In Reply to: Is Kuta Really This Bad - Read On posted by octagonmike on Monday, 6. June 2005 at 04:05 Bali Time:
Just as you are being harassed by the mob on the corner opposite Matahari in Kuta Square all asking at once if you want transport or will you come to my shop. Just as you say no to the 20th survey taker or the 10th person trying to ply you with a business card a cheeky voice say's loudly "helicopter, Space Ship" you make eye contact with the laughing eyes that belong to the voice and you both shake with laughter.
Just when the beach sellers have you surrounded and nobody seems to be taking the slightest bit of notice of your protests that you really don't want to buy anything else, Adi one of the lady sellers who you purchased sarongs from days ago softly informs everyone else that "they don't want any more, they bought it all from Monika yesterday because she has three children and no husband". She gives you a big smile as she disperses the crowd and then she whispers softly in your ear, "do you want some more sarongs "I'll give you a good price and you both start laughing.
When you purposely go looking for that watch seller who has been on the beach every day but you didn't feel like bargaining at the time and now he's nowhere in site. The other sellers ask you what you want and you tell them, the mobile phones come out, the call goes out. People motion to you to take a seat on the wall, nobody harasses you they just sit on the wall with you and have a conversation, If you get up they say, "no stay he is coming" sure enough Eddie the watch seller comes running up the beach and soon you and all your helpers are involved in bargaining for what you want, everyone is pleased when the deal is done even if it wasn't their deal.
The pushy lady seller who grabs you by the arm and then gets quite annoyed with you for not buying from her, you tell her in no uncertain terms that she is very rude for grabbing you. The next day she sidles up beside you and apologises for grabbing you then she asks again will you buy her sarong clips, this time she keeps her hands to herself. You buy a few clips that you really don't want, she thanks you and you suddenly realise that all her friends who had heard the conversation the day before are having a good laugh, at you, with you, who cares!!!.
You get lost as we did, not in Kuta but walking the back roads and villages of Ubud. Just as you are thinking that you are going to have to turn around and retrace your steps up all of those hills that you have just traversed, just as you realise that Taxis are non existent out here. And then a very gentle elderly man appears and offers take you through the rice paddies and back to Ubud. The rice paddies look like the gentler alternative to you already aching legs. Then begins the most wonderfull guided untour tour that you have ever done.
You have the rice growing process explained to you as you walk the paddies, you are told ancient stories and you are taken to meet the cows and other rice growing families on your trek, you cross a gorge on a very narrow bamboo bridge. (I am ashamed to say that at the point where we reached the gorge and this gentleman asked my husband to stay back and motioned me out onto the bridge, I had a sudden feeling of panic thinking that we were being seperated for some nasty reason, he simply wanted my husband to be able to take a photo of me on the narrow bridge.) You stumble into Ubud 3 hours later weary but elated at having met a new friend who asked for nothing but wanted to show you everything.
I have learnt not to travel with a handbag, I carry a large deep beachbag with a drawstring top, the long handles will go over my head and shoulder. This serves many purposes, I don't need to be given plastic bags for my purchases and my wallet stays at the bottom of the bag until I need it.
I had my handbag stolen in Las Vegas a few years ago and once on a trip to Disneyland my husband dragged my mother in law and I back from a corner just as a car spun past us with hands reaching out to grab whatever they could. How mant times have we been disgusted at hearing that an elderly lady was bag snatched and sometimes brutally attacked in our own suburban streets.
I did the organised tour thing on my first trip over 20 years ago, I didn't enjoy being taken to places where I felt like I was expected to buy something, so I soon learnt to either drive myself or hire a driver who would take me where I wanted to go, if he suggested I might like to look at a shop or two on the way and I had the time, I learnt to do it without feeling compelled to buy. It's funny but once you feel that you are in control of the situation you often do buy. Some people enjoy organised tours, if you are one of them, do it and just remember that you don't have to buy.
The footpaths, open sewers, hmmmmmmmmmm you should have seen them 20 years ago. The new paths in Kuta are great, just watch out for some of the older looking slabs, it can be like a ride on a roller coaster as they move up and down under your feet. As much as I love to walk the streets of Kuta at least a couple of times each trip I wouldn't want to fall down one of these so we carefully avoid them.
Forums such as this are invaluable, people need not travel with unreal expectations or misplaced fear, it's important that people can tell it as they see it and others can then decide if they think that a place is really the destination for them.
Yes I have sometimes been annoyed at the in your face sellers, the time share people the footpaths that move under my feet and stop me from enjoying the scenery of day to day life in Kuta, the mould on the shower curtain and the guy that seems to be eyeing my bag, but these are not the memories that stay with me when I return home and they are not the memories that keep me going me back to Bali.