I have absolute and irrefutable evidence that Martha Tilaar is submitting information to this forum under false non de plumes promoting her own products. I also believe that she is guilty of bribing many Australians to push her products on this forum. Well at least that is what I told Cath over breakfast when she informed that today she wanted to go into Kuta to check out the Martha Tilaar products. Well it was a beautiful day and given the option of relaxing on the beach (with a Bintang or two) or shopping in Kuta, what would you choose (male only need answer). Needless to say if fell on deaf ears and it was a blue cab to Kuta.
Whilst we are on conspiracies I have a theory that some greater force has turned all the Aussies in Bali into blue taxis. We have been here 3 days and have yet to hear an Aussie accent but there are hundreds of blue taxis driving around tooting their horns, with no passengers.
First stop Supernova but they had very little stock, took a note of their prices and moved on to Discovery and Central. Nice place but not Bali. Apart from the prices we could have been in any shopping centre any where in the world, too clinical for me . Two new beach towels later we moved on to Ramayana and could not even find the Martha Tilaar counter. Well what ever dirty tricks Martha is pulling it seems to be having a tremendous impact on her sales. We did actually go back to Supernova on the way home and buy a couple of samples for Cath to try. (just two, watch this space she's not that easilly put off, this is now a quest). Had a wander around Kuta and had lunch. Walked through the market on the left just up from Central 'beam me up Scottie'. It was hot and humid, claustrophobic and as we were the only potential customers, were assailed by the shop owners. It was awful and not to be repeated.
The street vendors also seemed to be much more aggressive. 'Manicure' 'No thank you' attempt to stop you 'why' and so it went on.
I am sure Kuta is a wonderful place for many people, but each to their own, and we just did not like it at all. Too big, too busy (and it was relatively quiet), too many aggressive street hawkers. We likened it a bit to Patong in Phuket (without the obvious sleaze) and we did not like it their either. But we did hear some Aussie accents - not many though. Nice lunch with a few Bintangs of course.
Back to the Putu and a walk down to the beach. The nearest beach by the temple was a big disappointment. Dirty, full of litter and old smelly seaweed. We walk down the beach until we get to the Ku De Ta and find some beach beds/brollies on a lovely area of clean beach. Obviously maintained by the restaurant. Few beach vendors but not aggressive, polite no and they move on. Stay there to watch the wonderful sun set and surprised by the number of people (locals and tourists) who suddenly appear around sunset and the Ku De Ta is jam packed.
Get changed and into a cab to Ketut's the fixed price shop recommended in Garlic Lane. I hate to say this as I know from the forum how popular this shop is, but we were very disappointed. Maybe she had had a bad day or because it was late in the day. No offer of ice cold water as evidenced by other reports (we could have done with it as we had made the mistake of walking from the Hard Rock). No offers to show us anything, really disappointing. Please do not be put off trying it if you have not been already, everybody has a bad day.
Fantastic ricetaffel at the Bali Sati. A little bit more expensive than other Indo restaurants but they do not pad it out with cheapies like Nasi Goring. Exceptional quality from a very good chef and great service. It must have looked good because a Japanese couple came over to have a look at the offerings and asked what we had ordered.
Just a quick word hear about the blue cabs. Yes they are cheap and I know they are doing it hard, but I always gave what I thought was a reasonable tip (if it was 7000 I would give 10000) but with only a couple of exceptions it never seemed to be appreciated, more expected. Just one real exception, the cab back from Ketut's the driver was telling us that it was only his second fare since he started at 3pm. I believed him because I was asking all the questions him and his family. But he was very upbeat and said it did not matter, because even if he did not make any money he still had his lovely baby daughter to go home to. The fare was about 13000 from memory and I gave him 25000 he shouted to stop us to tell me I had given him too much. His smile and gratitude was well worth 70p.
The strange sounding bird is still haunting us when we are sat on the patio, but it welcomes us back every night.
Hey aren't the Balinese people just so wonderful.