Day 10 – Bali
Last full day in Bali. Time to do some minor stuff.
My plans for the day were:
- Souvenirs – of course, but just minor stuff like trinkets, keychains, magnets, foods, office desk stuff
- Walk the Kuta Beach coastline – no desire to go for a dip in the beach (for reasons), this one I planned for 3pm
Very minor stuff. I didn’t plan to deviate from the original “just chill” plans, so I pegged only two things.
So first thing: morning buffet breakfast. This time, I am pigging out again with the knowledge I will be burning off some of these calories by walking around. Like the day before, I woke up early, trooped down to the restaurant, ate well. Three platefuls again plus dessert and coffee. I went for the food I haven’t tried yet, and they were very nice.
I spent the morning playing games and finally finishing off Trials of Mana before lunchtime. Well, it was a classic RPG story. Decent, but definitely reflective of its era. Was glad I finally completed it. But when I say “completed”, I held off playing the after-credits extended game. No appetite to go for it. Well, for my Switch, it’ll be the final game I complete there – I bought my Switch 2, it’ll be mine the next day. I plan to keep my Switch for simple games like Fitness Boxing and Ring Fit, but otherwise all my games will move over to the new console.
By lunchtime, I went again to the same foodcourt in Beachwalk, and ate another dish. This time, I went for one that I had in the Indonesian restaurant in Orchard but I wanted to try the actual one in its home country. I’m talking about beef bakso. Meatball soup. I went for the big portion, along with a side plate of fried stuff and sauce with it. And wouldn’t you know it, that tasted much more better than the one I had in Singapore. Damn that was good. But I had a hankering for an extra snack as I had time to kill until 3pm, so I again ordered food from another stall, and this time it was the classic gado-gado. It was great, but my stomach signaled me to make it the last dish for a while. Time to walk it off.
Before I left the mall, I spied on a unique store near the food court – Cosmonauts Spacewear – and I liked a Pikachu t-shirt of theirs. It was sufficiently loose, the wordings and artwork style were very attractive, it’s an official TPC-partnered product, and it’s in black. I bought it right away. It was slightly on the expensive end, but as far as best Bali souvenir for me, that t-shirt wins.
I went back to my hotel to re-prep. From my research, Bali isn’t exactly what you can call “safe”. The operating phrase that many travel bloggers use for Bali was “always be mindful of your belongings”. So for re-prepping, I made a critical decision – I left my passport in my hotel. I felt I couldn’t risk losing my passport in Bali, and I felt no one is going to check me anyway – I looked sufficiently like a local. I didn’t even dare bring my wallet nor any of my debit cards or my Singapore ID. I used my small crossbody bag, and put in all my on-hand cash for Bali souvenir money, my Philippine multipurpose ID, and my hotel room card. Those I felt I can afford to lose somewhat. I also brought a small tote bag in case I get carried away with buying shit.
At 3pm, I went for a walk at the Kuta Beach coastline, starting directly in front of Beachwalk. Very fortunate that the weather was agreeable – slightly cloudy to shield the worst of the sun, but light enough that it was still sufficienly sunny and nice. Slightly windy too – which was also welcome. The plan I had was to walk south towards the Baruna Statue (“Patung Dewa Baruna“) and see the Adat Segara Pura Desa temple, then head to the Warung Kuta Art Market area to see what I could buy, then walk back later to the hotel using the roadside pathway across from the beach. Chill and straightforward.
One thing you’d notice coming from Beachwalk to the beach gates was that there were lots of parked motorbikes. I guess this was the socially-designated place for the casual beachgoer with a motorbike. Most were Hondas and Kawasakis, some were mopeds, and a very few were Vespas. Well, with some Grab delivery bikes mixed in. I do like that the beach had concrete and brick gates – with some admittedly worn-out but tastefully designed styles.
I deliberately walked at a leisurely pace at the beach trail just to see what’s on offer. The sun wasn’t too hot, so no point in buying any of the lounge chairs. I noticed that most of the open beach lounge chairs were each managed by different stall owners. And many of those stall owners were of the beverage/refreshment hawker types – both of the bottled/canned drinks and fancy fresh coconut drinks. Probably the main business plan was to sell those seats by sunset to tourists, then bombard them with slightly upticked drinks. But at least there was seat variety – some were bog standard wooden beach chairs, some were questionable bean bags, some were of metal beach chairs, some were fancy padded types (looked like beds to be honest), some were just simple beach chairs but with their own table – probably for the drinkers. But a few of them had dilapidated and/or worn-out beach parasols – the thin and standard variety. Admittedly, some offer the fancy parasols – some with hanging white tassels, some were clearly from Decathlon’s. Also, some of them were of the massage service variety. Nah. If I really wanted a beach massage, I’d go to Phuket.
