A Day inside the Life of Kuta Beach
Ask any tourist on their way to Bali where they intend to visit along with more than one in a few will tell you they are going to Kuta beach at some point during their stay.
Thirteen million people will fly to Bali This particular year along with about three million will come by road along with ferry through Java. Most of these travellers are on their way to visit family along with friends or are themselves living along with working in Bali. Around a half, though, are genuine tourists, most of whom stay inside the southern part of the island along with many will visit Kuta beach, made famous internationally by adventurous surfers along with holiday makers who have had a magical holiday in Bali since the 1960s along with 1970s.
Kuta beach proper stretches for over 5km, through Ngurah Rai International airport inside the South, part of Tuban, through Kuta village, along with on northwards through Legian, with its many budget hotels, bars along with restaurants, onto upmarket Seminyak. through here, Kuta beach, though currently with additional names like Berawa, in reality continues onwards through the additional upmarket North Kuta villages of Petitenget, Batubelig along with Canggu, where the scene is usually quieter along with much more personal, providing a truly amazing variety of things to do along with see along its whole length.
With its 15km long broad sweep of the Indian Ocean, Kuta beach is usually the best known tourist resort area inside the whole of Indonesia along with is usually a great internationally renowned surfing beach along much of its length. yet what you see today was threatened for more than four decades with encroaching erosion as the strong waves along with high seas coming in through the southwest removed large volumes of sand through the beach.
With the 1,200 metre extension of the runway into the sea at Ngurah Rai International Airport inside the mid-1960s along with lengthened again inside the early 1990s, the lower part of This particular sweeping coastline had receded significantly, particularly along the 2.5km beach on the northern side of the runway as far as Kuta village. The beach was subjected to continuous heavy erosion, so much producing sure of which several big hotels along with restaurants along This particular part of the beach were severely battered by overtopping waves along with sea spray hitting the shoreline restaurants at Santika Hotel along with Pantai Beach by the mid-2000s.
Bali Beach Conservation Project
The project at Kuta beach consisted of beach reclamation or, to use the engineering term, beach nourishment, with more than 0.5 million tonnes of golden sand brought in by barge through offshore Geger beach in Nusa Dua along with pumped ashore 24/7 for over two months over a 7km stretch of the shoreline. The reclamation aimed to restore the beach to its former size along with created a brand-new beach 60 metres wide in places, with three offshore largely submerged breakwaters to encourage the formation of two smaller bays along This particular part of the coast.
a few years on, the expanded beach, which lost 10-15% of the sand deposited inside the first two years, has stabilize The project, which suffered more than a decade of delays because of fierce resistance by local residents who feared of which the originally proposed groynes could be unsightly along with reduce the waves which attracted the surfers, is usually today rated a huge success.
So much producing sure of which currently everywhere in Bali undergoing significant annual coastal erosion currently wants such projects, with over 80km of coastline falling into This particular category in 2011. The impact of This particular project is usually of which the beach today is usually both higher along with much wider than has been seen for decades, greatly increasing the area available for people to enjoy their various beachside activities.
What will we do on the beach today, Daddy?
Take a walk along the beach along with you will see a range of sun loungers with umbrellas laid out for the tourist to use. yet This particular is usually just the most obvious of the beachside sights for the tourist who has come to get a tan, a beachside massage, their hair braided or parts of their body tattooed. For every day of the year, there is usually a whole beachside industry poised to go into action to serve the tourists’ every need along with whim.
For the more activity-oriented, there is usually of course surfing – along with more than half a dozen reputable surf schools, together using a host of individual surfers, to provide the equipment along with show you the basic skills necessary. Many who take these courses with the established providers come to see This particular as giving them a truly superior holiday experience— along with will vow to be back again soon to improve on their newlyacquired skills.
Surfing for beginners is usually very common amongst 10 to 30-yearolds, yet you will also see experienced surfers in their 40s along with 50s riding the wave crests— or at least having a go.
additional water sports include paddling along with swimming on a body board. There are strong currents at different times of the day so the warning flags are out most days— yet with nine Balawista life saver stations strategically positioned along the whole length of This particular beach as far north as Batubelig, Balawista report fewer people have drowned in recent years (eight in 2010 along using a few in 2011), although many inexperienced surfers are surprised by the strength of the longshore current along with undertow.
Horse riding on the beach is usually common particularly for kids on ponies or teenagers accompanied by their parents on real horses. the idea’s a trot not a gallop, yet great fun nevertheless.
Watching the cowries crawl inside the soft sand, hermit crabs along with tiny young crabs emerge through beneath the wet sand as the tide starts to recede as they scurry across the sand looking for a feed is usually a delightful way to discover what is usually under your feet. Or maybe the idea’s a sand dollar you are after—finding these flat brown echinoderms inside the receding water is usually a fun past-time for youngsters along with teenagers alike.
The monthly Discharge of baby green turtles by the Kuta beach turtle conservation project is usually also a major draw bringing a hundred people or so, especially children, down to the waters’ edge to Discharge these dayold turtle hatchlings into the sea.
Culture Vultures
yet on many days during the course of any month, you will see weddings being performed inside the afternoons under bridal beach canopies opposite MaJoly’s along with additional beachside restaurants along with hotels. Or maybe bridal couples creating magical poses for their albums to show people back home their beachside wedding event.
For Balinese Hindus, through Kuta along with Kerobokan, they come to the beach for a whole Ngaben ceremony or to finish such ceremonies off as they send their relatives on to the next world onboard carved-out little wooden boats.
Fifty years on, in some ways what you can see on This particular beach is usually so different, along with in so many additional ways very much the same.
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A Day inside the Life of Kuta Beach
A Day inside the Life of Kuta Beach