Paranoid Millionaires Walking The Streets At Night
Cairns (Australia) -> Kuta (Bali), 27th February 2002
 Our
last day in Oz passed pretty quickly, we sorted out our last minute
things and re-packed our bags to optimise space (no wasted gaps in
the bottom corners thank you!). About an hour before we were to
leave for the airport, I bought a load of US $ cash & travellers
cheques, which are essential in Asia. The strong US$ is very useful
in Asia, especially compared with the wildly fluctuating local
currencies.
For about a week, Stinge & I had also been trying to get hold of
some Indonesian Rupiah (the money used in Bali) but no one had any.
All of the Thomas Cook Bureau de Changes had run out, so had the
banks, and one Am Ex office didn't even deal in Rupiah. Nat & Em had
been able to get about 1 million Rupiah before they'd left (not as
much as it sounds, there's roughly 14000 Rupiah to the pound, so 2
mil is only about 130 pounds). But that was the last in Cairns.
Luckily, on the day we left, one of the banks had just got in 2
million Rupiah, so Stinge and I ran in and got some.
Bear that in mind if you're going to Bali, their currency, the
Rupiah, is often difficult to get hold of. Leave plenty of time to
get it! As a last resort, the airport may have some, but probably at
a worse exchange rate.
We then grabbed a cab to the airport, checked in with no problems,
and got on the plane. Our first flight was an internal one to
Darwin. We got there at about 6pm local time, then we had a 5 hour
wait for our flight to Denpasar, Bali. And everything was closed up.
How fun.
The time passed slowly but eventually, we were allowed up to the
International Lounge. By the time we got there, I was starving, so I
was forced to pay the extortionate amounts for airport food.
The flight passed quite quickly. Stinge was really tired and didn't
feel too good, so he quickly fell asleep. I wanted to be fully "with
it" when we got to Bali, so I stayed awake and read. If I tried to
sleep for the 2 hour flight, I'd feel really dozy when we had to get
off.
After a delicious meal and some free alcohol (which the loud
Liverpudlian lady next to me drank loads of) we had to fill in the
standard immigration & customs forms. Soon after we'd finished
filling in the forms, the announcement was made to prepare for
landing. Less than 10 minutes later, we were all scrambling for our
hand luggage and filing off the plane.
Tired, but ready for anything, we stepped off the plane into
Denpasar airport. The airport was pretty much your average airport.
It had it's own little personalisations, such as Balinese style
carvings & decor. Plus, for the first time on our travels, the signs
had a language other than English on them. Luckily, all of the signs
also had English translations underneath, so finding immigrations
and the baggage claim was easy.
When we stepped out into the baggage claim area, I expected to be
faced with dozens of touts and porters trying to grab and carry our
bags for a large tips. However, the area was very quiet with only a
few porters who were pre-occupied with the rich tourists with lots
of bags.
Stinge and I grabbed our rucksacks and took them out of their
protective, flight bags. Without any hassle we headed out of the
main doors.
Again, from all the reports I've heard, I expected to be confronted
with countless street vendors, shouting at us to buy their goods,
and a row of honking taxis, all signalling for us to jump into their
cab. But no. It was eerily calm and quiet. We stepped out onto the
forecourt and there was only a quiet hustle and bustle of the people
from our flight trying to find a lift to their hotel. It might have
been because it was 1am, but for now, there was no hassling. Little
were we to know that we'd get plenty of that later...
The taxi system is really well organised at the airport. As soon as
you step out of the airport doors, turn left, then a few metres
along, on your right, is a small booth where you pre-pay for your
taxi. This is great because it means you can't get ripped off when
you're still a confused newbie to Bali. We'd picked a hotel out of
the Rough Guide which was in the middle of Kuta, so the taxi cost
20,000Rp (about 1 pound 50). We paid at the booth, then followed the
taxi driver to the taxis and climbed into his cab.
He asked which hotel we were staying at, I told him it was called
'Jus Edith', however, he didn't know where it was. Luckily, I had a
map of Kuta in the Rough Guide, so I pointed to it on the map and he
soon worked out where it was. On our way there, he asked where we
were from. When I told him we were from England, he said he knew a
hotel where lots of English people stay. Yeah right, I'd already
read about some taxi drivers in Asia who will do anything they can
to get you to go to a hotel where they'll get commission. They'll do
everything from just recommending it, to telling you that your hotel
has burnt down/closed down/is full, or a million other excuses. But
this guy's attempt was a bit half-hearted because as soon as I
countered by saying we were meeting friends, he didn't try anymore.
Although the airport is called 'Denpasar Airport; it's actually
basically in Kuta, not Denpasar. Denpasar is the capital of Bali,
but its actually quite a quiet, non-touristy town. Kuta, on the
other hand, is the main, bustling tourist part of Bali. One of the
first things we noticed when flying in, was the lack of man-made
lights and sky-scrapers. Unlike other cities, when you fly into Bali
at night, you aren't hit by a sea of twinkling lights rising high up
into the sky.
