Hitchhiking in Indonesia: Jimbaran Beach
17th of February, 2025.
A seniour man, who’s a taxi driver, accepts to take me to Denpassar for free. He’s going there to take a costumer. It doesn’t matter what I tell him about my life and travels, I’m sure he keeps on thinking that, as a Western tourist, I have money, and I have friends who have money, as he keeps saying that when I come back I can contact him for transportation, or give his contact to my friends when they come to Bali…
I change my mind and decide to go first all the way to Uluwatu Temple. Again, not for the temple, as you have to pay to visit, and I’m quite sure is just another business place; but nearby there are some cliffs which seem to offer a very nice view. I was also planning to visit other beaches in the South, but as Andri and Izar took me some similar beaches already, I can skip that.
Bayu stops his motorbike. He is going to work nearby Uluwatu and offer to take me there. I accept. It’s a bit tricky as we take the toll road, travelling in a motorbike with The Hulk is always not an easy task, but it’s fine. Bayu is also into travelling, and we chat about many different things on the way. We have a lot in common. When we arrive to the place where I’m staying, he gives me what I need the most: water. And even though he try to give me some money, I kindly refuse.
A car passes and says he’s coming back. Unfortunately (or not), I don’t have time to wait for him, as Yudi and his son stop their small truck and offer to take me to Uluwatu.
Yudi speaks a great English, as he has travelled a lot and also work with foreigners. He works with construction, and is taking care of the building of a few villas in Padan Padan Beach, near Uluwatu Temple. As he has the time, he offers to take me all the way to the temple.
But before that, as we are dropping his son to the school, a shock! A car completely takes over us, while we are waiting to enter the school gate. I am outraged by this completely lack of respect, so when we get out of the car, I come to talk with the person, a Russian lady. She has the audacity to tell me she didn’t see us. We are driving a fucking truck and she didn’t see it? Bullshit! I want to tell her how wrong she is, and that she must open her eyes when she is driving, but Yudi goes ahead of me and tell her: “fuck you!”. She then get super upset and makes a scene out of what he said, of course, as that would abolish her from her bad deeds.
Back to the road, Yudi offer me to have lunch with him in this really nice restaurant. There are some tourists but not as much as in other restaurant we passed by. There is plenty of options, like a buffet, and the food is delicious! To make it even better, Yudi orders us fresh watermelon juice. Wow!
When we are on our way to Uluwatu Temple, I ask Yudi if I can see anything from outside the security gates, where you have to pay, he says “no”, so I ask him to just drop me off at the entrance of the path to the cliffs, and I will walk there.
If you look at Google Maps, you can aim for a place called Gallu Cliff. There’s a road, which turns into a path, and it leads there. Just follow your instincts and you will find your way to that building you see it on Maps. I don’t know exactly what it is, as it says to be a camping place, but the view from just outside, a slight platform kind of it, is the best one around this area. Don’t follow the concrete bricks path to your right, once you arrive to the opening, because that’s a dead end. As many areas in Bali are becoming private (I believe that the whole Bali will be private one day), many old paths are not accessible anymore.
I come down to Thomas Beach, thinking I can camp there. After going really down so many steps, I get disappointed with the beach, super dirty and full of people, and with a very small sand area, so no way I can camp here, as most likely the tide will catch up with my tent. As I’m climbing the steps up, with my 23 kg in luggage, I pass by some young people who are struggling to go up without carrying any weight, just their own.
Looking at the map, I figure that the best beach before the airport, where hopefully I can camp tonight, is Jimbaran Beach.
As I walk, a small truck with two young boys stop. They drive me to the main road, only stopping for five minutes to deliver some coconuts which are in the trunk. They are from Komodo Islands, and are just here for a few months, for work.
The next man to stop for me is a senior man, very local in his small and simple truck. He can ask some questions in English, and I enjoy the view and the cool breeze of his open windows, as we get to Jimbaran Beach.
What a surprise when I realize that this is the beach of the fancy restaurant which Andri took us in our last night together. I take a photo in front of it just to show them. But I don’t think the owner recognized me.
There’s a lot of tables by the beach and many people on these tables, eating and watching the sunset. It’s almost sunset. It’s really a lovely place to eat and chill.
The beach is gigantic and the tide is really far away from the beach. There’s some resorts and parties going on them. There’s a good spot for camping by one of the resorts, for safety, but the inclination of the sand is too big for me to fix it, like I did in Thailand before. As I spot a flat and grassy area not too far from here, after resting for a while, I leave The Hulk here and walk there with Candy, always looking back for my eldest. The grass area is right beside a resort / villas, and there’s a security boot for it. But as this one is right in front of the private area, I assume that the rest is just a park or something, even though there’s nobody there. I decide to come back after dark and make my camping here, hoping that nobody will quick me out during the night.
They don’t but some really annoying dogs start barking in the middle of the night, and keep on doing that for a while.
In the morning though, as I don’t get up with the first light because I’m lazy, the security guards from the villas come and in a very apologetic way, saying “I’m sorry” many times, tell me I cannot stay here because it’s a private area belonging to the villas. I also say I’m sorry and tell them I’m leaving in five minutes. They wait around and when I’m ready and leaving, they say again many times sorry and thank you. How sweet!
10 Years Around the World 