September 11, 2006
To Kuta Beach: Getting ourselves back together
the adventure begins
After 4 hours sleep, we wake up at 0630. We first have breakfast of toast and thick Bali coffee, then set off exploring; the adventure begins. We have brought $250 USD in Rupiah that we exchanged with a Boise travel agent. We've figured out the exchange rate: 9000Rp = $1 USD, 45000Rp = $5. A coke cost 4000Rp. Again, falling back on our African experience using Coke as baseline for the cost of other items. That was one item locals paid the same as a foreigner.
We walk to the beach and see a hundred school children walking along picking up trash with giant wooden tongs. They are on "orientation"; Bali is very clean, the locals splash water down the sidewalk in front of their businesses. As we walk the streets, we spot KFC, MacDonalds, Pizza Hut, A&W, and even a Starbucks. The Kuta Region of South Bali looks like "surf city" with surf shops everywhere and even the motorcycles have special racks on the side to carry surf boards. The streets are narrow, and we need to remember to walk on the left side. There are Restaurants and Bars, and plenty of souvenir stalls. These narrow streets and alleys are called "gangs". We orient ourselves and find the most famous, Poppies Gang I and II.
Rachel is looking for a sarong, so now the bargaining begins. A painful process she is not so good at doing, she sees the goods as cheap to begin with so why haggle further. Patrick on the other hand is very good at bargaining and says local people won't respect you unless you do. So, when the original price of the sarong is 50,000Rp, the offer is 30,000Rp and the settled price is 40,000Rp or $4.10 (10,000Rp = $1.10). This is cheap by American prices.
Bali has suffered with the 2002 bombings on Kuta's Legian Street, scaring away tourists. As we walk down Legian Street, we come upon "ground zero" and there is a beautiful monument listing all the names of the 300 people lost that day. Today is 9/11 and we are reminded of our own terrorist attack.
In the evening, we walk back to the "The Dutch Inn" that we spotted earlier. As Rachel took Patrick's picture, the owner came out and gave him a flyer...croquettes were on the menu!! On Friday night in Boise before leaving, we had gone with friends to Bar Grenika for croquettes. The restaurant was out of them, and here our first night in Bali, we have croquettes.
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