Monthly Archives: May 2014

Day 190

If we thought that Ubud was crowded, then we were little prepared for Kuta. The little 2 lane country road soon became a 4 lane highway when we got close to Kuta. But in some ways it was better. The highway is divided so there is less chance of cars and motorbikes swerving head on into traffic and for much of the road there is a shoulder. For the first time we were seeing fast food restaurants, big grocery stores, and shopping centers advertising name brand surf ware. Many of the streets are lines with bars, massage parlors and restaurants catering to westerners. Just like that, 30kms away, we were in a different world.

Searching for a hotel near the hospital where we would get chest x-ray for Australia visa and the immigration office for our Indonesia visa extension, we stopped at a couple of places that also catered to western surfing clientel and found that they were overpriced fan rooms. Wandering a bit farther into a maze of streets off the main drag, we wandered into a hotel called Zuk, with mainly local guests. Since we were staying for 4 days, we got a room with air-conditioning, hot-water, very good wi-fi and buffet breakfast for 250,000 IDR (about 21 USD). We also have a little pool. Some healthy competition really drives the price down.

Star fruit tree

One of the difficult things about cycle touring in a vacation spot is that most things you would love to have become too expensive for the tight budget. Burgers, beers, and drinks are only a couple dollars each and people are wolfing them down. They are on vacation, throwing caution to wind, worrying about their diets and wallets another day. It’s a lot of temptation. We broke down and splurged on some pizza today, 2 USD for a 30 cm pie. We got two pizzas, plus 2 sodas for 60,000 IDR, 3 times as much as our regular meal from local warung. After all, we can’t watch Game of Thrones where grizzly men wolfing down legs of lamb with mugs of ale and flagons of wine, while we eat fried noodles and sip hot green tea.

Ready for GoT

Day 189

At our friend Topi’s advice, we decided to move into an extremely cheap hostel 10km away. In a shared bedroom with 10 bunk beds, a bed only costs 50,000 IDR. Two of us could share a bed since the bed is big enough. It’s even cheaper if you stay long term.

This place is perfect if you are a young traveler in your early twenties or younger. The location is great. It’s off the beaten path, with easy access to cheap local food and groceries. On either side of the building is a local village and behind it is just jungle. Inside the building there is a communal kitchen and several spaces dedicated to making art. They do offer programs and work with the local children making chocolate or crafts, so there are many positives.

However, it’s not exactly filthy but it’s not really clean by any standard. I’m not exactly a clean freak, and just 2 years ago I used a “communal towel” – a random towel that some one left in a mountain hut in France. But there are places where I have to draw the line. Our sheets were clean, but our comforter smelled like sweaty clothes left in a locker, and the same with my pillow and mattress. It was bad enough that we decided to skip the comforter even the night was cold. Although we really couldn’t complain when they only charge 50,000 IDR per bed.

Cher is generally not keen on hippies. A sign in the common room next to a bottle of antibacterial shampoo and body wash reads, “who is using this shit! It not only kills bad bacteria but good bacteria too. It is forbidden in this house!” This sign coming from someone that smokes cigarettes, drinks beers, and not really cares about logic. The last straw for her was a slogan painted in the shared bedroom which reads “Imagination is better than knowledge.” It annoys me too.

The owners are extremely gentle people. We met the 9-year old son of the owner, and I said that his uniform for school looked comfy, not realizing it was his gym uniform. He casually informed me that he had to wear it because his regular uniform was still in the laundry pile, and that sometimes he had to takes “holidays” from school because he didn’t have a clean uniform. It reminds me of a quote from The Dot and the Line. The dot falls out of love with the squiggle, “And suddenly she realized that what she thought was freedom and joy was nothing but anarchy and sloth.” We may be too much line and not enough squiggle.

Cher and I discussed the great potential that place has. They have a lot of nice space and the house is very well built. With very little money they could hire a local cleaning crew, or offer residents a discounted rate in exchange for cleaning duty. That’s all they would need. Then again that might be too capitalistic and not jibe with the communal free spirit. We decided to leave it for the free spirited twenty somethings and moved on.