Kuta, Bali
Kuta is certainly well past its hay day. All that is left is lifeless clubs, aggressive locals trying to sell you anything they can and huge hotel complexes. Each trying to squeeze the last drops of money out of the tourism well that has long since dried up. It was depressing, although there were a couple of redeeming features. More on that later.
To give an example of what I mean by the tourism well being all dried up our hostel, TZ party hostel, was pretty nice. It was huge, with two pools and it probably could have housed 300 plus people. But it was dead, maybe 20 max staying there when we went. Not much of a party!
The deserted feel was not just present in our hostel but extended throughout most of the strip, with large clubs having no more than a couple of people drinking in them. My favourite was a large reggae bar. It had a live band playing mainly Bob Marley classics to just me and Kathy for over an hour. They even took requests.
The only other place of note for nightlife was Sky Garden, a maze of different rooms pumping tunes right next to our hostel. It was fairly pricey though including an entrance fee. And on top of that we didn’t stay long due to being a little too smashed. Apparently, the time to come to Sky Garden is between 5–9pm, you pay 100000rp, around 6 pounds, this gets you unlimited drink and food until 9. We had planned to do this the following day but instead, we decided to check out early and head to Ubud.
Redeeming Feature 1: Legian 27
Legian 27 is a cafe situated right on the main strip that I would recommend to anyone unfortunate enough to be staying in Kuta. We came for breakfast two days in a row. It was cheap with a decent menu from smoothie bowls to decent veggie and meat full English breakfasts. I spent an hour here writing my first Tune Catcher blog while Kathy got her nails done.
Redeeming Feature 2: Shopping
Kuta has a surprisingly decent array of little shops, you just have to look past the myriad of market stalls trying selling the same array of tat to anyone who will listen. I found the best clothes shops tended to be indoors, selling Bali or Indonesian branded clothes. Not the shops selling Aussie brands, these are just overpriced. There was also a modern western style mall.
I bought a Bali Exotic shirt and some white t-shirt with a sunset on it. Although I promptly spilt coffee on the t-shirt and its still stained today. Both tops were less than a tenner. Since I only brought 3 tops with me these resupplied my wardrobe nicely.
Redeeming Feature 3: Kuta Beach
Although most of Kuta has been ruined by tourism, the beach still remains enjoyable. With its white sand, rolling waves and even a couple of authentic Indonesian warungs (restaurants). I’m sure the beach was one of the main attractions to the original tourists of Kuta. Back in its day, Kuta must have been quite a place to visit. It’s a little sad to see it so run down.
You can also view pretty decent sunsets from the beach, where beach vendors set up comfy beanbags and sell ice cold beer at reasonable prices. It’s a shame the rest of Kuta hasn’t been able to keep this laid-back approach, but I don’t think you can blame the locals for trying to capitalise on the tourism gold mine.
If you are ever on Kuta beach I recommend visiting Ajeg Warung, a little shack on the beach that serves up delightful local food at local prices.
To summarise Kuta is a place that I would recommend completely missing from your tips itinerary if you are ever visiting Bali. However, if you do decide to check it out there are a couple of places worth checking out. I would suggest staying closer to Seminyak as opposed to directly next to the central strip like us.
Next stop Ubud, a hippy hangout in the mountains.
If you haven’t already, you can read my first post about Canggu here.
P.S. Don’t try to be a cheap skate and drink the Bali Hai beer, its grim.
