Travel Talk

Killing Time in Kuta, Bali

surf shops on bali kuta beach

Greetings ladies and gentlemen of the internet,

I sit here totally uninspired because I’m in a coffee shop, even drinking coffee so I can get some free wifi. Coffee is everywhere and the level of addiction, ridiculous. This is good for coffee investors. One reason I dislike drinking caffeine is it increases the activity of beta wave lengths. Beta state of mind is good for doing menial tasks of a boring and repetitive nature, lousy for original observations and other brilliant insights.

I digress.

Living here is really easy and it has everything any internet nomad would ever want. A plethora of food selections at absurdly low prices, cheap hotels of all styles and price ranges. To be honest, my current room which is one of the cheapest places here is nicer then another I looked at which was asking 3x the price. The place is two floors and picturesque, covered in vines with a massive tree in a courtyard with rooms all around it. The internet connections here are very quick, easy to access and incredibly cheap. There is always something going on and many things to occupy your time.

my cheap hotel in bali

Lately, if I’m not surfing or relaxing at my place with some new friends, I’m just hanging out in the shade near the surf shops on the beach. People are playing chess and just enjoying their lives. The majority of the people here are Hindu and they have a really interesting and positive outlook on life.

I am at a bit of a cross roads though. I’m in Indonesia and it is beautiful. Do I just spend the month relaxing in Kuta with the odd day trip elsewhere or do I visit the Gili islands, Lombok and maybe Java, Sumatra and a trip over to Borneo? Oh the decisions. Then again, who is to say I can’t leave the country and come back another time?

I’ve spoken to a few other travelers and they can’t believe I’ve only gone to the places I have in ~3 months. I spend about 1-2 weeks in most places I find. My question is, if you have no time line, what’s the rush? Do you need to go everywhere so you can impress some snob you wonder why you’re talking to at some party in the future? At the end of the day the only opinion that really matters for anything is your own.

kuta square, bali indonesia

If you just want to get passport stamps you could travel around the world in a week or so just stopping at each airport for a brief moment before going on. Better yet, I’m sure you could order them from somewhere on the internet.

At any rate, it is now approaching 4PM local time, I have avoided the heat in this air conditioned coffee shop and spent the last 3 hours online for a $2 coffee. If I don’t leave soon I’ll miss the “prime time” for the afternoon session which is from ~4:30-6:30 or so. Tomorrow I am going to try and be at the beach for 7am, recently the best waves have been early morning.

A year ago, if someone told me you could have this lifestyle for this cheap I wouldn’t of believed them, but believe you me. It’s totally possible and I’m ~sure there are many other places similar to this that I’m looking forward to discovering, one day.

poppies lane, bali indonesia

On a final note of cheap vacations. I’ve been gone now for 3 months and had periods where I spent like a drunken sailor fresh from sea at the local port and periods where I’ve spent very little. Truth be told, it is not the amount of money that you spend that matters, it’s how you spend your day that counts. I just happen to be in a place right now where I can spend very little to pass my day in a most enjoyable way. As a result, that is the major reason why I want to stay.

Good day,

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