The last 3 days have been SO incredibly full of adventures that I haven't had time to update the blog much. So, here is a recap of the weekend (I'll post today's activities tomorrow--wait until you see them!)
Saturday was our excursion trip to Kuta, the main tourist center and a 2 km strip of beach where everyone hangs out. We went there to check it out, shop a bit (it's a HUGE shopping hub) and most importantly, for me to take a surf lesson on the Indian Ocean. I have to say that, aside from the surfing part, we really didn't like Kuta at all. It was great to see and experience it, but we couldn't wait to get out of there. It was insanely busy and crowded, and there's only one road in and out of the city, so traffic is ridiculous. Every few feet, literally, people are trying to see you something (products and services...yes, those kinds of services), and here you really see a difference in the Balinese people in the sense that they seem to have been corrupted a bit by seedy tourists and have started to try to cater to their needs, both the best and the worst of them. Surfing was phenomenally successful, and we got back safely to the hotel despite a dodgy cab ride with a dodgy driver who we found out later wasn't a proper taxi driver. Here are some surfing pictures of me, and some general pictures of Kuta:
Catch the wave...push up on the board...
Right foot forward...
Balance...balance...wait for it....
Yeah baby! Ride that wave! This whole process took about an hour to achieve, but still, I achieved it!
And here is Kuta beach, where I was surfing from:
Here's just one parking area for the beach, just behind where I was standing to take the picture of the beach above...
And the obvious presence of Western culture and commercialism at work:
The only Hard Rock Hotel in Indonesia:
A sign in front of the Hard Rock Hotel that was one of the only redeeming qualities of coming here:
It's not that Kuta is a place you shouldn't visit...it just doesn't seem to sync up with what our pre-conceived notions of the "Island of the Gods" (that's the term that is used here to describe Bali) were when we came here. We knew that it would be a huge tourist hub here, but didn't think it would be this bad! But then again, we are here at the peak tourist season, so I suppose we should have been more prepared for the corruption and congestion of this city. All in all, totally worth visiting, but only once. Plus, I rode the waves here!! How many times in my life will I be able to say that I surfed in the Indian Ocean on Bali? Probably never. Because it was freaking hard! LOL. But so, so worth it.
Then, on Sunday, it was Indonesian Independence Day. On August 17th, Indonesia gained independence from the Dutch (the Japanese tried to take over years later, unsuccessfully). In honor of this day, the red & white Indonesian flag (which is ironically almost identical to the Polish flag) is placed everywhere, and everything stops for the festivities. So, to celebrate the day ourselves, we booked a special dinner theater evening here to enjoy a traditional Indonesian/Balinese buffet, as well as some traditional Balinese dancing. Here are the pix!
More tomorrow on two magnificent places that we visited today, along with more things you didn't know about Bali! Keep checking back!
Cheers,
D & E
1 comment:
Daria!
You go girl!! That seriously looks like a dream come true.
Although, watching you surf gave me flash backs of the Tiki Idol episode from Brady Bunch!!
P.S. Hello to you, Emmett.
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