Kuta is an fascinating place. Some people hate it, others love it (I love it!). Bali has three main tourist towns on the southern coast. Nusa Dua isn't really a town but a cul-de-sac of upscale resort hotels. Sanur is the mellow midpriced town and Kuta is the lower budget, slightly honky-tonk but fun community packed with young Australian package tourists, Japanese surfers, and backpackers. Bali has a rule that no building may be taller than a palm tree (the rule has been broken just a few times) and so Kuta is comprised of small streets and alleys (gangs) filled with guesthouses, restautants, shops, bars. I've been to Bali five times and on each visit you could see where Kuta was growing up with a few new bigger hotels and fancier stores, but it always charms me.

There are several "nightclubs" in town but the most popular by far was the Sari Club. It wasn't a traditional nighclub but an large open air bar with dance floors all covered with a thatch roof. It was right down the road from my guesthouse and I was there almost every night I was in town. A place to meet fellow travellers, drink "jungle juice" our of quart sized plastic bottles, dance on the crowded slippery dance floor, avoid the occassional fight, and try to spend as little time as possible in the stinky restroom. It was crazy, it was crowded, it was fun.

Paddy's was a newer club located right across the street. It was called Paddy's Irish Bar, but there absolutely nothing Irish about it. The downstairs bar had a open air seating area in front, a large two sided bar in the middle, and a small dance floor in the back. Upstairs was a large disco that really didn't get going until 1:00AM or so.

Outside the clubs would be crowds of locals offering "Transport" among other things.

Bali was always know as the "safe" place in Indonesia. While there was unrest in many parts of Indonesia, Bali seemed okay.

Kuta is like an big adult themepark and like I imagine it is for many who've visited there it "seems" like the last place in the world for a terrorist attack. It's odd to know that if I had been in Bali at the time I would have probably been at one of the two clubs.

Below are a few photos from my visits there.