In Between Dreams

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Gee whiz, they are coming thick and fast now aren’t they!

Bali has a peninsula at the bottom of the Island called Bukit and it consists of many areas of natural beauty. Most of the coastline has fantastic surf and is world renowned with many of the surfing world travelling there each season.

We arrived there after a drive from Sanur, we nearly lost our lives about three times, which for the Bali roads makes it a cool journey. We had planned to stay first on the West coast at a place called ‘Dreamlands’, the name unfortunately did not describe the environment. Dreamlands used to be an authentic Balinese style coastal resort with small ‘warungs’ and ‘losmen’ dotted up and down the beach.(That is losmen Lisa, not loose men). Now it is a completely different picture, a massive hotel and leisure complex is in the process of being built and it has all of the authenticity of Vegas. We were bitterly disappointed but decided to move further down the coast to try our luck with another well known place called Bingin.

It did not disappoint, we first found a place to stay called “Leggi’s”, it was a traditional style bungalow in the middle of beautiful gardens, with a place that served food attached. It fitted our first night perfectly as there was room to park the car outside and a little lane down to the beach. The peace was only disturbed by about fifteen workmen trying to finish the pool by pouring cement into a large hole, you have to admire their workmanship. It resembled a job that I would do, but with fewer tea & toilet breaks. During the afternoon we took a walk down to the beach and we were amazed by the various options of accommodation that are perched on the beach cliff edge. They are extremely traditional and made out of just bamboo, so you think a strong bit of wind would blow them over, Em provided this on numerous occasion during the night but they survived. We looked down the beach at the various options and decided to pick somewhere for the remainder of our time there. You just could not beat the view, it was just perfect, high cliffs surrounded the back of the beach with small headlands jutting out on both sides. The fact that there are fantastic reef break options all along was merely coincidental

We went out for dinner in the evening driving a couple of kilometres away to a restaurant called the “Green Mango”. This place was perched on a hill with a terrace overlooking the sea and at that time in the evening you could count the fishing trawlers setting up for the night time catch. We walked in expecting a packed place but were pleasantly surprised to find that we were the only customers. The food mimicked the atmosphere, with a hint of Western / Indonesian fusion (I don’t know what that means but I saw in on the menu). It was a really romantic night with the people working there just topping it off with perfect friendly service.

Waking up the next day brought the time for our move down to the beach palace. The place that we had selected was called “Suzy’s Warung” it had housed travelling surfers for many years and most of them had left their mark with a comment inked into the wall. Suzy’s was run, by of course, Suzy and a lady called Made. Suzy brought her kid’s to work and their dogs, so it made for a really family feel. It was rustic though, the bathroom had just a pipe coming out of the wall for a shower, no hot water and a cockroach that stayed on the toilet floor for our entire stay. Our room was made of flimsy bamboo which housed the little critters would visit us nightly, however we did have some power. The shining light of the place was the balcony, I won’t try to over describe it I just ask you to look at the photos, in my opinion the view was what dreams are made of.

We quickly settled in and with the tide moving from low to mid and a new swell pushing through I thought that some water action was needed. The waves were unbelievable with a constant height of four feet and super shallow. The barrels were out and everyone was trying to get one. The water here is just translucent; you may say that is the case all around the world but I again ask you to join me on a trip down the Welsh coast and I can prove otherwise. The sun was doing its thing, the waves were peeling through, Smith had just got a cover up and when you looked back at the beach all you could see was green beauty. To the left of Bingin is a wave called ‘Impossibles’ that breaks just over sharp reef, it would also be cranking over the next few days.

After all of the day’s actions the empty bellies were calling and we went on the search for some sustenance. Up and down the beach we walked but most places were either closed or just had accommodation. As you can imagine my nerves were slightly jangled and the hypoglycaemic young lady next to me was getting positively deluded. Then we saw a dim light from down the beach and we walked towards it, full of hope and empty of carbs. We stumbled wearily up the beachfront steps and towards the bright light. We were met by the sounds of French voices and approached the man who seemed to be running the show. His name was ‘Didi’ and he was just BBQing some food for his guests but after we explained our predicament, and he took a look at Stones’s expression, he could see that the matter was serious. Feed me Seymour, feed me now! So Didi did, he sat us down next to the dog and produced what can only be described as the best Mahi-Mahi I had ever had. It was actually the first time that I tried it but who cares, it rocked. We had a couple of Bintangs to make the food go down and slowly sloped off to bed.

The next day brought more amazing waves as a continuation of yesterday’s delights. We lazed on the beach mid surfs and sampled the food that our ‘Suzy’ could muster. We were provided with quite a complex menu and at each meal time we would choose what we wanted from it, only to told that the ingredients were not present. In the end we cut to the chase most times and asked Suzi what she could cook, it mainly came down to Nasi Goreng, jaffles and curry. The warung was pretty quiet and only a cool guy from England called Jason was staying there at the time. In the afternoon we decided to use the jeep and go up coast to the surf mecca of Uluwatu. The place has adorned more front covers than Jordan, that is the dim witted, top heavy fraction rather than the troubled middle Eastern state. It is a beach with cliff top access, the cliff houses a deeply important Hindu temple and the beach accommodates surfers dreams from every continent. We watched the surf roll in and with the waves crowded we saw the side of the cliff buzz with surfers from around the globe. After a couple of hours sampling the chaos we mooched back to our much quieter retreat, to catch another evening of glass off.

The evening brought a new selection of eatery as we dined at a place suggested to us called “YeYe’s”. It was packed to the rafters and we were lucky to get offered a bed, yes you were offered beds to eat on. We declined sitting next to all of the action and ripping through their menu with great delight. The food filled a hole but did not put a mark on the blotching paper of the ‘Mango’.

Groundhog day, we awoke to the sound of waves and the heat of the sun, it kills you doesn’t its? After our early venture into the water, both myself and the Stone I may add, we decided to go down coast again and take a look at ‘Padang Padang’, this is another surfing anomaly producing world class barrels. This day it wasn’t producing even a ripple, it must have had the day off, may be a flexi. In the evening we packed our stuff up as we would leave the next day and headed back to the Green Mango for our last supper. As we pulled into the car park we could see the lights were on but after further investigation no-one appeared to be home (A bit like Jen after a night out at the Huntsman, ooh she likes a drink that girl). We ventured further, calling out and no-one appeared until we went closer to their residential quarters behind the restaurant. The owners came out, child laden, apologising that they were not there to welcome us. Emma and I informed them that it was OK and we would accept their apology, only if they cooked us up another storm. The place was solely ours again.

After rising from the pit and an early feed we took our stuff and made the walk down from our room for the last time. Both Made and Suzy were downstairs to say goodbye, we gave Suzy a hug and said thanks, the same for Made. The only problem was that Made was a bit vertically challenged and she hugged the top of my kneecap, anyway she was still a couple of inches taller than Marco. We walked away from Bingin waving goodbye at Chocolate the dog and felt honoured that we had experienced that. If you can close your eyes to the rough edges then this place would supply you with smooth memory.

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