The fishing village of Jimbaran straddles the road running
south from close by the airport to Uluwatu.
It is not itself remarkable, but just after you pass the stalls
of the village market a road leaves off to the right where
some very tall kepuh trees mark the site of a cemetery where
bodies awaiting cremation are buried.
After a few hundred meters you arrive at Jimbaran Bay. This
is a most attractive white-sand beach 2 km (1 ¼ miles)
wide. At the northern (right hand) end, the airport runway
can be seen, with the planes standing silhouetted against
the sky. Between you and the airport a couple of dozen fishing
boats will almost certainly be pulled up on the beach. The
sands run away again to the left until they reach a green
headland, while immediately on your left is the hotel.
From
Jimbaran the road, after crossing level country, begins to
climb up onto the limestone plateau itself, and before long
there is a fine view backwards over the airport and southern
Bali. Immediately piles of white stone, destined for the most
part for roadworks, can be seen at the side of the road. With
its dry stone walls and scanty vegetation, the landscape looks
like what geographers refer to as karsts scenery anywhere
in the world. Underground there may be secret rivers and caverns
measureless to man, but here on the surface the soft dry contours
present a terser, tighter-lipped picture. In place of lush
rice terraces and coconut palms is a waterless landscape more
reminiscent, with its chirping crickets and scent of herbs,
of the south of France than the tropics.
The red-tiled buildings you pass on the left are the new
premises of the Denpasar University, Universitas Udayana.
Two kilometers (1 ¼ miles) further on, ignore a left
turn at a small junction with a statue if your destination
is Uluwatu, the road to which rises and falls, offering beautiful
glimpses of the sea ahead, until finally it arrives, 21 km
(14 miles) from Kuta, at its destination.
