Seymour Totti’s Foreign Policy

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Paddy’s in Jalan Legian was the site of one of the 2002 Bali bombings. In defiance the bar, and its customers, moved a few doors up the road and carried on rocking. Today it is the probably the most happening place in all of Kuta.

Its also about the only place where you can pick up local girls despite the recently updated Lonely Planet guide’s assurances that most of the more raucous places attracted girls who were “looking for for a friend”. In my experience that was not the case. Maybe there had been a crackdown recently, who knows, prostitution is illegal after all. But if there had been nobody told the girls at Paddy’s.

There is certainly no shortage of raucous bars and discos but it seemed to me that in most places the girls were European and Australian and were looking to pick up bronzed and muscle-bound surfer dudes.

Good for them I say but in the past I’ve enjoyed some very happy times over in the nation’s capital, Jakarta and I was keen to renew my acquaintances with one of Asia’s best kept secrets, Indonesian Girls. And Paddy’s was clearly the place to do it.

From the street it looks pretty uninteresting but the place has a certain tardis like quality. The first thing you see when you arrive is a large long bar but as you pass through the entrance way a huge expanse of dance floor opens up to the right.

Bali’s nightlife starts late and if you go much before midnight there won’t be very many people around.

After midnight the first thing you see when you enter is a flock of those ladies looking for friends. Some of them are career hookers, some are just out for a good time, while others still are trying to earn enough cash to pay their way through college. They are all friendly. Buy one a drink, have a dance and who knows you may find one, as I did, to while away a few balmy days up in Ubud. The islands cultural heart.

See also: She supersized me
See also: A song and dance