Kuta/Legian beach is living proof that one man's hell is another man's paradise. This bustling beach resort has in the short space of just two decades spontaneously burst onto center stage in the local tourist scene. It is here that many visitors form their first (if not only) impressions of what Bali is all about. Many are shocked and immediately flee in search of the "real Bali" (a mythological destination somewhere near Ubud).

The truth is, nevertheless, that certain souls positively thrive in this labyrinth of boogie bars, beach bungalows, cassette shops and honky tonks - all part of the Kuta lifestyle. What then is the magic that has transformed this sleepy fishing village overnight into an overcrowded tourist Mecca - with no end in sight to its haphazard expansion?

Before tourism came to the area, Kuta was one of the poorest places on Bali plagued by poor soils, endemic malaria and a surf-wracked beach that provides little protection for shipping. In the early days, it nevertheless served as a port for the powerfull southern Balinese kingdom of Badung whose capital lay in what is now Denpasar.

Rice, slaves and booty

Though Bali was never very trade-oriented, it did supply neighboring islands with several commodities - mainly rice, and notably slaves. Also, the booty salvaged from shipwrecks provided an occasional bonanza for the hardy inhabitants of this coastal outpost.

After an earlier Dutch trading post had been abandoned as commercially unviable (even the illegal trade in slaves proved disappointing), there arrived in Kuta a remarkable Dane mounted on a proud stallion, the likes of which the Balinese had never seen. Mads Lange, as he was called, had the audacity march straight to the palace of the raja of Badung and demand an audience.

Despite his bravado, Lange had in fact recently been a victim of his own intrigues on the neighboring island of lombok, where he had aided the wrong raja in a war and lost all. As fate would have it, Lange not only survived his move to Bali, but prospered building here an extensive new trading post coconut oil factory and luxurious residence stocked with wines and other delicacies.

Within the walls of his fabled Kuta residence, Lange wined and dined a succession of visiting scholars, adventurers, princes and colonial officials. During the tumultuous 1840s, moreover, he repeatedly played a critical role in mediating between the Balinese rulers and the Dutch. Today, his grave can be seen in a Chinese cemetery at the center of Kuta, not far from a Buddhist temple and the crumbling remains of his once-regal house. More..