Kuta

Beautiful Kuta Beach
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Depart Kuching at 07:05 with a diarrhetic condition having developed the night before. My first travel with Air Asia and the cabin seats of the aircraft are not as vexing as other travelers repeatedly claimed them to be.

Arrive Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) on time at 08:20. There is a long queue at the Bali check-in counter. Half an hour passed before it's my turn to check in.

There is an air of caution along the beachfront as security checks are carried out at hotel guardhouses on all incoming vehicles.

A Starbucks outlet in Kuta
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Depart KLIA at 11:02. Try to sleep off stomach upset during the flight while other passengers are having their paid meals and snacks.

Two-and-a-half hours later the aircraft hovers above a vast body of clear blue water minutes before making contact with the runway of Ngurah Rai International Airport, at 01:43. My stomach feels better at this time. First indication of the island emerges as a beautiful water-spouting courtyard comes into view on one side of the hallway leading to the custom checkpoint. Then a crisp-sounding Balinese music gradually comes within earshot not minutes later. The music is made by two men in traditional dress sitting with their legs crisscrossed on the floor are skillfully hitting two small mallets at their xylophone-like instruments.

A Hindu shrine for good luck outside a shop in Kuta
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Immigration check isn't as complicated as described in some traveling guides probably because entry from Malaysia doesn't require either a pre-depearture visa or a Visa on Arrival (VoA), the acquisition of which could prolong the process (at least half of the travelers are bottlenecked at the adjacent currency exchange and VoA counters before they can proceed to checkpoint). I am charged a flat fee of Rp45,000 for taxi at the ticket counter outside the arrive hall.

On the map it looks as if the distance between Ngurah Rai and Kuta is long due to my failure to read the scale reference. It only takes 15 minutes or less to get from airport to Harris Resort Kuta, where I will stay for 1 night. My taxi driver keeps emphasizing that Harris Resort is not within immediate access to the shopping and dining spots in Kuta, which I would find out later to be untrue. He also tells me that booking of hotels is unnecessary this time of the year and I could easily get a hotel at half the price of what I'm paying at Harris (USD65/night); information that could have been more credible if I won't have found out about his inaccurate assessment of Harris' strategic location.

A street in Kuta, Bali
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It's 02:50 by the time I check into my room at Harris. I chose this hotel over another option similarly priced (also in Kuta) because it looked better from the photo comparison on respective hotel websites prior to departure. But there is a slight letdown upon arrival. For a relatively new hotel (established not two years ago) I find the establishment to have a slightly run-down look to it, taking into account its retro theme. I settle my late lunch by munching the snacks I bring along in my room.

An ivy-faced building in Kuta
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Take a two-hour walk around Kuta at 04:00 before Mei Fong arrives in Bali later this evening. A stretch of Kuta Beach lies right across the one-way street of Jalan (Raya) Pantai Kuta outside Harris. Being a tourist town the streets of Kuta is populated with more tourists, mostly Caucasians, than locals. There is an air of caution along the beachfront as security checks are carried out at hotel guardhouses on all incoming vehicles. Crossing the L-junction corner of Jalan (Raya) Pantai Kuta and Jalan Pantai Kuta, I gain access to and a better view of a densely occupied Kuta Beach. After a couple of snapshots I turn around and enter the equally busy Jalan Pantai Kuta, upon which I find that most shops are really just a few minutes' walk away from Harris, confirming that my taxi driver has been wrong.

Entrance to a Hindu temple in Kuta
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One immediate observation of the streets is the Hindu shrines and floral offerings to the spirits contained in leaf vessels outside of shops by the pedestrian walk. Most shops in this vicinity are specialty shops of branded goods, mostly apparels. Further away from the beach branded shops are replaced by those selling local handicrafts and wooden carvings. On occasion I discover shops with identical signs selling the same range of goods within a block of one another. An indication of competitiveness. There are at least 2 Starbucks outlets in downtown Kuta. The Hard Rock Caf (officially "Hard Rock Hotel & Caf") here is the only Hard Rock Caf outlet in Bali. There is also McDonald's, KFC and A&W nearby for those who prefer to dine with universal familiarity offered by fastfood brands.

Stone-carved towers of a Hindu temple in Kuta
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Return to my room at 06:00 to rest my feet. Mei Fong calls at 07:00 from the lobby after I get out from the showers. We meet for dinner and go shopping after that. Got some souvenirs before returning to Harris.

On our way back we stop at a tour agency booth to inquire on day tour information for the next morning to Besakih, known as the "Mother Temple of Bali", on the slope of volcanic Mount Agung, northeast of Kuta. The tour costs Rp200,000/person, which includes entrance fee to Pura Besakih (trans: Besakih Temple) with a local guide and a stop-by tour to Tampak Siring, a sacred spring around which the temple of Pura Tirta Empul is built.