I peaked out of the curtains about 7am this morning, and it appeared that it was still a little overcast, but when I eventually roused myself a couple of hours later, the thunder and lightning were a distant memory as the sun shone brightly overhead on a Sunday in Bali. (Literally as I wrote this sentence, I started raining again...)
The plan for today as to 'rinse and repeat' what I did yesterday, except on a different set of beaches.
The main town which people visit in south Bali is called Kuta which sits to the northern side of the airport, and is very close to another couple of beach towns which are called Legion and Seminyak.
With the moped fully fuelled up and ready to go, I was planning on visiting two of the three, perhaps leaving one until tomorrow and my final night's stay on this island of Indonesia.
Having got pretty close to the airport due to the lack of signs yesterday I was fairly confident about the direction I was heading in as a set off this morning. I stopped off to grab myself a few snacks from one of the many useful convenience stores in Jimbaran, continuing straight on where I'd turned off left yesterday in my failed attempt to watch the sunset on the beach.
Before I knew it I was coming to a slightly more main road, which turned into a dual carriage way after a couple of minutes, but thankfully the majority of the vehicles ploughing their way along this stretch of road were mopeds. The first obstacle I reached was a huge roundabout which I needed to go straight across as the airport was to the left.
I've got to be honest and say that the rules of the road in Indonesia aren't exactly crystal clear. I don't have the problems like I did in the Philippines where I'm not sure which side of the road you're supposed to drive on, but at some point question what the speed limits on any of the roads are, or if such a thing actually exists.
One of my other thoughts only became apparent to me when I reached the roundabout as I realised that I hadn't noticed any kind of priorities to any particular direction of traffic. In the UK we give way to the right at a roundabout, but here it appeared that everyone had the license to go whenever they liked.
The roundabout near where I am staying, the one where I turned around yesterday appeared to be the same, but I did notice on my drive around it this morning that cars and a couple of the mopeds gave priority to traffic incoming from the left which makes things even more confusing.
With the sheer volume of cars, it appeared that it was a bit of a free-for-all, and I did my best to merge in with everyone by using another car from protection before then continuing on my way. I honestly wish I had enough battery life in my GoPro to film every single experience I have on the Indonesia roads, it would make quite a montage.
Continuing straight on, we had the usual problem with signs. Today's issues, rather than there not being any signs was that there were far too few of them. I decided to head to Seminyak first as it was furthest away, and then work my way back towards Kuta, but that became a problem when I first followed a sign to Seminyak which pointed straight on, but then it wasn't shown in the next road sign. What was signposted was a toll road and a bunch of places which were on the other side of Bali so I decided to turn left, and go back on myself a bit hoping to be able to find at least one of the three places I was looking for.
On the map, Kuta, Legion and Seminyak are all in a row, and appear to follow on from one another so they surely couldn't be that hard to find. I eventually made my way to another signpost which showed Seminyak on it again, and turning right I found myself on a main strip of restaurants and bars which I quickly discovered was Kuta.
As I mentioned this is where most people visiting Bali will stay - it immediately looked like a stereotypical built up beach resort, and made me kinda glad that I'm staying at least in what appears to be slightly more of a foreign country. It looked like the bit of Thailand that I have been too, which massively caters for tourists, and was bustling with people, hotels and places to eat and drink.
I followed the main road down, knowing that at least I was now in the right place, and very soon all the signs which said Kuta, turned to Legion, so I figured I was continuing along the right track. Legion followed right on from the previous town, and was also very built up. I always find you can tell you're in a popular tourist resort when they have shop after shop which appears to sell the same things - sunglasses, hats, souvenirs - more sunglasses, more hats and more souvenirs, over and over again until I eventually started seeing things labelled Seminyak.
Now that I was in the right place I was looking for a place to park my bike. The banks of the beach were piled up with taken parking spaces, but eventually I found a space where a few other bikes were parked, and decided to lock mine up there with it hopefully only being a short walk from the beach.
Having seen where the beach was already on my ride through Kuta, I felt like I knew which direction to walk in even though there was nobody ahead of me, and after about ten minutes I eventually found my way to the entrance to Seminyak beach.
Even before stepping on the beach I was offered a pair of sunglasses, some water and a sun lounger - all of which I declined instead intending to head for the water.
