Kuta

Day 88 – Kuta, Indonesia

So this morning in Ubud, I still hadn’t decided where to go. I had boiled things down to three choices: go to Denpasar, the capital city of Bali, which is inland, and has an interesting museum about Balinese life and culture. I could also go to Kuta, a beach town, very touristic, but with fantastic sunsets -it faces West. The last choice was to go on the same coast, a bit more Northwards, near the insular temple of Tanah Lot, and stay in an guesthouse in the middle of nowhere with a roof terrace. After the bustle of Ubud, I really liked that idea.

Unfortunately, by the time I got up and ready to leave, the taxi price quoted by my app had tripled, which made it a lot less appealing. So I chose instead Kuta, which has the added advantage of being right by the airport I’ll be leaving from in two days.

My decision taken, I walked back to the bus terminal I arrived to two days ago and bought a bus ticket -with a rebate because I was a returning customer.

Since I had a two-hours wait, I found lunch nearby in a French bakery. Croque-Monsieur, salad and jasmine tea.

The same bus also take people who go to the airport, but get a transfer half-way to another vehicle. And… I was the only one left! Since I wasn’t even in a minibus, I had a whole coach for myself. Neat.

I waited to see where the bus terminal was in Kuta before looking on the map of my booking app where to find a hostel. So I booked my bed less than an house before arriving there! I chose again an hostel where the beds are more like individual capsules, which gives plenty of privacy.

And then I headed out to see my surroundings, and ended up at the beach. There was less people than I was afraid of, but it’s maybe because it was already past 5pm?

Quite quickly, I took my shoes off, rolled up my pants, and went into the water. The water is limpid, except where the sand gets churned up. The sea was also colder than I was expecting, colder than at Lovina Beach, at least.

There is a kind of plateau, so the waves break off in huge rollers a little distance from the beach. (It is surf country.) The waters break in a secondary, smaller line closer to the shore, and travel the rest of the way to the beach. I started walking in that last part of the sea, with the water up to my ankles.

Except that if enough waves follow each other, the water comes suddenly above my knees… soaking the rolled-up part of my pants! And the water receding meets the water coming, adding an unexpected backward wave taking the poor tourist (me, in this case) unaware! I loved it, but maybe next time I’ll try it in a swimsuit.

The waves are breathtaking, rushing, slowing, sometimes seeming to zing from one end to the other in a matter of seconds.

Waves breaking

I came back to the hostel to change and come back more prepared. The setting sun in the meantime had disappeared behind some clouds, I hope to catch a better sunset tomorrow.

I also need to think about the content of my backpack. I’m changing continent in two days, and that means that my needs will change. My (borrowed) mosquito net, which actually I haven’t used at all, my mosquito repellent, my clothespins, which I also haven’t used (but which I’ll need as soon as I get rid of them), and so on.