West Bali
One beach, one town running straight into the next
The strip of coast that runs from Kuta through Legian, Seminyak and Petitenget on to Berawa, Batu Bolong, Echo Beach, Canggu and Pererenan.
The sand does not stop where one place name gives way to the next, which is what makes a loss here hard to pin. The tourism ministry says of Seminyak that it is somewhat difficult to stipulate where precisely Kuta, Legian or Seminyak begin or end, and that is the same trouble you have when you sit down to write to us.
Ring Seekers is a lost ring and jewellery recovery service that connects people who lost a ring, wedding band, watch, keys or phone in west Bali with a metal detectorist who can search there.
Tell us what happened and where. We find a detectorist who can reach the beach, brief them with your map and photos, and tell you honestly if the odds are poor.
Say what came off you and when, whether that was a wedding band, an Oura ring, a watch, an earring or a phone.
Fix yourself against something that stays put
Sand gives an account nothing to hold on to, and here the beach carries straight on past whichever town you were in. So take whatever was standing still around you instead. A street you came down to the water, a temple you walked past, or the rice paddies that reach the sand at the Canggu end are all things a detectorist can stand beside and look around from.
It helps as well to say whether the thing was on you or with you. Worn on a finger, on a wrist or round a neck is one answer. Carried in a pocket, in a bag or rolled up inside a towel is a different one, and it sends different questions back to you. Say which yours was, and who had it if it was not you.
The run this page covers
- Kuta
- Kuta Beach
- Jalan Raya Legian
- Jalan Poppies I
- Jalan Poppies II
- Legian
- Legian Beach
- The Legian art market
- Seminyak
- Seminyak Beach
- Double Six Street
- Pantai Double Six
- Petitenget Beach
- Jalan Petitenget
- Basangkasa Street
- Jalan Kayu Aya, also called Jalan Laksmana
- Kerobokan
- Kerobokan Kelod
- Umalas
- Canggu
- Canggu Beach
- Batu Bolong Beach
- Echo Beach
- Berawa and Jalan Pantai Berawa
- Tibubeneng
- Pererenan
From the Kuta end along to Pererenan
Names, and what the ministry says stands behind each of them.
Kuta Beach
The ministry writes that Kuta was once a sleepy village with a quiet sweep of beach and is now alive with visitors swimming, surfing or sunbathing, while others stroll the main road and eat at the open air restaurants. Parasailing and banana boat trips go on off the same sand.
Legian
Legian is situated north of Kuta and south of Seminyak, and the ministry calls its calmer beach a suitable learning environment for beginners. The Indonesian article gives the sand as soft and white with waves that suit surfing, and says anyone wanting quiet can walk along the shore to the emptier stretches. Inland, the Legian art market sells Balinese handmade crafts and souvenirs.
Seminyak and Petitenget
Seminyak is an upmarket coastal enclave just north of Legian and Kuta. It stretches from Double Six Street in the south and morphs into the villages of Kerobokan and Umalas, north of Pura Petitenget temple. The ministry names Seminyak Beach and Petitenget Beach among the beaches there, and says the beach is relatively quiet during the day. Pantai Double Six is in Seminyak itself, and Pantai Petitenget stands along at Kerobokan Kelod.
The streets behind Seminyak
Legian Street runs parallel with the beach and at its western limit continues as Seminyak Street, with Sunset Street as the eastern bypass. Smaller shops line Seminyak's Main Street, also referred to as Basangkasa Street, and boutiques run along Laksmana Street and Petitenget Street.
Batu Bolong and Echo Beach at Canggu
Pantai Batu Bolong is described as a popular Canggu beach of golden sand with waves that suit surfing, Pura Batu Bolong standing on the cliff above it, and board hire and restaurants looking out at the sea. Echo Beach is in Canggu too, golden sand again, waves the article calls challenging, and cafes along the edge of the sand.
Canggu, Berawa and Pererenan
Canggu Beach lies in the village of Canggu in North Kuta, district of Badung, quite close to Legian beach. It is black sand, with tiers of green rice paddies on the other side of the surf where flocks of birds fly over and roost. Pantai Berawa is not far from Canggu, known for big waves, with beach clubs lined up around it, and Jalan Pantai Berawa runs through Tibubeneng. Pererenan, in Mengwi, is black sand too.