The beach sands were fine. But thruthfully, Sydney’s Manly Beach sands were much better. Kuta Beach had rougher, browner, less cleaner sands, while Manly’s were whiter and more smoother. But the only thing Kuta Beach had over Manly’s is that Kuta has way more spectacular horizon views. I saw many tourists like me snap pictures of the beach horizon, because truthfully it looked picturesque. Like one huge line of water far beyond. Many vendors also sold rentals for surfboards, paddleboards and floaties. Looking beyond, I saw some people going for the meager afternoon waves. Well, it’s at least of the safe height for tourists.
The beach walkways… well, you only get two. One is the standard higher-ground paved walkway, lined up with hawkers, vendors and trees. More people as a result. The other is the beach lip where the dry sand meets the wet sand. Lots of people walk there, being mindful of where the dry area is as sometimes the waves reclaim some of the dry area. More peaceful and picturesque walk, but just be very, very mindful. The paved beach walkway also is home to a lot of permanent structures – many of them bars, eateries and restaurants overlooking the beach. Some benches with tables are also there, and some use it to play board games like checkers and chess. A few stalls sold small trinkets – some porcelain, some wood, and some of them were of elephants, Buddha figures, fridge magnets (they just superglued a magnet on a flat side), Balinese dancing figures, volcanoes (well, one erupted recently), beer bottles… well, lots more. And also, there may be lots of vendors and a lot of shops, but any bad smell was not present. None reached my nose. I guess it was the ocean breeze that disperses any bad odors, but it was a pleasant outcome. I just smelled the ocean breeze.
Another thing of curiosity is why are there bow-and-arrow vendors here. Like, what the hell are these for. Second, why is there a skateboard park near the beach walkway? I get it’s a cool concept, but the location left a lot to be desired.
Some other random shots:
Once I got out of the Legian beach gate, and got to the art market area, I leisurely walked around the place to see what cheap things I could buy – and yes, I went inside the Warung Kuta, Kuta Art Market and Kuta Flea Market shops but the better tourist-friendly shops were across the street from it. There was lots, I just had to narrow it down to a place I can buy many of the things I want without parceling out from one place to another. I did not have the same patience my mother has when she store-hops in Binondo and Divisoria, I just want one place and peace out. And I didn’t want to get “choice paralysis” – sometimes fewer options are beneficial.
I settled for a place called “Daun The Gift Shop” and one nondescript gift shop two blocks away from it, and both had many of the things I like. Keychains, wooden stuff, handicrafts, coasters, decor boxes, magnets. And judging from the amount of tourists I saw in them, good choices. I bought several from both shops, mostly keychains and magnets. I did buy one simple bamboo woven box from the cheaper nondescript gift shop, which I felt would look good on my office table back in Singapore.
After that, I started to walk back to my hotel. Along the way, I stopped by a nice Starbucks (the one near Hotel Mercure) to see what kind of souvenir wares they have there in Kuta. Not much, it was their standard merch ware and maybe some generic mugs with Indonesian stuff festooned on it. I didn’t buy a souvenir there but as the sun was still up, I bought a venti frappucino and spent some time inside to chill.
By the time I got back, I felt I need more heft for personal souvenirs, so I went in Beachwalk. I bought two-t-shirts in Uniqlo, and then I went to the Coco Gourmet supermarket to buy some more for myself – I ended up buying coffee, some noodles, plus one more magnet. For some reason, I found the best looking Bali-themed fridge magnets in there, and I settled for the one I felt looked regal on the fridge we had in the Philippines. I also bought aromatherapy oil roll-ons, a tote bag, and two small containers of Gatsby hair balm cream. That last one was a godsend, as my previous Gatsby and Bench pomades was nice but their initial stickiness was getting irritating, it was also icky to clean off, and I had found no acceptable non-gel alternatives, until I found it in Bali. Cream form, that sufficiently helps my hair retain shine and form, and it washes off so much faster in the shower.
All after that, it was near 6pm. I figured I could get another quick meal at the foodcourt and call it a day afterwards, so that was what I did. I had nasi ayam and an avocado milkshake. Oh yeah, forgot to mention something about this particular Pasarame foodcourt. When you order food and/or drinks at any of their food stalls, you will get a slip with a QR code. Their cashier system is centralized – there was only one cashier area, the stalls had no cashbox nor a payment system. The sole cashier area handles all the stalls’ payments, so all you have to do is present the QR code/s you have on slips, pay the amount (cash or card is OK), get the receipt, and then go back to the stalls to fetch your food.
I got back to the hotel by 7pm, and spent my time watching TV until I got very sleepy, and I just slept very well.
Briathrail // Albert 2MNG 
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