Indonesia: A disappointing experience in Kuta, Bali

Remember when we said it takes time to move around in Indonesia? 

We were leaving Ubud to go to Kuta beach for a few days and we decided to take the local bus, the Trans Metro Dewata.

We noticed a red and black bus going through Ubud, completely empty. While checking the itinerary, we saw they were going to Terminal Ubung and, from there, a second bus would take us to Kuta (it would take 2.5h though).

So we decided to try to find the tickets to get on the bus (4.4k IDR/pax). There was not a lot of information online except that some tickets could be bought at the supermarket. So, we asked the local supermarkets (Alfamart and Indomaret), the locals themselves and even the family of our Homestay...nobody knew where to buy them.

The day of, we tried to buy a ticket on the bus with cash but the bus driver requested a card, no cash.

We went to multiple supermarkets around the bus stop but no one knew what we were talking about. Finally, a very kind lady told us that we could go to a specific bank and get one there. That's when we realized that, in fact, we didn't need a specific ticket, we just had to buy an Indonesian prepaid payment card that costs 25K IDR and top it up. 

Thank you to this website that helped us to finally understand what we were looking for:

https://bali-backpacker.com/trans-metro-dewata-bus-stop-halte-shelter/#bus-fee

As no Indomaret in the area had the prepaid card (I suspect there's a lobby by the taxi drivers that want to limit the competition), we lost 2 hours trying to get one of the cards at a BCA bank. This was ridiculous!

After that, we needed to get on the bus. After waiting for 20 mins, the first two bus drivers told us their card readers were broken. 🤦‍♂️ The locals use an app to pay that we don't have access to unless you change the PlayStore location (which is something you can only do once a year, so that didn't work for us). The locals on the bus offered to pay for us but the driver refused to let us in and insisted we get off the bus. So we had to wait yet again, because, according to the driver, the next bus had a working card reader. 

We finally got in and also paid the fare of a fellow tourist that was in a similar situation, except in her case, the card she had only worked on specific buses (like buses 1 through 10 but not 10 through 14). They really do not make it easy! There are so many unwritten rules that you end up discovering them through trial and error. 

The ride on this completely empty, air conditioned bus was quite interesting, as we could see the less touristy parts of Ubud. The driver insisted on stopping at every single stop and opening the doors, even though there was not a single person around. 

We said you needed time to move around in Indonesia…and we meant it!

See below the interdictions on the bus. The last one is quite intriguing 🤔

So if you have time to lose, you can try the bus, otherwise get a taxi (it will cost you 20 times more but it's still less than 30 euros, depending on where you are going).

After our long trip from Ubud, we finally arrived in Legian, the town next to Kuta with access to Kuta Beach, supposedly one of the most famous beaches there.

Imagine streets full of small trinkets shops, massage parlors, money exchange places, tattoo shops and restaurants near the beach with people harassing you every 5 meters.

It's like any place in South East Asia close to the beach, usually overcrowded with tourists. But there and at that time (beginning of December), there weren't a lot of tourists, which amplifies the harassment and potential scams.

We had the bad luck to fall for one of those scams and experience the tricks of a swindler. We saw very interesting rates to change money in a little bit of a shady place.

As we had already changed money in a similar place, we thought we did not have to worry as we would be very careful - we are always careful about the count and verify each movement of bills (you need a lot of bills in Indonesia as the highest bill is 100k IDR= $USD 6.5). But after recounting immediately once we arrived at the hotel, we noticed some bills were missing, which had to be the swindler, even though we did not have any way to confirm.

Because this shady place did not deliver any documents and that we could not prove anything, we decided to dismiss the event but keeping the experience in mind that a few bucks is not worth the risk of falling for a scam. 

After such an eventful day, we wanted to relax by Kuta beach, but we were once again disappointed, as we discovered the most filthy beach we had ever seen. A beach with thin black sand that must have been wonderful, especially at sunset, was filled with trash, namely plastic. Children were playing in the water with plastic bags around, and tourists were sleeping on beds surrounded by plastic cups. Of course, the vendors on the beach were there to try to sell you one of the beds, or a coconut. Even one of the ladies that was collecting the trash offered a massage. 

The following day, we decided to walk around Kuta.

We went to visit the Bali Bombing Memorial Ground Zero, that pays tribute to the 202 people killed and 209 people injured during a terror attack on October 12th, 2002. It was really moving to read the names of the people from all over the world (Australian, Canadian, French, Portuguese, among others) who died there for no good reason.

We continued south and visited an old Chinese Buddhist Temple called Vihara Dharmayana. This peaceful place of worship is really well decorated with typical figures of Buddhism, and we really recommend visiting it.

Then to escape the heat, we decided to go to the Beachwalk shopping mall. It really contrasts with the local street level shops as the shopping mall is a well decorated and artsy open air mall with a lot of water structures (ponds with koi fish), gardens and of course international stores and restaurants. It was a nice and refreshing moment to wander around in the shade without being harassed by vendors. The only annoying thing is that the security guard at the entrance asked us to buy a mask at the information kiosk (which we did not do), which was unnecessary as half of the people there did not wear one. But we did not appreciate the request coming from a security guard.

We spent the next 2 days just resting and walking around town and on the beach. But the town definitely did not appeal to us.

We saw some efforts to clean up part of the beach but it was still filthy. We went to bathe in the ocean and you could feel the pieces of plastic floating by your legs. Could it be because the beach receives the trash that was dumped in the ocean from somewhere else? Could it be that the locals and tourists are not taking care of the place? 

It was painful to see such a beautiful place wasted and it reminded us again of the impact we all have because of our habits.

As travelers, we are bound to create plastic pollution to avoid the risk of getting sick (for example, we cannot drink tap water or even brush our teeth with it). There are solutions like pills to sanitize water and use your own cutlery but we still have a lot to do to reduce our impacts while enjoying those beautiful places. Governments also need to enforce sustainability rules on waste management, the use of plastic and, above all, educate the public on the immediate and long-term consequences.

We wanted to finish the post with some positive points. On this Saturday afternoon, Double Six beach (continuation of Kuta and Legian Beach) was the center of an event gathering locals and tourists. The beach was also full of people just enjoying the cooler late afternoon air, the last rays of sunshine and the music.

I also was able to take some nice pictures of the beach and avoiding the trash.

That is our last post in Bali as we left the following day for Java island. Thank you again for following us on our adventures and misadventures! You can also follow us on instagram to see more photos @wheretogonextbyinp