Back to Bali and Kuta Beach – Stephen's Travels

After 1 week in Gili Trawangan, we boarded a boat back to Bali and took a minivan shuttle to Kuta Beach.

Some people absolutely hate Kuta and don’t believe it represents anything about Bali. They argue it is way too tourist driven with too many people trying to sell you everything imaginable. We like it and aren’t too bothered by the constant hawking. A simple ‘no thanks’ will end most sales pitches and Kuta has a very nice beach with plenty of shopping, eating and drinking very close by.

So why does the beach look so dead? It’s almost May and the Indonesian sun is very strong with temperatures hovering near 100 Fahrenheit (38 Celsius). This keeps most tourists off the beach but for us Floridians it was just fine.

Turtle Nest on Kuta Beach, Bali, Indonesia — This is a protected turtle nesting area

Shannon rented a surf board and rode some waves

Just like in Ubud, for under $30 per night we stayed in an amazing hotel, called Ida Hotel. A gorgeous pool area, huge breakfast buffet, our own cabin and a 5 minute walk to Kuta beach made this place a great find. High season is November through February in SE Asia as it gets quite hot during the summer. I think this contributed to the hotel being so inexpensive.

When the heat eases up a little and the sun starts to set, the beach gets a lot more crowded.

Here I am grabbing some Rupiah (Indonesian currency) to buy some beers

Everyone hangs out on the sand, surfs or swims as the sun sets.

Stephen Swimming on Kuta Beach, Bali, Indonesia — That’s me cooling off with a swim

After eating Indonesian market food all week in Gili T, we gorged on some traditional American food – Wendy’s fast food.

Wendy's in Bali, Indonesia — You can see the Channon or offering on the counter to the right of the Wendy’s Logo

We ate our food and had some Bintang beers to watch the sunset until some rain chased everyone off.

Just like a couple weeks before, I signed up to do some diving on the north side of Bali. This time I got a lot closer (100 feet depth) to the Tulamben wreck, which was sunk during World War II.

Tulamben Dive Site on Bali, Indonesia — This is the diving staging area – the Tulamben is a shore dive so you gear up here and wade into the water from the shore

Tulamben Wreck on Bali, Indonesia — You can see some of the ship which has been coated with coral and marine growth

Some of the other divers were very inexperienced and I got a good laugh at this group all holding hands while their instructor adjusted their air buoyancy.

Here’s some more pics of marine life

My dive instructor took a snap of me as well.

There was also nudibranchs, the so-called colorful sea slugs