Bungalows, Beaches, & Bintang

Rachel Newton
Feb 20, 2014
2 min read

After Taiwan, where we had a free place to stay and food to eat, Bali has marked the start of our real travel adventure–aka hostel life, the Bintang beer diet, crappy internet, and no clean clothes…ever.

Yet, somehow we’ve managed!

Bali was an amazing whirlwind of glorious sunshine (with the occasional monsoon), tropical forests, hot beaches, endless beer, great partying, and wonderful new friendships.

This small Indonesian island is basically a surfer’s paradise and an extremely popular tourist destination for Australians, New Zealanders, and Europeans.

Such tourists can be found everywhere in Bali, but are concentrated primarily in Kuta.

If you’re a tourist looking to party, Kuta is the place for you. The bars are crowded every night with drunk foreigners from all over the world and can be great for meeting other travelers (although you may not remember them the next morning).

However, the beach is awful–very dirty and teeming with locals trying to sell to tourists. Molly and I were hassled immediately to buy bracelets, beach towells, massages, surf lessons, etc. “No thank you” doesn’t work…they’ll usually stick around for at least 5 minutes trying to convince you before they grumpily leave.

And it doesn’t stop with the beach. We were harrassed by locals almost everytime we left our hostel. I also never took my camera for fear of it getting stolen (hence the lack of photos).

That being said, we had some great times in Kuta.

Warung Coco is an inexpensive, nice hostel with private rooms and a pool.

The bungalows weren't bad either.

Hindu offerings are set out several times a day everywhere in Bali–outside houses, businesses, etc.

After Kuta, we stayed at a mixed-dorm hostel in Sanur called Big Pineapple. Here, we connected with some awesome travelers and spent our days lounging on the beach.

After a day of surfing and sunbathing, the whole hostel heads to the local reggae bar…

…where they make magic mushroom concoctions.

Hey, they’re legal here!

Our next stop was Uluwatu–south of Kuta and absolutely beautiful!

Padang Padang Beach

Monkey Temple!

View from the Monkey Temple

Though quieter than Kuta, Uluwatu can have some wild nights at the local beach clubs. Our favorite was Single Fin Bar.

Renting a scooter is also popular, convenient, and cheap.

After spending two weeks on the mainland, we decided to check out Nusa Lembongan, a nearby island.

Our dear friend from Big Pineapple, Andy, was kind enough to act as our tour guide around this beautiful island.

In food news:

I must admit, our food exploration in Bali was not impressive due to our budget and tendency to succumb to cheeseburger cravings (western food is everywhere).

And yes, Bintang often counted as a meal.