Before you send anything
The same person reads every message
You write to one person on WhatsApp and stay with that person from the first line to the last, so you never have to set the whole thing out twice.
The reply comes back in ordinary words
Nothing technical comes back at you. Whatever we make of what you have sent arrives in the same plain language you wrote it in, and you can ask again about any piece of it.
Nothing is arranged while you are still reading
Reading this page and sending a message are the whole of what has happened so far. Anything after that waits on you asking for it, and there is no point at which that stops being true.
What you send stays where you sent it
Your account, your map and your pictures go to whoever is asked to search and nowhere else. Nothing is posted anywhere and your name is not used.
What the beach is doing where you were
What this coast puts in the way, and what to say about it.
Open ocean the whole length
This shore faces the Indian Ocean, and surf is what the ministry writes about at Kuta, at Legian, at Seminyak and on up through Canggu to Pererenan. Where you stood in relation to the breaking water is one of the first things a detectorist will ask about, so give it roughly if you cannot give it exactly.
Beach clubs sitting on the beach itself
At Seminyak, Berawa and Canggu the cafes and beach clubs are written up as standing along the sand. A table at one of them is beach as much as it is furniture, so a loss there is not a separate question from a loss on the open sand, and it belongs in the same message.
The sunset hour
Crowds rush down to the beach at Kuta before sunset, and Seminyak Beach, Petitenget Beach and Echo Beach are all written up for the sunset view. If it happened then, say so and say which way you were facing.
Questions about west Bali
It was a full day on Kuta Beach and my wedding band did not come home with me.
A day that long is better sent as a list of the things you did than as a spot on the beach. The ministry describes parasailing, banana boat trips, swimming, traditional Indonesian massage offered on the beach and hair being plaited, and each of those is a moment when your hands were doing something different. Tell us which you did and which came last before you noticed.
An Oura ring went at a beach club at Berawa.
Name the club first. Pantai Berawa is written up as having beach clubs lined up around it, and they are not interchangeable. Then say where your seat sat in relation to the water, and whether you went down to the sea from it at any point in the afternoon.
We were in and out of places on Jalan Raya Legian all night, and the phone is gone.
That is a street question rather than a beach one, and it is worth putting to us anyway. The ministry writes that shops, restaurants and hotels sprang up along the main road from Kuta to Legian, which is a great many doorways for one evening. Give us the doorways in the order the night took you through them, and mark the last one where the phone was certainly still in your hand.
A chain went while we walked from Seminyak down to Legian along the sand.
White sandy beaches stretch in both directions from Seminyak, the ministry writes, and a walk along one of them covers a good deal of ground under a single beach name. So write it out in full: where you stepped onto the sand, where you left it, and every point along the way where you stopped, sat down or put something down.
We were at Echo Beach for the sunset and an earring is missing.
Whatever you were sitting on is where to begin, whether that was bare sand, a mat, a cushion or a chair. Say whether any of it was folded up, shaken out or carried off before you started looking, and who did the carrying. By the hour you are describing the light had usually gone, so it is normal not to have seen where it went.
A watch came off in the shore break at Canggu.
Tell us how deep you had got and what the water was doing at the time. Whether you were standing in the wash or already out among the waves changes the whole shape of the question, so put that in before anything else. If it went out past where the waves break, that is a long shot, and you would hear that from us first.
A bracelet went at Pererenan and we are not certain which beach we were on.
Pererenan is in Mengwi, a different district from the Canggu beaches, which a map check confirms, so the first thing to settle is which side of that line you had got to. Tell us which way you drove in, what you parked beside and what you walked past on the way down to the sand.
Do I need to work out the exact spot before I write?
No. Write with what you have and let the rest settle in the conversation, rather than holding the message back until you feel certain of it.
West Bali
Start anywhere on the strip and we will work outwards
WhatsApp, with nothing to sign up for.
Whichever piece of this coast you can put a name to is enough to open with, even if the name turns out to be a beach club or a street corner rather than a beach. Send it in the state it is in.