According to some sources the number of Australian tourists visiting Bali has doubled in the last few months. From my perspective that is entirely accurate, with many bars and restaurants packed in the Kuta / Seminyak area. Last night Blue Ocean restaurant was fully booked and Trattoria on Jl. Oberoi was similarly packed. Great to see business bouncing back.
Today on Kuta tourists enjoyed perfect conditions, with sunny skies without too much wind and some swell to keep the Kuta Cowboys happy. Checking out the Kuta nightlife / music scene with my Australian friend Richard recently, I am able to report that Bounty Ship is still the place to find heaps of party animals from the land Downunder. Here in Bali some of the Kuta nightspots set up little stage and dance podiums for the punters to climb up on. Quite funny to see some of the antics that some people will do on stage, together with some of the worst dancing we had ever seen.
Bounty has multiple areas, featuring dance music and live music at various times. The Apache Reggae bar was a tad slow the other night, the band grinding their way through Bob Marley’s Legend album (heard that one enough for this lifetime I think).
One bright spot on the Kuta nightlife scene is the Espresso Bar on Jl. Legian. Some inspired local muso’s stand right there next to the street and play rock & roll tunes. Totally different vibe when you put people around live music than dance music and I hope the Espresso stays around for a long time.
The Kuta night scene in places like Paddy’s and Bounty often features jugs of jungle juice a sweet alcoholic mixture that is totally bad for your liver and designed to get you sloshed. They’ll also do 2 for 1 beers at certain times, which takes the sting out of the bar prices. Always a good idea to have change on you when partying as some of the fancier nightspots have a bar culture whereby the bartender walks off with your large bill and doesn’t return. This can be frustrating and is definitely a tactic that gets used in more than one establishment.
One nightspot that never seems to get a mention in the local nightlife rag, but does look as if it could be lively is the Nagasari on Jl. Bakung Sari, just off of Kuta Square. The place is all set up like a modern nightclub and the staff have told me its gets busy with Japanese and Australians later in the night.
A friend was reminiscing about how the Bali party scene has changed over the last several years. He is a long term expat and reckons things really changed around 1999/2000. Before then the expat scene was much smaller and tighter. People had house parties where you could show up meet cool people and enjoy some food and drinks. The whole expat scene is way more spread now with groups of people not even aware of other groups / things going on. One of my friends who has been coming here for 20 years had never heard of the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival. Some of the private parties going on these days charge a cover, with drink price list inside! People actually are making money off of a party. You always hear about such and such nightclub having party, but they’re not doing anything different than they ever do.
In the Seminyak night scene Obsesion seems to have carved out a place for itself. Situated on the same side of Jl. Dhyana Pura as Santa Fe, the cozy looking place offers music 7 nights a weeks, including local world music band Saharaja. Just up the street Bahiana (the orange colored place) stirs up the night scene with its Latin rhythms and drink specials. Plenty of eye-candy on show there for people who want a fun time. To fully enjoy the Bali nightlife scene to the full, one must pace oneself. Staying awake and sober long enough to see the place come to life means you can’t just go for sunset drinks and keep going. Having nap and eating a late dinner aren’t a bad idea. Watching a movie at home of playing a quiet game of pool at one of the quality places such as Buddha’s Belly on the Sunset Rd, then hitting the clubs around midnight will keep you on course for a good time. For a relaxing street side drink in Seminyak stop by Galaxy and enjoy the company of owner Jeff from Melbourne as well as the sexy dancers on Tues & Thurs 11.30pm.
