Bara Katoppo owes his life to the first suicide bomber, who detonated his device on the beach near the Menegan seafood restaurant in Jimbaran at 7.40pm.
"If it had not been for that first bomb, I would have been less than two metres from where the second bomb exploded at Nyoman's," said Mr Katoppo, an Indonesian analyst with Singapore-based Kim Eng Securities, who was on a company outing with 100 colleagues.
"Hearing the first explosion made us get up from where we were sitting and head for nearby trees." A minute later, according to the police, the second suicide bomber detonated a device at Nyoman's, about 60 metres up the beach from Menegan.
"There was a huge blast and flames shot three or four metres into the air," said Mr Katoppo.
"Ball-bearings started flying everywhere - one hit a friend in the stomach and another in the right shoulder. If I had still been sitting in my place, they would have hit me in the head.
"We really did escape death. It was such a close call."
A western family sitting close to where the bomb exploded was not so lucky, Mr Katoppo recalled. "They didn't move and so they must have all been killed or very badly injured."
It was then that the screaming started. "There were so many bodies and people crying out for help," he said. "There was blood on the ground, broken chairs and tables and it was generally chaotic."
Bali's police chief, Maj Gen Made Mangku, said 20 of the 22 victims died in Jimbaran.
Nyoman Rante, a chef at the Bela Seafood Cafe, halfway between the two targeted restaurants, said there were not many foreigners in the area at the time.
"These terrorists say they want to attack foreigners, but while there were some foreigners, the majority were locals," he said. "I just can't understand why they did it."
His colleague, Kadeq Ciku, who was waiting at tables, said the injuries looked horrific.
"There was blood everywhere," he said. "People had gashes on their heads, their arms and their bodies. Some people looked to be badly burned and many people were in shock. They were just screaming and screaming."
As the cries for help continued, everyone suddenly stopped in their tracks as they heard another blast. "It was a long way away, but it seemed like another bomb," said Mr Kadeq.
He was right. The explosion, at 7.45pm, was a third suicide bomber detonating the bomb in his backpack at the back of the ground floor of the Raja restaurant in Kuta, about 15 miles from Jimbaran.
"There was a huge boom and lots of thick black smoke," said Rob van Berkuyl, a Dutch tourist, who had been eating dinner on the restaurant's first-floor balcony, overlooking the street.
"It was hard to breathe and it smelled like burning plastic. Two waiters who I saw heading for the stairs just before the explosion must have been badly injured at the very least."
Mr van Berkuyl and his friends realised they would not be able to escape down the stairs through the thick smoke so returned to the balcony.
"Some Australian or British guys were pulling furniture out of the restaurant and piling it up so we were able to climb down from the balcony," he said.
"There was glass everywhere, panic on the streets and people were bleeding. I found my friends and amazingly we only had one small scratch between us." - (Guardian service)