Nightmare in Kuta and Denpasar

Having decided yesterday that I would have a drive up the east coast northwards today, Claire thought she might like to see what we were missing in Bali’s main resort of Kuta. We started off with a JJ special breakfast before setting off but again there are very few signs and lots of decisions to make so it’s only a matter of time before you go wrong. I thought it would take about 15 minutes to get there but it took us an hour in crazy traffic and it seemed town all the way there, no country side. When we got there it was even worse than I expected, wall to wall stalls and hawkers and a ridiculous one way system that has the cars crawling along bumper to bumper while the bikes swarm around them. We parked when we got to the beach and discovered why Kuta was the first tourist attraction; the spectacular beaches, but why were they so empty? Because everybody is on the roads.

We had a quick refreshing drink in a little Italian place where we decided that we would go no further and head back home instead. If we had gone further up the west coast we would only have had to go back through Kuta again on the way back. Again the lack of signs made choosing the right direction difficult and the only place I wanted to avoid was Bali’s capital Denpasar. How did it happen? I’m sure Claire thinks I got there by purpose. I imagine it would be easier driving around Deli on a motorbike than Denpasar; the only saving grace was that it is better signposted. However, if you have to turn right, you are in trouble getting across the queues of traffic blocking the whole road with bikes filling the gaps. They drive on the left over here like at home but I am glad we didn’t house swap with someone from here as my car wouldn’t have lasted long. When they get to a roundabout they usually go right around it, leaving the left rout for turning left and straight on. It doesn’t work, think about it. If you have a 4 way junction and everyone goes left and right around it from each one, it doesn’t work. Imagine the chaos they would cause in Milton Keynes.

Somehow we found our way back to Sanur but only by turning the way I thought and then stopping to ask the way after each decision without a signpost. Claire has decided she doesn’t want to go on the bike anymore. We found a little Thai restaurant on the outskirts of town by the Hyatt that we thought we would give a go. It is called Ulu and it is new and has only been open 2 days. We had our old favourite Thai Green chicken curry with extra spice. It came out in an empty coconut which was a nice twist; good job I stopped off at the ATM this morning. No, it was only about £10 for the 2 of us with drinks and well worth a try; Claire said it was the best meal she had eaten since she got here.

Although I didn’t sunbathe at all yesterday, my forehead and neck are sore today. Claire was out by the pool for ages yesterday and is back there again today and she’s ok; how does that work. I suppose that she has hair to protect her. Well it looks like today’s plan will come into action tomorrow now, I will try and find the coast road north along the east coast first thing in the morning while Claire tries to put her towels down before the Germans get there.

In the evening we tried the Triana to start with as they had live music on. The Triana is a Spanish bar where they serve tapas and other Bali style Spanish food. Although the band was supposed to be playing Spanish music, all we heard was the usual Bob Marley and the Beatles; they didn’t look too Spanish either. That was fine but we had been dying to try the Wicked Parrot as it had been recommended to us and it is right next to our hotel. We have a security station to get in and out of our hotel where they raise and lower a barrier and check cars with one of those things that they put under the car. Trouble is, the entrance to the Wicked Parrot is before the security so it’s easy to avoid it. They were supposed to be playing Irish music, but again they neither looked nor sounded Irish but they were good and we enjoyed it. Claire decided to try the fish pie so I had the avocado prawn salad just to be sociable. The best food in Bali so far and we noticed that they had wi-fi there and breakfast started at 7.30am a full hour ahead of all the others. They also gave us a free breakfast voucher; no prizes for guessing where we will be eating breakfast tomorrow.