23rd – 25th March
2015
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Blue Lagoon Bay |
Arriving
in the harbour town of Padang Bai in the South-West of Bali I can totally
understand why very few tourists stay a night or two. A first glance the place
has the serenity of Dover ferry terminal. Although not nearly as busy as Dover
the town is dull, run down and full of fly tipped litter. But just as where
Dover has its famous white cliffs and castle, Padang Bai also has a few
surprises up its sleeves if you’re willing to look beyond its scruffy exterior.
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I really hate Mondays |
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Monster mosquito |
It
turns out Padang Bai can offer a great pit stop for budget backpackers, especially
during the low season. Many of the guesthouses have many vacant rooms and offer
great discounts. Jono and I stayed in the catchy named “Pondok Wista Tirta Yoga
Inn” just by the bus car park and market and paid 80,000 IRP a night (£4) for a
twin room with fan, en-suite bathroom, breakfast and Wi-Fi. Many of the restaurants offer considerably
cheaper prices than the islands more popular tourist destinations and the
town’s long standing heritage as a fishing port means that most of the places
offer fantastic evening seafood BBQ’s. As the day comes to a close the best
bars can be found on the market square operating from small shack lettings,
pumping out mostly reggae although they are open to personal track selections
on quiet nights (which is most nights). Nothing better than listening to
Genesis, Bowie and Thin Lizzy whilst savouring a rewarding Bintang at the end
of a challenging day of doing nothing.
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slightly obscured view of Padang Bai |
As I mentioned earlier Padang Bai has a couple of places to waste the
hours away in the form of two sheltered bays called “Blue Lagoon” and “White
Sand Beach”. Blue Lagoon is located 1.5km south of Padang Bai close to the
expensive hotel resort bearing the same name. The beach is quite small but
there are small shack cafés with sun loungers if you’re willing to pay to use
them. Taking a swim can be a little risky as the waves are quite large and the
resulting undercurrent has the tendency to rip your legs away. White Sand Beach
of course features a small white sand beach and like blue lagoon has a few
family run eateries operating on the shore front. Located 2km north of the town
I would say this is the more secluded of the two as it’s too far away for most
of the resort hotel hippos to bother walking the short distance to. Both coves
offer nice surroundings away from the urban mess of the town although you do
have to put up with the annoying sarong sellers who will continue to harass you
even when they can clearly see you’re sitting on an almost identical product I
purchased in Cambodia.
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White sand beach |
For most tourist Padang Bai is the gateway to the popular Gili islands
and their close neighbour Lombok. Many people purchase ferry tickets in
Denpassar, Kuta beach or Ubud as part of an all in one package deal but I see
that as a real schoolboy error. Firstly as with any package the company or
hotel you purchase the ticket from will inevitably take a commission meaning
you have been ripped off before leaving town. Secondly because they know you
have never been to Padang Bai and have no interest in checking out the normal
ferry prices most of the touts will charge you what they claim to be a “good
price” which is in act double or triple the actual price. When we boarded the
ferry to Gili T we paid 200,000 IRP (£10) and to get that we had to haggle a
little (you will not get this price in high season). To my surprise during the
hour and half journey Jono and I listened to other tourists comparing ticket
prices and the variance was staggering. I heard a German girl say she paid
450,000 (£21.50), a Dutch guy seemed annoyed at paying 600,000 (£30) but the
most pissed off of all was a posh Brit (probably on his gap-yaaaahhh from
Oxford……..although this is just a hunch) who had paid a staggering 1,100,000
IRP (£55). On this occasion Jono quite rightly told me to “keep my gob shut” as
inciting a riot on a ferry over ticket prices wouldn’t be in the best interest
of people on board. So we kindly broke him the news just as we reached the
island paradise of the Gili's.
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