Our second time to Bali and Debbie and I find tourist central. Bali is a destination for many travellers and holidayers so no matter where you are on this small island there is bound to be a lot of foreigners. But more on that later.
We got back to the hotel around 2.30pm. We organized a bit and then I flicked on the TV. Don’t watch TV except at hotels so it is a bit dangerous as I can’t take my eyes off it once it is on. When in a land where the first language is not English it is even more of a problem because I might watch something in some other language and I don’t understand a word of it. I scrolled through the channels and ended up on a sports channel watching a Australian National Rugby League game. Debbie put down what she was doing and started watching as well. It was near the end of the game but ‘next up’ was the Grand Final of the NRL. It was live and in colour. We watched most of the first half and were interested in the game. Weird game, sort of a combination of hot potato and red rover. Here you take the ball, no no you take, that’s quite all right fellas I don’t really want it either, Oh shit I’m stuck with it might as well run straight into the competition and get slammed to the ground. Anyway we wanted to see the end so at half time we ran across the street got a pizza to go and sat through the final 40 minutes. Didn’t really know anything about the teams but in the end the winning team had won the last 4 Grand Finals and that was some sort of record and established them as the ‘greatest team ever’. Sort of the like the Edmonton Oilers of old.
Earlier in the day, Murray wanted to go to a currency exchange away from the airport to see if we could buy Indonesian Rupiah at a better rate. Inside the airport the exchange is 10,400 IDR to 1 Canadian dollar. Just outside the airport it is 10,700.
We walk into an area called Kuta, tourist central. There are beaches along the coast and many many resorts, hotels, inns and home stays. Holiday Inn, Sands, Sheraton, Wyndham and then, of course, Starbucks, Bubba Gump Shrimp Co, Hard Rock Cafe. You get the picture.
We walk down Jl Kartika Plaza, the busy street in Kuta, checking out the exchange rates and everyone’s rate is 10,900. We pick a small exchange and transact our business. We cut through the Discovery Kartika Plaza Hotel (stopping at the bathroom) onto the beach and are surprised that there is no beach, just a rock embankment with waves splashing on it. Further down the beach, in both directions, we can see sand into the water. If I were to come to Kuta for a beach holiday, I would make sure the hotel I choose is actually on a nice part of the beach.
By the time we walk along the walkway on the beach and turn inland, we are need of a rest out of the sun. We find a wall to sit on that happens to be under an awning and park ourselves to watch the world go by. We spy a young woman with a pack back come out of the cross street and she is looking like she needs directions. We quip that if she asks us, we only know that the beach is that way, the main road is the other way and the airport is back that way.
C, a solo traveller from France, ended up sitting on our wall and chatting with us for quite awhile, and then we three decide we need lunch. We find a restaurant close by and continue to visit while ordering and then eating lunch. Eventually we have to say goodbye, C to head to Ubud and us to walk back to our hotel. Sometimes, the best part of travelling is meeting the nicest people!
