Kuta And Gili Air
Kuta:
The City that never sleeps. The City of chaos and parties and all the fake Nike goods one could possibly want. A half an hour drive by motorcycle through winding streets and traffic, thankfully bikes are able to essentially have free rain of the road (and sidewalk). Visiting only by sheer curiosity of the place we headed down on a sweltering hot day, learning that if you really want to sun tan (burn) just wear shorts and a tank top on pavement in Bali. You'll get nice and brown real fast.
In contrast to Canggu, Kuta is a chaotic mix of traffic and people. The feeling is different than that of the quieter surf community of hip cafes and trendy shops alongside locals and foreigners commuting not to the stores and hotels but to the beach to catch the consistent waves. Here its people shouting prices of fake Gucci bags and offering you a taxi as you park your own scooter. Its overwhelming in the most interesting way. You get a look into the different sort of life, scrambling to buy and sell in the shopping centre for most people in Bali.
Gili Air
Its six am, the rain pours down outside the small covering I'm standing under as I wait for my shuttle to the east side of the island. It feels a little odd leaving Bali, not for long, just long enough. The last week has been; On a small scale, Dismal. The rain has become more consistent, and the waves have gone. I wish I knew where they went, I would be there, but to the extend of my knowledge and study they have disappeared. The ocean became a lake, to everyone's surprise. Each morning we would eagerly take our scooters down to the beach as we did every other day this past month, but this week there where no waves waiting for us. Even the locals where surprised, having talked to a few and they said that this hasn't happened in ten years that the ocean is this flat. Go figure, myself and a couple other friends from the Hostel having our last week on Bali and there aren't any waves to surf.
Call it murphies law, bad luck, a sign, or coincidence, I figured I may as well go explore other spots while there isn't surfing happening. So this is why I'm up at six am taking a shuttle to the east side of Bali, eventually ending up on Gili Air. This tiny little island off the coast of Lombok is small enough for me to walk across in about fifteen to twenty minutes. There are no cars, transportation is by bicycle or horse drawn cart and when its night time it is peacefully quiet. The most ideal place to escape the pace of Bali for a couple of days and detox the body.
The bus ride was long, going from traffic jams and small streets through Seminyak and Denpasar to winding highway along the coast I at least managed to sleep most of the way. Only being woken up the odd time the roof dripped cold water on to my shoulder, Im assuming it was the leaky air conditioner. In contrast the boat ride was a beautiful sunny cruise of giant green mountains, small rocky islands and robins egg blue waters along Lombok, teeming with small fish.
