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It’s currently rainy season in Bali. That doesn’t mean that you have rain all day. It’s still mostly sunny all-day-around, warm temperatures and a mild breeze with clouds building up during the day.

You may experience some showers in the afternoon, but the main load from the clouds comes down only at night. That’s good for holiday makers and locals alike, as the crops on the paddies are seeing some water, but it doesn’t affect your holiday that much.

Unfortunately the wet season comes with some other disadvantages for beach combers who lounge around the main beaches at the west coast:

The most popular beaches in Bali are Kuta Beach, with its southern extensions Jimbaran and Dreamland below the airport. In the other direction from Kuta Beach you have Legian and Seminyak beaches in the north – all the way up to Dhyana Pura, KuDeTa and even further to Tanah Lot.

All these beaches are currently affected by changing currents, underwater rips and generally rough seas.

Every week over the last 2 months there were casualties amongst tourists, who simply underestimated the power of the waves – even in knee-deep water they can literally sweep you off your feet. The currents will most likely carry you away from the shore and you won’t have a good chance to fight against the currents, even if you are a good swimmer.

Add some panic to it and you have all the ingredients for a horror scenario.

But maybe the most annoying thing currently are the loads of garbage and trash in the waters.

The environmental conscience of the average Indonesian is unfortunately not well developed. That means that most trash, garbage, empty plastic bags or the usual ‘Coke can’ sooner or later find their way into the open sea, fed by connecting rivers which swell during the wet season, carrying all kinds of disposed stuff to the ocean.

Right now you have strong currents and wind coming from the West (mainly Java) and you can see its effects in Kuta and elsewhere on the western coastline.

Every morning the beaches are full with trash, garbage and plastic waste, brought over night by the waves. Of course the locals are trying their best to remove the mountains of waste washed ashore in the mornings, but they can’t filter the water, right?

So you won’t probably see many swimmers at the moment around Kuta; as it’s not a pleasant thing to have plastic bags and other indescribable stuff flapping around your legs or your better parts.

So what can you do?

The easiest thing is to avoid the beaches at the western coast for now. Luckily Bali isn’t that small at all and thankfully blessed with plenty of beaches in all kinds of shapes and colors. Simply jump on your bike or drive your rental car to the eastern parts of the islands.

You have there beaches aplenty, which are spared from the western currents and still feature clean water on black, grey or white sandy shores. Just east of Kuta and Jimbaran is Nusa Dua, usually a more ‘up-market all-inclusive’ hotel alternative.

But it features some freely accessible beaches as well, for instance the one close to the Nikko Hotel. You don’t have to be a hotel guest to spend your time here, just use the steep stairs left of the hotel to access the beach and chose your favorite spot.

This is also the place where you can do Camel rides through the sand dunes close to the Nikko Hotel. But there is more than Nusa Dua.

Even Sanur with its shallow lagoon waters should be a better choice then Kuta right now.

Further to the east you have the black, volcanic sand beach of Lebih, which has very affordable seafood restaurants as well.

Go East young man!

Even further you have the small villages Manggis and Padang Bai, the latter has 2 secluded lagoons with mainly white powdery sand. And then you have the ‘yellow-sandish’ beach at Amed and the black pebble beach of Tulamben, both featuring usually clear and clean waters this time around.

My favorite at the moment is Pantai Mengiat in Nusa Dua, it’s just a short ride from Kuta, Legian or Seminyak and a real tranquil place.

No parking fees, no hawkers or vendors disturbing you or trying to sell you anything from transport, Rolex watches, sarongs or other local crafts.

The sand isn’t that fine or powdery, it has more a yellowish/white coloring, the single sand corns look something like mustard seeds. But it doesn’t stick and it’s very pleasant to walk and lay on.

The best thing – besides the normally scattered Hindu offerings – the beach is very clean, which includes also the water.

The water here is very calm due to the reef a few hundreds of meters away, which is blocking the big waves and anything else unpleasant. Still you can see some surfers there, using the swell outside the reef for a surf.

Local fishermen got the drift of using surfboards as well. Usually in the evenings you can see them sitting on a board with either a net or fishing rod, catching their family dinners or last-minute sale of the day.

This part of the island seems to see more sun as well at the moment. While in the west, due to mountains, the clouds are building up earlier and some rain drops are more likely, that doesn’t seem to be the case here.

So you still can enjoy a perfectly sunny day here, while in Kuta people will tell you about the rain shower you just missed.

Isn’t that great?

Here is some information about exploring other attractions at Bali’s beautiful East Coast.

Technorati : amed, bali, camel, dhyana pura, garbage, jimbaran, kudeta, kuta, legian, lembih, manggis, nikko hotel, nusa dua, padang bai, rolex, sanur, sarong, seminyak, tanah lot, trash, tulamben, waste

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written by Chris