The streets are narrow and grimy and the stench of sewage is sometimes overwhelming yet there is a beauty to this wonderful land for the courageous who venture forth! Move along and sweet, refreshing scent of frangipani and incense occasionally permeating the 33 degree oven-like breeze. Sunshine is so delicious on sun-depraved skin. There is hustle and bustle all around, people smiling, colours of intricately designed cloths and baskets pour from the stalls and god offerings in woven palm-leaf bowls laden with rice and flowers punctuate the footpaths, ladies with gaily colored sarongs and flowers in their hair bid me to come buy their wares, fellows lounging on the seats of their motorcycles smoking sweet ‘Gadang Garam’ cigarettes encouraging me to rent their cycle at a ‘bargain’ price through a shroud of smoke, men selling imitation watches and watered-down French fragrances, curly-tailed scab covered dogs weave their way in and out of the throngs of people strolling along Jalan Legian.

Japanese girls with 600 shopping bags, Japanese, Aussie and American boys laughing in groups together, brown and stoked from surfing Bali’s famous breaks. French, Danish, Swedish Young Lovers! all together to form this international melting pot of Kuta.

It’s not long before you'll need to seek refuge in one of the many cool tropical garden restaurants which line Jalan Legian. The smiling waiter seats me next to a waterfall and brings an icy cold freshly blended mango juice along with a tropical fruit platter for a refreshment and I spend the next 2 hours leafing through magazines and enjoying the ambiance. A delicious investment in doing absolutely nothing…

I must get ready to meet my friends for dinner, but the urgency to watch the famous sunset over the Indian Ocean overcomes everyone!! All of Kuta likes to do this and there are hundreds of local and foreign people down on the beach playing soccer, playing in the water or sitting under the trees enjoying an iced tea or a Gadang, communing together, laughing. 

We mill around in a kind of ‘togetherness’, as if to say thankyou for the day. The sun burns redder until the whole sky is like the juice of a blood orange. It is truly a magical and wonderful sight!

The last seconds of the glowing sun slip down over the horizon. Everyone is happy, grateful to the Bali Magic for another day.

The night begins, and so begins Phase 3 of the Realm..... Party Time...