri & Ollie in Kuta Bali

Monday at 1pm I met 2 new arrivals to Bali, Teri from San Francisco and Ollie from Jakarta. They were both college friends at Arizona State University in Tucson back in 1992. Teri did a Google search and found Ollie, then suggested they met in Bali. Sometimes that’s all it takes to get things moving. We all met today at Made’s Warung in Kuta, really a perfect place to meet, because all the locals know where it is and you can sit and watch the street life.

We chatted for about 3 hours on a whole range of subjects, including the differences between Bali and Jakarta. Ollie was saying he moved back there for work, but other than that the lifestyle does not really suit him. Jakarta has intense traffic, smog, high crime, aggressive people, a snob attitude in some quarters and is so crowded. Ollie was saying g that just being in Bali he can sense the friendliness and commented how this morning he was chatting to the Satpam (security) at the hotel. He said in Jakarta the guy would probably be annoyed you bothered him. Probably big cities do not bring out the best in people.

Teri is looking to get some spa treatments and asked my advice on prices. She has seen some of the local ‘spas’ around the Kuta area and was interested to see ho good they are. I outlined 3 spas in the high, middle and affordable range. These were Prana and Bodyworks in Seminyak and Puspa Ayu in Kerobokan.

They are planning on a day tour tomorrow, so I offered some advice on renting a car with driver. Basically I’d go for a Kijang or Feroza, but a Suzuki is cheapest, going for around 130,000rp per day with driver. We all dived into Made’s nasi campur, which is a good little introduction to Indonesian food for first timers, incorporating a variety of ingredients and tastes.