Seminyak, Bali

Day 218 (February 1, 2019) – Seminyak, Bali, Indonesia

We took an hour-long taxi ride from the quiet and laid back Uluwatu to the loud and congested Seminyak. Seminyak isn’t even the most happening part of Bali (that claim to fame probably goes to Kuta), but every square foot is packed with hotels, bars, restaurants, shops, tattoo studios, and spas in what is supposed to be one of the slightly quieter but still happening parts of the island.

All the traffic on one of the main streets. The sad part is that most of the traffic is from passenger-less taxis.

The first thing we noticed was the traffic. There are only a few narrow roads that support access to all the smaller alleyways in the area and the street is a constant stop-and-go flow of cars, motorbikes, and taxis. Most of the taxis don’t even have passengers in them and every single one of them honks at you as they pass to see if they can give you a ride. This was a very different change of pace that at first seemed overwhelming, but we eventually embraced it and tried to take advantage of this high activity area.

Despite Travis' skeptical expression, this was one of our many fabulous dinners around Seminyak.

We were staying on the second floor of a nice hotel down a small ally away from the main drag. It was a bit quieter back there, but most nights we could hear music from one of the Aussie bars across the way. The best nights where when the Hindu temple directly in front of us was putting on a concert of sorts. We could walk out onto the balcony in the warm humid air, watch the lighting in the sky from far away storm clouds, and listen to the eerie music coming from the temple. It was a strange experience that reminded us that we were someplace very far away from home. Unfortunately, they also seemed to like performing first thing in the morning after we were trying to sleep in from prior evenings’ outings.

This was taken at night, so there isn't much to see but you can hear the music from the neighboring temple (turn your volume up). This is only a minute of it but they played this for hours, usually at night, but also occasionally in the early mornings.

Most of our week was spent hunting down cafes with the best wifi so we could catch up on our New Zealand posts and planning our upcoming Thailand trip. We also took advantage of the awesome restaurants around the area. Our favorite two being a Vietnamese and a Malaysian restaurant that had amazing curries and noodle soups. We also went to many Indonesian warungs. These are typical Indonesian lunch spots that are ridiculously affordable. All the dishes, ranging from fried chicken to pungent curries to steamed vegetables, are cooked in the morning and put out in a glass case before noon. You get a plate or banana leaf with a scoop of rice and topped with 3-4 different items of your choosing, all priced by the scoop. At first, we were a little turned off because the food sits there all day and is served at room temperature, but since it was traditional, we eventually embraced it and sought them out for a quick lunch or dinner. We got the cheapest meal of our whole trip at a warung: $1.40 for a huge plate of delicious food. Most of the authentic warungs are priced about the same, give or take a few cents.

Lots of temples and interesting architecture could be found. You just have to look past the traffic and power lines.

One of the many shrines, located in the middle of a semi-circular intersection. Locals dodge the traffic to make it to the shrine to leave behind a daily offering in a leaf basket. The offerings are placed at shrines all over the city and on sidewalks. Most of the baskets are destroyed by the end of the day from the wind, rain, and traffic. 

There were lots of happening bars in the area. Most are catered to Aussie tourists. I can’t tell you how many times were heard “Down Under” blasting from bar speakers as we walked down the street. In the evenings, most places had live music or shows to attract people inside. Most everyone is there on vacation so they’re looking to have a good time. It also didn’t matter what day of the week it was. People on vacation don’t care what day of the week it is and neither did the bars. I think Bali is to Australia what the Caribbean is to Americans, a place to be in the tropics, relax, and sometimes let loose.

Seminyak can look quite charming at times. It really comes alive at night with bars and restaurants competing for customers.

Another one of the many temples. You can find one on every street.

The entire southwest coast of Bali is one enormously long sandy beach. It goes by different names in different sections, but it’s really the same beach that goes on for miles and is one of the main attractions in the area. Unfortunately, we had a bad introduction to it. We went for a walk along the beach after a late breakfast. There weren’t that many people, perhaps because it was still a bit windy, but we spent most of our time trying to avoid stepping on trash. The high tide had brought in a massive collection of mostly plastic-based trash and deposited it all over the beach as the tide rolled out. We could tell that the currents had made some areas of the beach much more littered than others, but overall, it’s a sad sight to see. We walked a long way down and saw lots of ongoing clean-up efforts. They even had tractors that they used to comb the sand for trash and driftwood, which were moved into giant piles to be dealt with later. The crazy part is that the beach doesn’t look like this in the evening. So much effort is spent during the day (everyday) to clean it up that by the evening, when everyone in Seminyak heads to the waterfront to watch the sunset, the beach looks surprisingly nice. I wonder if most people even know what it looks like in the morning because if you only make it down there in the late afternoon, you’d think the entire beach was pristine and there wasn’t a problem.

Plastic trash on the beach during our morning walk. And what is that brown stuff in the waves? It may only be a clump of seaweed or something, but whatever it is, it's not making the beach any more appealing.

The same beach at sunset with most of the trash cleaned up. It's beautiful! Too bad it doesn't always look like this.

The beach trash was kind of a turn off from wanting to go swimming, so we spent our time in Seminyak on land. However, the beach was still a nice place to be for sunset. I feel a bit embarrassed by this, but we didn’t realize that watching the sunset was a thing to do in Bali until maybe our fourth or fifth day in Seminyak. We decided to check out the sunset one night and we walk onto the beach and, to our surprise, it was absolutely packed with people. Bars and restaurants had sprawled out onto the beach to provide seats for all the people who had gathered to watch the sun go down. We soon understood why. The sunsets we saw in Bali where some of the best we’d seen on the whole trip. After that, our nightly ritual for each remaining night was exactly the same. We went to the beach in the late afternoon, took a seat at a bar or in a bean bag chair set in the sand, had a couple big beers, and watched the show as the sun went down. It was awesome. We couldn’t get enough of it.

Our nightly ritual. Bean bag chair in the sand and two big beers.

Everyone in Seminyak made their way to the beach for sunset.

The sunsets were pretty awesome.

Despite the roughness around the edges, we had a lot of fun in Seminyak. It’s a destination that was built for tourism, but now we know. It may not necessarily feel authentic, but there are still constant reminders that you’re in Bali. There is a temple to be found on every street, packed into the tinniest plots of land just like all the other buildings. Every day there are offerings placed on the ground in front of homes and businesses and at shrines scattered about the city. And if it weren’t for the traffic and honking taxis, Seminyak might actually be a charming place to take a stroll; but given the chaos it’s more fun to simply embrace it and party at the bars alongside all the Aussies.

Daily offerings stacked on top of one another at the Masceti Temple.