Day 4: Kuta

Ok so yesterday’s post was a little long winded – in an effort to save you all from being stuck reading this for half your day I will try to compress today into a shorter more succinct post….well we will see how we go.

First destination this morning was Bintang Supermarket up in Seminyak.  I had heard it mentioned a fair bit as wasn’t sure what we would find.  I must admit to being a little unimpressed.  We picked up a few goodies but in the whole it wasn’t that brilliant.  Found a few little gifts for friends and family back home – there is however a very wide variety of options however.

After Bintang we thought we should head down into the heart of Kuta – the lovely wife wanted to check out the Kuta Art Markets so we jumped in a cab and headed down.  The market vendors were not too bad – it was still early in the day so they hadn’t gotten too desperate for a sale yet – I find some Balinese market vendors really struggle to find the middle ground between stalking you and ignoring you.  My better half picked up a few nice dresses at a bargain – the woman is very scary to watch bargain, always fair and friendly but trully ruthless – her trick is never let them know what you actually want to buy, that way when you start adding things in at the last minute it can throw them a little.  All in good fun however.

Kuta Beach, Just after the Art Markets we turned Left and walked along the footpath that follows the beach. Through to the Discovery Mall.

Once we had our morning shopping fill we decided to head along the waterfront and walked towards the Discovery Mall.  After a quick shop at Discovery we headed up to Poppies 2 for a visit to the Bali Bombing Memorial.  Much has been written about the Bali bombing so I won’t touch on it here – suffice to say it was a sad day for all people, and a great number of people died in the bombings.  It is right to come and pay respects to them.

Stop and pay your respects for a moment at the memorial. To those many people who died in this place. Many of them tourists just like us, who were simply here to enjoy life and enjoy Bali.

By this time we’ve had our fill of Kuta and want to retreat to the safe refuge of Legian and Jl Padma Utara.  For lunch today we decided to try another place which was well recommended – Wali Warung.  It is tucked away just around a bend in Padma Utara.  The meals were really well portioned – I was quite impressed by the size to price ratio – plus the drinks were very cold.  The staff at Wali Warung are very friendly, willing to have a chat and appear genuinely interested in learning more about you (as well as sharing a little of themselves too).

It was still reasonably early in the day – and no prize for guessing where I wanted to be for sunset – we headed back down the road towards our hotel to find a place to get a massage.  My wife only wanted to get a hair treatment and facial, so we found SukSema Spa on Padma Utara.  The massage wasn’t bad and my wife tells me the facial was very well done.

By now it was nearing prime sunset time – so we headed back to our now favourite Sunset Bar – Crystal Palace Beach Bar.  No need to dilate on what took place – Cocktails / Bintang / Food & repeat as necessary.  We couldn’t stay as late this evening as it is Sunday and that means Formula 1 from Spa.  So I begrudgingly headed back towards the hotel.

Amazing Sunset this evening – bit of cloud in the sky really made the colours pop!

We stopped at a restaurant called Bianco to watch the race, I am pretty sure it is because they are the first place we got to and my wife was panicking that we would miss the start – to Bianco it was.  As I am learning with almost every bar in Bali – 2 for 1 cocktails seem to be the standard offering! We were a little hungry so enjoyed some well cooked hamburgers and chips.  Such a civilised time to watch the Formula 1 – in Brisbane it is usually on late at night – so to enjoy the race at 8:00pm was a real treat.

That’s about it for Day 4 – I know it wasn’t terribly exciting but I promise tomorrow will be better.  We have our first day tour tomorrow with our driver.  No clue where we are headed, whereever he takes us.  Stay tuned.