Indonesia: Nightlife

On our first night in Kuta we hung out with a friend of Matt's named David from Santa Cruz. Matt and Andy were jonesing to play pool and grab some Bintang beers so we headed out. Good pool tables in Indo are hard to come by, so we found ourselves at a brothel with two sweet tables. Evidently prostitution is criminalized in Indo (unlike Oz and NZ), but the party still goes on. Girls in short skirts and heels flirt with the men and I understand that once they decide to go to his hotel room, he pays $15 US to the bar and $35 US to the girl. Remember that the average Balinese lives off of the equivalent of $70 US per month. It was an entertaining sight to watch the scenes go down but we left before it got too late so I assume we only saw the tip of the iceberg!

On our second night in Kuta a couple of American friends of Matt's were having a birthday BBQ at their place. It sounded delicious, they were going to pick up some fresh fish from a local fishing village and cook it up for everyone. Thinking we were fashionably late, we got there with only fish heads left on the plate. Alas, we grabbed some nasi campur instead while drinks and dancing ensued in the living room. Since it was the host's birthday, his girlfriend whispered to us all that she wanted to take him to a ladyboy show as a surprise. And a surprise it was (for all of us)! We were greeted at the entrance by some strangely sexy women and the show was already on the road, complete with catwalking, lip-syncing, sparkly costumes and colorful make-up (Steve-o, I was thinking of you the whole time). Suddenly, the birthday boy was on stage dancing with the ladyboys, clearly full of beers but took it in stride.

So the first two nights: brothel and ladyboy show. Matt, what is next?! And we laughed. It was tame from there. We got pretty hooked on playing cards - Golf and Rummy 500, a daily occurrence along with enlightening philosophical and intellectual conversations. I loved getting to know my new cousin with uninterrupted time that may never happen again in our lifetimes to this extent. Matt also has a TV and pirated DVDs are quite a business so we watched a few movies as well.

On the island of Gili Trawangan there was a great Indo reggae band that played plenty of Bob Marley to get the island vibe groovin'. We also went to this giant outdoor restaurant/bar/disco called Ocean Club in Kuta that had costumed actors on stilts pouring shots from the bottle Rosarito-style. We witnessed a security guard with a giant machine gun pug a beer then smile for the camera (pictured). Good times, thanks to Matt!