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Published: March 15th 2007
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Sanur Beach
Ben's getting arty!! Our first port of call in Bali was the surf spot of Kuta. A very lively, touristy beach town packed with pro surfers and wannabe's like us! Not wanting to feel left out of the surfer scene we decided to book ourselves into Surf School and by the end of our first lesson we were both standing up riding the waves.. a little wobbly mind you but we were up and living the dream!! Our second lesson taught us how to paddle out into the waves head on... sending us flying off our boards! The waves were a little rough and we were left feeling very battered and bruised by the end of the second morning. The day of our third lesson brought very strong winds and an undercurrent that sent us sideways! Apparently Kuta was receiving the after effects of a hurricane which was blowing off the north coast of Australia and our lesson was promptly abandoned. We came away from the lessons feeling very sorry for ourselves... Ben with a black toe, half of the skin missing off of his big toe and a bruised chin from where he took the board full on, on the chin after misjudging
a big wave and Rachel with a big black bruise to the elbow and two hands covered in blisters (I had to be taped up.. very attractive) ....but we were eager to learn more!
Lessons had to be postponed as we were leaving Kuta the next morning to head to Sanur, a little port on the east coast. One night there was enough, there wasn't much going on so bright and early we set sail for the little island of Nusa Lembongan which was supposedly an ideal place to practice our surfing. So we hired a board (half the size of the one we learnt on) and looking like we'd been there and done it all before we headed out to 'the playground' to catch some waves... three hours later we gave up.. we were surrounded by pro's showing us up and we were clearly not ready for the big waves that were rolling in... back to Surf School with our tails between our legs!!
During our time on the island we decided to rent another moped.. this time christened 'Howard'... we took him for a spin and discovered 'Dream Beach', a beautiful little bay that we had all to
ourselves. It took us a whole 20 minutes to drive around the island, passing many lines of drying seaweed... the main source of income for the islanders is seaweed farming, they sell it to the Japanese and Americans for beauty products and of course to eat, although it didn't look very appetising! With the surf too rough and the sweet smell of drying seaweed (plus the flies that swarmed around it) we decided to head back to Bali mainland. We were, without seeing the boat first, talked into jumping on a fishing boat for 'a private crossing' which was apparently cheaper and faster than the tourist boat. The following morning our boat arrived on time to whisk us off, all seemed well, just the two of us with our backpacks and a fisherman that didn't speak a word of english, we were proud of ourselves for taking some traditional transport.... not so proud 10 minutes later when 3 big baskets full of fish were dumped on top of our backpacks and 3 more passengers jumped aboard. The journey was painfully slow but our fellow passengers helped pass the time by introducing us to some local fruit, of which we had
troubles getting into, which they seemed to find highly amusing! Eventually to our relief we made it onto dry land and headed towards the small town of Candi Dasa, where we can be found in a cosy garden bungalow overlooking the beach... we even have our own private sunbeds and a pool all to ourselves. The comfy sunbeds came in handy after a 30 km bike ride that seemed like a good idea at the time! We were running out of money and the nearest ATM machine was 15 km away in the next town but rather than getting a lift we hired two squeeky mountain bikes with THE most uncomfortable seats EVER!... neither of us are in a hurry to get back on a bike and two days later we are still struggling to sit down properly on our very tender bums! Tomorrow we are off to the cultural town of Ubud... sorry no photos on this blog the computers are pre-historic! We will update when we get back to civilisation!
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Blinchy
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Happy Birthday
Hi Guys , sorry its been a while since I was last in touch . Looks like your having a great time & you've picked up a few cuts & bruises doing the old surfing . I’m not going to have access to the internet for about 2 weeks now so I just wanted to say Happy Birthday mate for this weekend . Also we move into our house on the 19th of this month so I’ll send you some picture’s once we’re in there . Laura sends her love , Speak to you soon . Blinch xxx