My Bali Story (Chapter 3): Jimbaran Shore!

This photo was taken on my 28th birthday, 17-10-2016. In this picture there are people who I am now proud to count amongst my best friends. My balinese family.

Also known as "Jimbaran Shore"

The Origin

When I was in Spain preparing for the trip to Bali my main concern was to find a nice place to live. I was tired of paying a fortune to rent a room in Barcelona. I knew that in Bali for that kind of money you could live like a king.

And it was true!

Alberto (always Alberto😃) told me he was living in a really nice house in Jimbaran. In that house, the owner divided his land in two buildings: one for him and his family and the other one was for rent. This second building is called kos in Indonesia. A kos is usually a house transformed into small apartments or rooms. Instead of sharing a house in Indonesia people usually choose a kos because it is cheaper and gives you a bit more privacy while still being around people. In those kos the owner usually lives there or comes to check regularly.

By that time I already trusted Alberto and I was convinced that like him, I would live in the Bukit and bike every day 50 minutes to university. But I was not yet in Bali and I had never ridden a scooter before!

☝️ Daily commute from Bukit to university

That house is popularly known as Kutilang, because it is in Kutilang Street (Jalan Kutilang). Many generations of Darmasiswa Students have lived there. As you can see, the house had big a swimming pool which divides the place between the owner's house and the kos. There were two floors (8 rooms in total):

☝️ Our friends enjoying the pool. In the back you can see three rooms of the kos

We shared a kitchen which was in the ground floor and had a small parking space for motorbikes. It was really nice, although everything was a bit rusty and molded. Havid, the owner, took really bad care of it.

The Plan

Before leaving Barcelona my initial plan was to check a few houses online and visit them once I arrived in Bali. Of course Kutilang sounded amazing with the pics the owner sent to my phone. Plus, Kutilang came with 😇Alberto's blessing😇.

But of course I didn't want to live in that big house all by myself. I needed more people. I wanted a team.

The Team

Before departing I joined a Facebook group called "Darmasiswa Bali". There I found many of the people that were also going to study in Udayana. It was a good way to establish contact beforehand. I was happy to see that a few people were intending also to stay in the Bukit and make the daily commute to Denpasar.

One of those people was a finnish guy named Roni. He was the creator of the Facebook group. This guy had been to Bali in many occasions. He was replying to all the comments and giving advice to everyone asking. My first impression was he could be cool but also sounded a bit arrogant. You can call that an "online first-impression ©️".

☝️ Roni

I was happy to see Roni was a hardcore fan of the Bukit peninsula as well. He was reassuring everyone that it was the coolest spot in Bali and the commute was not that bad. He already had accomodation arranged there for him and his girlfriend. Roni living in Bukit was a big selling point for me in favor of moving there. I mean, this dude seemed a Bali expert so it seemed wise to be close to him.

My first contact with him was in the opening ceremony in Jakarta. I recognized him immediatly with his blinding white skin and his golden locks. Also because he was sitting with Mona, his girlfriend at the time. She was also pale and blonde. They looked like a couple from a magazine.

Full disclosure: the live impression of Roni was the same I had online. An arrogant, a know-it-all who was trying to sound and be cool. Mona was super shy, polite. But also really funny. They made a good couple and were very friendly to all of us. For the record, both of them would later become best friends of mine 💕.

☝️ Mona

Most of us knew each other from the Facebook group; so in Jakarta it was exciting to meet them in person. Turns out I was totally shy and jet lagged, so I did feel like talking a lot.

The second day in Jakarta we all got to sit down with I Made Rajeg, our supervisor and caretaker from University of Udayana. It was the first time everyone who was going to study in Udayana got to introduce themselves in the typical circle...

Hello, I'm Yura, I come from South Korea.

Hi everyone! I am Diana from Hungary. You can call me Dia! Nice to meet you all!

Hello Hello guys my name is David Olvera from Mexico but everyone calls me Davo or Davos!

Aloooo I am Dimitra, or Dimi, from Athens in Greece. Sooo good to meet you all I am so happy!

We were about 10 or 12 I reckon. After this formal introduction we got to speak about accomodation and other practical issues. As I already did marketing for the Kutilang House in the Facebook group, some people asked me about it. They were interested in seeing it and to meet the owner. I told them we would keep in touch. Honestly I did not know them and I wanted to make sure I arranged a good group of people.

You know in these bank robbery movies where this one guy has to arrange the perfect team to do the most amazing robbery? Usually there is a fast montage of how he convinces them to join.

It felt a bit like that! Only that I wanted to find the right people to have fun. After all, I was the one that got in touch with Havid (the owner) and already had an arrangement. I was to be responsible to find the right people. For every person I got in the kos he would give me a discount, but it also meant I was responsible to choose the right people and manage the house a little bit.

So like Roni, I was famous 😎. Many people were interested to join Kutilang, but I didn't know them yet...

Mis hermanos: Fiorella and Davos

In the plane from Jakarta to Bali they assigned us random seats. The flight was full of students so it was sure I would sit next to some of my future classmates. It turns out I got to sit next to a girl named Fiorella.

Hello, I think this is my seat!

Ehmm... Yeah, sit down. Perdona! I mean, sorry! Hahaha

Hablas espanol?

And then we started talking and did not shut up for the whole plane ride. Because I learned in that first five minutes of speaking with Fiorella that she liked to talk. A lot. To this day we still make jokes about that first conversation we had. Why? Because I managed to get her to cry the first time we met.

We were both dog owners. So we got to talking about our dogs. About how they would miss us and how tough would it be to be without them. Then at some stage I told her this:

You know, when you leave your house your dog gets really sad. And when he sees you again he is the happiest dog in the world. You know why? Because when you leave, a dog has absolutely no idea of when are you gonna come back. So right now, your dog thinks you left forever and is probably super sad looking for you everywhere. Mine is too, for sure. I read it in a magazine.

So yeah. You guess what happens when you tell that to a South-american girl from Peru. She started shedding tears like her whole family just died. I hugged her realizing I just fucked up.

After consoling her, we laughed together at the weirdness of the situation. It helped us bond and focus on more positive things. As it turned out, Fiorella was really into bodyboarding. The best spots for surfing and bodyboarding were in the Bukit peninsula. So of course she wanted to live in Bukit as well! She told me she saw my posts on Facebook about Kutilang, and she wanted to come with me to check it out once we landed.

She was super funny and her enthusiasm for Bali and for having a good time was contagious. We landed, unbuckled our seatbelts and stood up.

Then suddenly a big fella full of tattoos and with a shaved head popped out of the seat behind us. He was seating alone so he was silent during the whole flight. He said:

(in Spanish): Hey guys, that house you were talking about sounds really really amazing. I would like to see it as well! I am David, you can call me Davos...

This fucker was listening to our conversation the whole flight! Without saying anything!

He was from Mexico, and his main interest in coming to Bali was to study Pencak Silat. Davos was a martial artist. But he seemed a really cool guy and he spoke Spanish like me and Fiorella, so we instantly hit it off.

From that point on, we almost never separated. We were like three brothers. Our use of Spanish empowered us with gossiping and making fun of almost anything and anyone without people noticing.

☝️ Fio and Davos celebrating New Year's Eve with my father, my sister and me

We needed a temporary place to settle, so we went to a place the university had prepared for us. To save money the three of us decided to share a room together. After enjoying beautiful Denpasar on foot for a few days, it was time to finally visit Kutilang.

To be continued...