In Reply to: Ditto posted by Tina G on Monday, 12. July 2010 at 08:25 Bali Time:
In those days the Indonesian Government would not allow travellers who were not part of a package tour to disembark in Bali. I had to go to the transit lounge in Bali while the Qantas 707 was refueled and later disembark at Halim Airport in Jakarta.
I arrived in Kuta on a 24 hour bus trip from Yogjakarta in December 1975. The bus company only had one set of good bus tyres. When the bus broke down in Surabaya, the tyres and passengers were transferred to another bus. When I stopped for a toilet break near Banyuwangi, the bus took off without me. Some American tourists on the bus forced the bus driver to stop and pick me up.
When I finally stumbled off the bus in Kuta, I was very tired and dirty. I walked down a sandy track to the beach which later became Jl Pantai Kuta. A "lady" stopped me and offered her services. I spurned her and staggered onwards to the beach. Her boyfriend later stopped me and offered his services which I also spurned. The beach had no facilities or hawkers.
A few days later the American tourists went to Poppies Restaurant for New Years Eve. One of the tourists tried to walk back to the Losmen by himself through the laneways. He was bashed over the head with a lump of wood from behind and knocked unconscious. The thieves pulled down his trousers and stole his money belt. He woke up and staggered back to the Losmen. As he did not want to go to a doctor, I went to the Pub and bought a bag of ice for his head.
Next day I hired a motorcycle and went to Padang Bai with one of the American tourists on the back. She and I were the only foreigners there. Naked children swam in the sea. The bike had bald tyres and there was only one petrol station in Bali. In the villages, one had to bargain to buy petrol pumped from a drum and later transferred to a bottle.
That night we went to Mammas, a vegetarian restaurant in Kuta which had no electricity. Choosing food from a smorgasbord in the dark was a challenge.
None of the losmen were airconditioned. All had traditional mandis with squat toilets.