"Relaxing" in Bali - Surfing, Scuba, Steal My Sunshine

Since our last post we've accomplished many of our mission objectives!

Our first day on Kuta beach we met a guy named Sugeng who teaches surfing and runs day tours of Bali. He was very nice & didn't push us too hard to buy something so we agreed to have surf lessons with him the next day. However, after 5 hours in the sun and water, Dave got so sick and sun burnt he had to sleep for 18 hours. I learned to surf alone (and became the world's best surfer) while Dave lay wrapped up like a mummy.

I spent the rest of the day catering to his food, water and medicinal needs (luckily I had the pills he *decided* not to bring). The next day, healthier, Dave had a surf lesson with Sugeng and I practiced on my own. We met a really nice couple from Germany who were staying in our hotel and had dinner with them that night. They had both traveled and studied all over the world and had lots of interesting and funny stories - their names were Ole and Uli - and Ole excelled in mimicking local accents! "Sorry, massaj finnis now."

(Dave now takes control of this post as Alice has molasses in her you know what! (fingers, jeez - this is a family blog)

We went out drinking with zie Germans, and ended up being invited to a Balinese birthday party on the street which entailed one drunk old Aussie belting out classics on his six string, about a dozen drunk Balinese guys (one who *really * liked Alice), a number of deep fried fish carcasses which had been enjoyed by the group several hours earlier, and us. There was lots of hugging, some sort of conflict which escalated into a fight but was immediately resolved with sincere apologies, and a water bottle full of gin passed between the lot. On our way back to our hotel we saw a motorbike accident, and one of the bikes swerving to avoid calamity ran up the back of Alice's heel, causing little harm but great excitement. Now anytime anyone tells a cool story she won't be left out.

The following morning, we were picked up by Sugeng and his brother at our hotel. We hired them to take us on a tour of Bali which was absolutely spectacular. Sitting on the back of their scooters, I imagined myself as the lead in Len's "Steal My Sunshine" music video (Dum da dun dun da).

We first went to a look out with a little temple and ocean views. We then went to a place called "Blow Water" which was a point surrounded by crashing waves which upon hitting the rocks created a 30 foot spray that surrounded you from three sides.

After Blow Water, we went to a recreational water spot area that is protected by law to preserve fish habitat. When we arrived we were instructed to have a seat, and then were bombarded with a menu of water sport options (all overpriced). Snorkeling for 1 hour was 40 USD each, a 15 minute "banana boat" ride was somewhere around 50, and there were a dozen other options which all seemed like something you'd do if you were out with the wife and your 5 year old twin daughters who all just had their hair put in braids. No thanks. The more we hesitated, the lower the prices got, and the one option that we were interested in - scuba diving - went from 90 USD each to 100 for the pair of us. We figured "hey, this is on our list", so off we went, under the sea! What was cool about this place was that you didn't need any certification, which is an expensive and time consuming process (safety - pffff). Alice and I were each given a little bag of bread to induce a feeding frenzy and saw so many amazing and beautiful fish. The instructor caught a little fish called a knife or blade fish, or something, and passed it between Alice and I. Tres cool.

We then had lunch, mie goreng our favorite, and then were off to discover more beaches. We found some beautiful spots, basked in the sun, read our books, and watched some amazing surfing. We ended our tour at a temple at the southern most point on the island. The temple is infested with aggressive and cunning monkeys, who steal tourists' glasses and sneak up on people and try to rip out their earrings. We weren't attacked ourselves, but saw some monkey fangs, and witnessed a monkey chewing on a Japanese woman's designer frames before it took off over the 500 foot cliff.

We watched the sun set from a top the temple cliff. I contemplated getting rid of Alice, once and for all (but then thought of all the medicine I'd have to carry from her pack).

After sunset, we got on our bikes and started on the hour or so ride back to our hotel. My driver's bike didn't have a light which meant he didn't see the crater in the middle of the road which resulted in a nasty bump, and a flat tire. We limped our little bike to a roadside repair shop, which only delayed our trip home by about 20 minutes. I thought in addition to the flat we were also going to run out of gas as we'd been on E for most of the afternoon. We stopped at a gas station, to my relief, but they were out of gas (?), so we pressed on with our future looking a little uncertain. Fortunately, there are these little roadside stalls that sell petrol by the liter, conveniently bottled in old Absolute Vodka bottles (hate to imagine some unknowing Australian chud thinking he'd sneak a shot). We filled up, made it home, did the math and realized we had been out for 11 hours.

Starving, we met up with zie Germans and went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. We were joined by a brother and sister from Holland who were friends of Uli's met while studying abroad in Melbourne. Maike, the sister, will be off to Sri Lanka in a couple weeks on a journalism internship in Columbo and we've made plans to meet up.

Tomorrow we've booked a slow boat to the Gili Islands where we're hoping to find a mango that is in season.