Kuta, Bali

We decided to spend a couple of days in Kuta, Bali as it’s the cheapest.  We picked a hotel which wasn’t the cheapest but reasonably priced, after we had been dropped off by our cab and had to walk from guest house to guest house looking for accommodation.  It seemed a lot of places were full.  The one we ended up staying at, New Arena hotel, was nothing to write home about but it would do.  After eating at the Rainbow Café and being entertained by the waiter with his magic tricks (which he later taught us) we went back to our hotel.  That night we discovered the hotel had bed bugs.  And lots of them.  We had pre-paid for 2 nights so we couldn’t do anything and it was already late and the office was closed so we had to make due.  Thank god we had our silk liners with us to sleep in.  It seemed Andrew’s bed (it was a room with 2 twin beds) attracted most of the bugs so we shared my twin bed that night, after I had sprayed it with mosquito spray hoping to at least keep the bugs away.  I was so grossed out I literally wrapped myself in my sheet like a cocoon.  I could barely breathe.  But I woke up in the morning without any bites.  Although I did dream they were walking all over me.  We asked a couple of people in the hotel if they had bed bugs in their rooms and they were very appalled and said no so we asked to switch rooms.  Maybe it was just our bad luck.  Unfortunately no, this room also had bed bugs.  I think the other people just didn’t even know they had bed bugs.  Andrew woke up with quite a few bites on his arm but he didn’t cocoon himself like I did.  I escaped the wretched hotel without any bites.

It was hard for us to see the appeal in Kuta.  We had been to quite a few places in SE Asia and this was by far the busiest.  I think it’s all the Australian families that go there because it’s close and cheap.  The beach wasn’t even very nice and the water was far from blue.  We didn’t use the beach the whole time we were there and we spent 1 whole day shopping for a new bikini for me.  Since we started travelling we had lost some weight and none of our clothes fit properly anymore (I constantly look like I’m wearing a potato sack) but especially my bathing suits.  I couldn’t go in the water with them for fear they would fall off.  I ended up spending a lot more than I hoped but picked something I was very happy with.  Miraculously Andrew’s patience stayed intact the whole day and he didn’t complain once.  He very patiently provided his opinion on every single piece I tried on.  That night we watched the F1 race at a bar.  The next day we rented a scooter and drove around exploring the southern part of Bali.  We stopped at the resort area, Nusa Dua, and although the beach was much nicer (as were the resorts…I think that’s where all the pre-packaged tourists go) it still wasn’t as nice as I expected.  We then went to the Ulu Watu area to check out a temple and some of the beaches there.  The Padang Padang beach is especially nice, but it was late afternoon by the time we got there so we didn’t get to spend any time there.  Since we weren’t really enjoying Kuta we decided to leave and go to Ubud.  I was looking forward to some peace, quiet and tranquility.