Kuta is gross

Bali is almost certainly the most visited location for Australians outside of Australia due to its cheap prices and close proximity to Australia.  As a result, it also has a reputation in Australia that swings wildly between positive and extremely negative.  Bali has become famous for tropical beauty, cheap prices, partying and easy access to a foreign culture.  Depending on the perspective, this could all be for good or bad.  To add to this confusion, the sheer number of Australians in Bali creates another point of enormous divergence as some love the ability to holiday overseas in more familiar surroundings, whereas other people see this as a scourge on this poor island.

For me, the trip to Bali had been extremely positive.  I had gone in with a bit of trepidation, worried about the rumours of what Bali was and what too many Australian tourists had done to the place.  I had heard stories about the terrible behaviour, the mistreatment of locals, the cultural insensitivity and the general destruction of what was once a pristine landscape.  Living in Australia, stories about disastrous trips to Bali involving injury, arrest or illness seemed to be a regular staple of the news.  All of this fear had been muted a bit since I had moved to Hong Kong though.  In Hong Kong, the attitude towards Bali is a bit different, as Bali is one of the premium flight destinations, whereas for Australians it is still very much a discount airline destination.

Thankfully, my trip had been nothing but positive.  The forests of Ubud were relaxing and made me feel embraced by nature.  The coastline out to the east of the island were untouched.  Jimbaran had offered us all one of the most beautiful sunset dinners I've ever had.  The cliffs in Ungasan were truly spectacular.  Renee and I had been lucky.

We were approaching the end of our trip and Renee wanted to do some shopping.  We asked the concierge at our hotel about where the best locations for some markets.  She considered and then suggested that we go into Kuta as there were some larger markets there.

Kuta has a very interesting reputation for Australians.  It was probably the "first" place in Bali that was discovered by Australians and the entire of Bali's tourism structure probably grew from the locals servicing the needs of those early surfers on Kuta beach.  These days, Kuta is known for being the centre of "bogan" Australia and is meant to concentrate the worst of all tourism that arrives in Bali.  Renee and I got a cab and headed off towards Kuta which is only slightly north of where we were staying in Jimbaran.  From the moment we stepped out of the cab, I knew we had entered into somewhere uniquely disturbing.  I could hear the sound of AC/DC blaring, but I was confused because the sound was moving.  It was "approaching" us.  I couldn't work out what was happening until I saw a strange flatbed truck drive past.  It was a portable bar that had a large group of what I'm assuming were Australian tourists drinking, screaming and punching the air, all the while the AC/DC screamed out into the surroundings.  I later read that this used to be a "cycling" bar where the bar would only move if everyone pedalled ... but since no one was capable of pedalling, they shifted it onto the truck.  No one around us seemed to flinch or respond at all, so I assumed that this awful sight was a regular attraction in the area.

We kept walking through different parts of Kuta.  We found the large markets as promised, and they were filled with all the usual trash and nicknacks you would expect at these types of tourist market.  I looked at all the Bintang beer singlets and wondered who would actually pay money for these.  I suddenly had a wave of images in my brain of all the times back in Australia that I had seen people wearing the singlets and realised.... oh, that's who buys these.  We walked past a few people who were desperately haggling over what would have been less than $1 back in Australia.  I'm in two minds these days about this sort of bargaining and haggling.  On the one hand, there's always the principle of ensuring you get a fair deal, but then there's also a point at which it seems to be verging on some sort of a game, where the need to "win" the bargaining duel is necessary for a story to be told back home.  For the price of a story, the poor local is deprived of much needed money that would go to supporting their family.  I've now generally settled on the idea that bargaining should still always be conducted for the principle, but that there is still a limit on how far to go.  Thankfully, there were places with some nice dresses and handbags that Renee was looking for, so it wasn't a total waste.

We walked closer to the beach and all along the water.  Under the shade of the trees, there were thousands of tourists.  They were all seated on various types of plastic chairs and being brought countless beers and drinks in buckets and tubs.  Children were running around screaming and there was rubbish everywhere.  This was it.  This was the centre of the rumours and stories I had heard about Bali.  It's been a while since I have been truly shocked, but this did it for me.  I found the combination of the loud music and intense drinking on this otherwise beautiful beach to be a strange sight.  Were it not for all of these tourists and the binge drinking, this really would be an incredible beach.  I looked up and down the beach and even now, I could see the beauty and the consistent sets of waves.  The surfers who discovered this place must have truly thought they had discovered a paradise.

Most of that paradise now seemed to be gone.

As we walked further back and away from the beach, there were dirty shops and streets.  Fast food franchises and bars dominated the area.  To me, the whole area was an example of the worst parts of cheap Western tourism.  It may have brought more money into the region, but the cost seemed to have been the loss of the positive things which brought the first tourists to begin with.