Day Thirteen - Uluwatu, Dodgy CDs, Kuta

  • Uluwatu Temple » Click to zoom ->

    Uluwatu Temple

  • Sunset at Uluwatu » Click to zoom ->

    Sunset at Uluwatu

  • Tanah Lot at sunset » Click to zoom ->

    Tanah Lot at sunset

  • Sunset at Uluwatu » Click to zoom ->

    Sunset at Uluwatu

Our last full day in Bali. Bar going to Uluwatu Temple for the sunset, we decide to spend the day in the sun and do our last bit of shopping in the Galleria.

Something that amazed me last time here was the near ridiculous proliferation of bootleg Playstation games, Hollywood films on VCD that haven't even reached British cinemas yet, and CD-ROM. These aren't restricted to solely dodgy 'car-boot sale' dealers of some market stall, but instead even reputable, large department stores have stacks of them. There's no pretence that the software is legitimate at all a and a lot of it is compilation CDs containing loads of different software on one disc. I pick up a couple of discs. One contains the latest versions of all of the Adobe suite of software: Photoshop, Go-Live, Illustrator and others and costs a whopping four pounds. Whilst not wishing to advocate piracy, it's somewhat bizarre buying hooky software from a legit shop and having a receipt for it. How much at fault am I? In fact, in Bali I don't think it's actually possible to buy licensed software at all. Let's be honest, no Balinese is going to fork out £3,500 for the Macromedia suite when you can get it for relatively bugger all.

After extensive shopping and goody buying, we have go straight to Uluwatu after dropping off our purchases at the hotel. Although only 11 km away, the drive still takes a good half hour as we travel towards the south-west tip of the island. Once we leave the Nusa Dua area, I'm amazed at how much of a difference the environment takes on. Rather than be surrounded by the usual tropical greenery, fields here are much more barren and lifeless. At a guess I'd say this is due to the relative lack of rain here compared to the rest of the island. It's always sunny here, yet when you go inland, the climate rapidly changes and is a lot cloudier. Twenty five years go, long before the proliferation of the luxury five star hotels, Nusa Dua was one of the poorest areas by far. And it's now easy to see why this is. I now understand why around the hotel complex there are sprinklers on constantly keeping the fauna alive. In fact here, this whole are feels less like Bali and more like the Med.

Not so Uluwatu temple though. We're here as it's going to be our last proper sunset in Bali, and let's witness it from somewhere special. Last time we went to Tanah Lot, further north and out of southern peninsula. Tanah Lot temple has one of the finest views around, a large temple complex built on to a high rock at the end of the beach, standing majestic against the battering waves and enclosing cliffs. The only real problem with Tanah Lot is that it's a complete tourist trap with everyone and their chums coming for sunset, with a dozen or so purpose build sunset bars set to the left ensuring sales of a good few Bintangs for those wanting a good view. Uluwatu is thankfully far less crowded and not especially commercial. Admittedly the temple itself is far less impressive than Tanah Lot, this being a rather anonymous, bland looking monument (by Bali standards) set upon the cliff. It is, however, well worth the effort, as the setting makes for a superbly relaxing sunset.

What makes it all the more lovely however, are all the numerous monkeys that roam freely around here and are no nowhere as intimidating as those at Sangeh. These are much more inquisitive and thoughtful, even though I'm still not about to put my camera down unattended.

Back at the hotel, we quickly change and go to Kuta to eat. While wandering around aimlessly in search of a good restaurant, we stumble upon Poppies, down a side street and decide to go there. In fact the restaurant, like the Ketupat, has a lovely setting and whilst initially we are disappointed by the quality of the service, the food is excellent and we would definitely recommend it. It was also bloody cheap, coming in at £11. When last in Kuta, Lisa noticed a trendy looking bar way up the main Legian Road we wanted to check out called Neros. After spending a while locating it again, we find it to be an outstandingly stylish bar and restaurant with extremely friendly staff. If this was in Soho it would be raved about and be ridiculously overpriced and overcrowded. Instead, perhaps it's a little too ahead of its time here, and it's far from busy. A real shame, though I'm not sure how old it is. So we enjoy our drinks while amusing ourselves by watching the Koi Carp swim slowly around the carved waterways on the floor and resisting the urge to flick my fag ash into them.

Arriving back at the hotel for a final cocktail in the Jungle Bar, we head to bed with packing to look forward to in the morning.