Kuta, Bali

Kuta is probably the most popular tourist area in Bali. I was in Kuta 12 years ago and I could barely recognise it during my family’s recent trip. Throngs of shops and eateries now line the tiny roads making the place very crowded and the traffic congested all the time.

Kuta Beach

The famous Kuta beach was crowded with people. When we were there, the waves were so strong that red flags were displayed advising people not to swim. Getting splashes was the most we could do.

I got a bit worried when the water started coming further inland to supposedly “dry” areas. Look at the bundle of souvenirs surrounded by water.

Hard Rock Hotel Sand-bottom Pool

Since swimming at the beach was out, we swam at the sand-bottom pool at the Hard Rock Hotel. It was like swimming at the beach without the waves. It was the first for all of us. Another first was listening to music underwater! Cool stuff!

The Hard Rock Hotel swimming pool is available to non-guests at a fee.

Shopping and Eating

One thing Kuta is not short of are shops and eateries. However, quantity of shops doesn’t equate to variety of products. We found an area with over 50 small shops side-by-side selling literally the same stuff! i.e. the same Bali t-shirts, the same beach sarongs and kids wear.

The Discovery Shopping Mall was the biggest mall we found, but most of the stuff were souvenirs for tourists.

The only reason I would visit the Discovery Shopping Mall again is to drink the A&W root beer float in a chilled glass mug, something I cannot find in Singapore anymore.

We bought most of our souvenirs from the Matahari Mall near our hotel.

Something my kids and I loved was the hot fudge brownie at Hard Rock Cafe. The warm brownie was neither too dry nor too soft. It had just the perfect firmness. After savouring the last bit of our rich chocolatey dessert, we washed it down with refreshing non-alcoholic fruity cocktails.

A pleasant surprise

A pleasant surprise awaited us when we got back to our hotel room. I bought soft toys for my two girls at the Bali Safari the day before. They left it on the bed in the morning. When we returned, the housekeeping staff created an animal out of a towel and put it in between the girls’ soft toys. My girls were delighted with the towel creation. Kudos to the housekeeping staff at Hard Rock Hotel.

Sunset at Kuta Beach

At around 5pm, Kuta Beach got even more crowded. Traffic was equally bad with tourists from other parts of the island coming to Kuta Beach. Luckily our hotel was right in front of Kuta Beach. We joined hundreds of other tourists to witness one of the famous attraction in Bali – sunset at Kuta Beach. Despite the clouds and the crowd, the sunset overlooking the Indian Ocean was still quite a sight to see. We watched the sun set while fresh and cool breeze blew on our faces. It was a nice ending to our trip to Bali.