I took off my flip flops and started to pad my way across the sand. When I was in Kota Kinabalu, I mentioned that the sand was absolutely boiling and far too hot to stand on, and I suffered the same here, but to a much worse degree. It was actually so bad that I had to sprint (or hot foot) my way to the water to cool the soles of my feet off. It was very welcoming that the water was quite cold although they were still tender as I began to walk to the right, away from Legion and Kuta.
Usually when I'm at the beach I like to find myself a spot and sit down. I've never been a massive swimmer or paddler, and the only parts of my body which end up in the water are my feet and my legs. Without anyone to accompany me on the beach, I decided to walk a fair distance on the beach listening to some music.
As I moved further along there appeared to me some kind of beach front development going on, on the shore, and that part of the sand wasn't too fantastic, but it got to be nice again a bit further up as I sat for a bit and watched a couple of people out attempting to ride the waves on their surf boards. This area of Bali is primarily known as the surfing capital of South-East Asia, and there were quite a lot of people enjoying a gentle Sunday afternoon splashing around in the water.
The waves themselves appeared to be relentlessly lapping the shore. I couldn't tell if the tide was going on or coming out, and there were parts of the beach where the sand just dropped away and it got quite deep almost instantly. I stood in the water for a while before heading back in the opposite direction continuing to walk through the water, and just generally enjoy the sunshine along with the hundreds of other people I was surrounded by.
Once I got past the entrance where I joined the beach it started to get even busier, and I'm guessing this is where Legion began. Even further down I could barely see any beach space, and a ton of umbrellas, so I am guessing that was Kuta.
I decided to stop about where I was and not walk much further. It was about 5pm, and people had started to find themselves a spot on the beach to what sunset, so I thought I would do exactly the same.
Unlike yesterday there weren't too many clouds in the sky so it was
Once the sun had fully set I decided to make the most of the number of restaurants which were around and grab some dinner. I knew that there'd probably be somewhere to eat on my way back to pick up my moped, and no sooner had I thought that, the first place I came across had a reasonably good menu and some decent prices so I decided to eat there.
It was catered towards all tastes; restaurants here like to describe themselves as having an 'International Menu', but I thought I'd go for something local, picking a spicy chicken dish with some rice on the side. It was pretty tasty actually and the surroundings of sitting outside by a swimming pool next to a couple of trees filled with Chinese lanterns made it even more enjoyable - even if I did have a candlelit table for one.
I made use of the restaurants shower facilities to wash all the sand off my feet and legs, and as I was doing so I felt a few spots of water hit me, which I thought were initially from the tap. As I took two steps outside of the restaurant, I realised that it was actually raining again, and I hurried back to my bike, hoping that I could remember where I parked it. It was pretty much the same time as yesterday when the heavens opened, but this time without the thunder and lightning.
It still wasn't very pleasant to have to try to ride my moped through the rain, but after about five minutes it stopped, meaning that I was basically the only person in Legion riding in a poncho - people must have wondered that on earth was going on.
Once again, the sign posts stumped me on the way back as I found myself driving down the main street of Kuta once again, despite following a sign towards the airport.
Remember yesterday when I asked for a few more neon signs....? I think I found them. Kuta was totally lit up now with loud music booming from bars and clubs, every single place on the strip lit up like a Christmas tree, and a seemingly endless choice of places to eat dinner.
There was quite a lot of traffic heading along the main road, and I feel like today that my confidence has definitely increased when it comes to riding the moped. I wouldn't say I have gone full Indonesian, I'm certainly not riding down the wrong side of the road as yet, or zig-zagging through traffic, but I did make a few nifty overtakes of curb-crawling taxis this evening, and also even had to use my horn on a couple of occasions to get slow people to move out of the way.
Eventually I came out next to the airport, it looked familiar having driven out of their in a taxi on Friday night, so from there I knew where I was going. I joined up with the main road through Jimbaran, and before I knew it I was back at my hotel. Seems like it was way quicker to get back than to get there, once I knew where I was going of course.
Today, like yesterday, hasn't been the most productive, but I feel like it has been quite a relaxing one, as riding a moped to the beach and spending four hours there isn't exactly that I would call a strenuous workout.
Bali is the kind of place where I would be happy to come and stay for a little bit longer, but I think in the context of my travels, staying for a trio of days has certainly been long enough to give me a flavour of this island. Of course, not all of Bali is beaches, but it is the major thing that people associate with this part of the country, and I feel like by the time I leave on Tuesday I will have definitely had my fare share of time to experience them.
The Sign
Ace of Base (1993)
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