Tag Archives: surf

Kuta, Legian, Seminyak: The vibrating soul of Bali

Yesterday we decided to have the breakfast served early so to be ready to leave around 9am and visit the island.

Breakfast came at 7:45. Not wanting to make the same mistake of the day before we tried to order less stuff, but still it was massive!

American breakfast for Antonio

Asian mix for Sara

Everything was delicious. And we were done before 8:30. But something happened…

Something unexpected…

The bed reclaimed Sara’s body!

The sleeping beauty

She fell asleep right after breakfast and slept well over 10:30, basically fucking up all the plans for the morning 😂

Luckily for us, a friend of Antonio who lives in Bali, invited us to visit him.

Dario, who has a YouTube channel I suggest you to watch and follow, moved in Bali in April living in Ubud. Just one week ago he moved in Canggu, quite close to Denpasar.

We decided to meet in Seminyak in the afternoon. Only two ways to get there: call a taxi or rent a scooter, as no bus goes around in the Denpasar area.
Furthermore there are two big “No”: taking a taxi to pass through Denpasar is a very bad idea as traffic is something crazy here in Bali, while renting a scooter equals to a suicide mission for the same reason as before.

11km in 1hour

After debating for a while we (Antonio) decided to rent a scooter. It may sound crazy but it took more than 30 minutes to find a retailer who had a scooter available.

Once taken the scooter, the first step was to top up the tank as it was obviously empty. Close to the renting place there was a small unnamed shop with a… I don’t even know how to call it! Let just say it was a gas pump.

Balinese Gas Pump

For a little less than 3 euros I got a full tank of gas. Marvellous!

Balinese traffic is something I’ve never seen anywhere. Basically you are like a paper boat in a river. You can just go with the flow.

And so we went, passing cars both on the left and right, driving on the opposite lane for some hundred meters, avoiding the long line of vehicles stuck in traffic passing on the side walk and sometimes passing slow scooters on the same sidewalk…

Complete chaos.

And I liked it 😂

In 25-30 minutes we were in Legian. We only risked our life a couple of hundred thousand time. Nothing to worry about…

Then everything was quiet…

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The neighborhood was completely different from Jimbaran. Dozens of shops selling goods for tourists took the place of the drab local ones, while the roads were packed with Western people.

Waiting for Dario, we decided to have a look at the beach, which was also different from what we had seen before. Clubs close to the beach rented beach chairs and umbrellas while serving drinks and cocktails. On the beach was also possible to rent surf boards.

And there were probably hundreds of these clubs for all the length of the beach

High waves and surfers trying to not fall from their boards were visible everywhere along the seashore.

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After a short walk we stopped on a kiosk to enjoy a couple of pressed fruit juices and wait for Dario.

As he arrived he took us on a coffee shop in Seminyak called “Monsieur Spoon Petitenguet”. Here we ordered coffees, croissants and fruit salad.

Super Dario!

The best thing about this place was the back door having a view on a rice field. Sara went out to take some pictures.

Fruit Salad for Sara

Rice fields next to the city

We spent some times there talking before moving to another place to have dinner.

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With the scooters in few minutes we reached the Nook, a restaurant in Seminyak area that sits on the corner of a rice field and offers a very relaxing ambient.

The view from Nook entrance

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We ordered something to eat while discussing of interesting topic regarding life, the universe, “artefigense intificial” (you can ask Dario about this).

Gado-gado: Tempeh, tofu & peanut butter sauce

Once again the food was amazing.

Satisfied and full we followed Dario to our last stop, the 707, a beach club literally on the beach close to Canggu, where we enjoyed a beer, Antonio, and a juice, Sara, while listening to music e talking about the past, present and future.

After an hour, tired for the day, we said goodbye, promising to meet again in Ubud, and left.

On the way back we enjoyed a taste of Balinese traffic by night, almost worst than the daily one if possible.

As we got home we jumped into our pool to remove the thick layer of smog on our skin, and had a hot shower before going to sleep.