Driving around the streets of Kuta at night was an experience. Our
first view of a really foreign place. We drove down the road from
the airport, taking care to avoid a vendor pulling his large cart
along the road. The taxicab then started speeding around some really
narrow roads. The streets looked like dodgy back alleys, but we
later found out that there were fairly standard Kuta roads. Even at
this time of night, the roads were packed with dozens of roaring
mopeds and motorcycles.
Most of the buildings were quiet and unlit, with the few exceptions
of a couple of convenience stores and a McDonalds. Driving around
the winding, one-way streets of Kuta, Stinge and I had no idea where
we were. The alley like nature of some of the roads, with grey
concrete walls completely blocking one side, made the place seem
like a maze.
After a few more minutes of careful driving, occasionally stopping
to let some mopeds by, and occasionally slowing to negotiate the
crumbling road, we stopped next to a long thin side road. The driver
pointed down the road: "Hotel down there, road for motorbikes only,
cars not fit." We thanked the driver, unloaded our bags and stood on
the side of the road as he drove off.
As the taxi disappeared off into the darkness, we looked around to
try and get our bearings. Luckily there was enough light from the
dim street lights to see quite well. We had worked out that we were
standing on the road called 'Poppies 2'. We looked down the road the
taxi driver said our hotel was down, but we weren't too sure if he
was right. I tried to use the map to work out where we were, but to
no avail.
We decided to walk down the more major of the minor roads, Poppies
2, for now. We were a bit concerned about waking down what looked
like a back alley at 1am while carrying our backpacks & looking a
bit vulnerable. So we tried our best to look confident and as though
we knew where we were going. Only to limited success though, we
ended up walking up & down the same street countless times trying to
locate a street that our hotel could be in.
The streets were very quiet, the most common sign of life were the
stray, mangy dogs roaming the street, searching for scraps. We
haven't had rabies injections so we were glad that they more
interested in sniffing the streets than biting our legs.
The silence was punctuated with the odd group of tourists walking by
and the regular passing of a taxi with the driver hanging out,
shouting, "You want taxi?". "No thanks" or "Tidak Mau" would turn
out to be the most common thing we'd say in Kuta.
Eventually we gave up on finding Jus Edith and tried some of the
many hotels on Poppies 2. The first one we tried was US$26 each,
much more than we wanted to pay in Bali! We tried another one that
was 250,000Rp (about US$25) per room, still too much. We tried
haggling, but this was a fixed tariff. However, they did have a
budget branch, 150,000Rp (US$15) for a room (i.e. US$7.50 each).
That sounded much better, but when he phoned them, they had no
vacancies.
We continued walking along the dingy street, when a Balinese guy on
a moped stopped and asked "You want room? You look for hotel?" By
then we were very tired and still concerned about walking around the
dark streets. We decided we might as well have a look, so we asked
him the price, he said 150,000Rp (US$15) for a room. I said "We'll
have a look then we'll decide." He nodded & agreed then indicated
that I should get on the back of the moped, we'd drive there, then
he'd come back to get Stinge. Yeah right! I've heard about the bad
driving & high number of accidents they have in Asia. Also, I wasn't
putting myself completely at his mercy on the back of his bike. Plus
I wasn't going to be split up from Stinge on our first night in a
foreign country. So, we told him we'd follow him on foot.
He eventually agreed and off we went. We followed carefully, a bit
behind. I had images of him leading us into some gang ambush where
we'd be beaten up & have our stuff stolen. So when he turned down a
dark side alley, I held back really cautiously, just in case.
Luckily the hotel was right on the corner so we didn't have to walk
far down it.
I had a look at the room while Stinge watched the bags. He said
there had been strong rain storms over the past few days so the
grounds were a bit flooded. So we took a round-about route to avoid
the puddles. The room was quite large, air-conditioned and en-suite.
Well, it had what could pass as a bathroom, it was pretty dank & not
too nice. However, the room was pretty clean & acceptable, so I
agreed to take it.
The beds weren't made & the floor wasn't swept, so he said he'd do
it now while we waited downstairs. However, 5 minutes later, he came
back down and said we could have a different room until tomorrow (he
obviously couldn't be bothered to sort it now). So we checked out
the other room, and it was fine.
We dumped out stuff on the beds and I locked the door. The place was
very quiet with not much sign of life. We weren't sure how safe the
place was, so just in case, I tried to fit my portable door lock,
but it wouldn't fit on the door! great! In the end, I just tied the
curtain cord to the door handle, so no one could get in easily.
Of course, because I'd forgotten to check the toilet, it turned out
it was broken and wouldn't flush. And the bathroom door was broken
so it wouldn't slide closed. Luckily for the time that we were
there, no one needed a `number 2' or a shower.
We checked the windows were locked, then we crawled into our
sleeping bad liners, stuffing our wallets & money belts into our
liners, just to be safe.
We soon hit the sack, by about 3am, totally tired. Also, just in
case, I slept with my mozzie head net on. I've read about
cockroaches & spiders climbing into peoples ears or noses while
they're sleep. That's not happening to me if I can help it!
Call it a bit of a paranoid day and night, but it's best to be safe
rather than sorry, especially on your first night in a completely
foreign country. Night night! Hope nothing bites!
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