Bali - Riding Waves (ish)

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14 December 2010

Today marks the end of our first week in Bali and poor old Mr P still hasn’t been riding waves. Today’s mission was therefore to obtain a board. This board needed to not a) not break the bank b) not be at risk of breaking the moment it hit a wave; and c) a body board. Not an easy combination in Bali it turns out as it is all about the stand up boards here and it is hard to find body boards, let alone those in the right size. Today, I have therefore learned a lot about body boards today, such that I feel something of an authority on the subject.

We also have to take the jeep back tomorrow so we wanted to make the most of it whilst we have it - we’re not sure what we are going to replace it with as yet.

We set out in overcast conditions making it feel cooler than it has for the last few days, the grey skies reminded me of rainy autumnal days at home but, of course, that is where the similarities end. The search for a wave rider needed to take us back into Kuta. As the crow flies, we are probably no more than 3 to 4 miles outside of Kuta but that does not translate into a quick hop to the shops. The roads around Kuta are crammed full, mainly with mopeds and are not really wide enough to cope with the modern volume of traffic. This translates into a crawling along whilst trying not to side swipe any of the insane moped drivers tightly packed in all around you.

I am not the world’s greatest passenger under normal circumstances and the trials and tribulations of these roads therefore makes for stressful journeys for both of us. Today, I was on a promise to be on my best behaviour. The trouble is that sometime “watch it” slips through my clenched teeth totally involuntarily. We both survived with relatively unfrayed tempers which was nothing short of a miracle. Gregg kept explaining to me where he intended to park and how we were going to get there. It is absolutely no exaggeration to say that I had not a clue what he was going on about. I thought I did, I was absolutely sure that I knew where we were when he stopped the car even but we were a good mile away from there. Fortunately, Gregg knew both where he was going and where to find the necessary shops to peruse so we were, almost, on to a winner.

The delightful by product of Gregg’s desire to find a board is that they are almost always homed in shops that also sell clothes which, happily gave me something to do whilst he assessed the size of the boards on offer and, even more importantly, the price. A number of the shops that we went into had boards but few of the right size and none of the right price.

We eventually found our way right along the main street in Kuta with still no board in our possession. By this time, it was lunch time and we were both in need of liquid refreshment and food. So, we decided to have a meander along Poppies 1. Poppies 1 is one of two side streets in Bali that are home to numerous shops, warungs, restaurants and inexpensive accommodation. 3 ½ years ago when we were last here, we both recalled that one warung on Poppies 1 showed daily films and were slightly sad that we hadn’t clapped eyes on it during our stay in Kuta - concluding that it must have been replaced by something a little more glitzy. As we wondered along Poppies 1, we discovered that it had been replaced - by a brand new building but it still had surf boards hanging from the ceiling, friendly staff and a film advertised for the evening. The place was also advertising free wifi and therefore became the obvious choice for lunch.

As we waited for our food to arrive we uploaded a couple of blogs and checked our e-mail for what seemed like the first time in ages. A computer loses a certain element of its appeal when you can’t Google away to your hearts’ content and, whilst we continue to try to keep up to date with typing the blog, it hasn’t really been used for much in the last few days.

Time was marching on, Gregg still didn’t have a board and we had a yoga class that we wanted to make at 4pm. Having been to a class every day since we arrived, sense kicked in at this point and we decided not to rush to the class for the sake of it and that, if we didn’t make it, our bodies probably needed a rest day anyway. There followed a delightful hour or so of meandering in and out of shops to cries of “…you want massage…” “…braid your hair…” “…good afternoon…come look in my shop, just looking…maybe you buy…“ and, on one occasions at least, “…ephedrine???…” . I remember finding this constant wailing very trying last time that we were in Bali, thinking that surely anyone could read from our body language that we were far less likely to “…maybe buy…” if we weren’t hassled. Our travels through Asia have however opened my eyes considerably. The hassle isn’t as bad here as elsewhere, it is nearly always accompanied by a smile and it is no wonder that each person is so keen to obtain your custom when you notice that there are twenty shops along the same street all selling the same thing.

Winding our way back towards the jeep, we found ourselves back on a main street. That means two things firstly, lots of mopeds and secondly a new type of disturbance - “…you want transport?…”. Of course we didn’t need transport, we had our own. This particular mode of transport had not become anymore comfortable in our absence and was now unbearably hot so we hopped in and cranked up the aircon. Remarkably, for a car of its age, the aircon does actually work as does the radio - well, the speakers crackle a bit but we have actually been able to listen to our own music streamed from the iPod.

We returned to the first shop that Gregg looked in on Sunday - not in Kuta - purchased board and sundries, stopped in at Carrefour to stock up on - water (!) - and then headed back towards ‘home’ for another home cooked rice supper.

15 December 2010

Gregg has a board, Gregg will surf. Today was also the last day of having the car and we were planning on attending a 4pm Yoga class so Gregg had plenty of time to find that wave. By ten past eight he was gone and I was also enjoying some ‘me’ time of my own. I’ve been doing a little bit of writing whilst we have been away (other than this blog) so I spent most of the time that Gregg was away tapping away on the Netbook. I am really only writing for my own benefit at the moment and it is amazing how quickly the hours whilst Gregg was away passed whilst I was so occupied.

Gregg was back with enough time for us both to head back into Kuta to drop off the car. Really, I just fancied seeing something different for a while and we did absolutely nothing in Kuta other than see to that task. Now we were in a position to take up one of the hooting taxi drivers on their offer of transport which we asked to take us straight to Yoga.

Having had a day of rest, during this class we both began to see how much more supple we have become in just one week. It is so true that seeing progress is great motivation because this was the first class that we both walked away from with the words ‘…I enjoyed that…’ rather than ‘…that was hard…’ or something similar.

We walked back along the (still busy with mopeds) roads that run between terraced paddy fields as the sun was beginning to drop and cast a peachy hue over the land. Even amongst the traffic, building work and waste, Bali was looking absolutely beautiful.

We had taken our Netbook with us to Kuta and Yoga in the hope of finding free wifi but had been unsuccessful, on the journey home we therefore decided that we would treat ourselves to a meal out somewhere with wifi. What neither of us realised is that, without transport, the closest place was quite a distance away and, even though we had waited until after dark, we were both really rather warm by the time that we arrived at an Italian restaurant, so authentic that it was actually run by an Italian lady who came around all of the tables towards the end of our meal and thanked everyone for coming.

Here, I decided to be brave and try a glass of local Hatten Rose wine. It was actually quite drinkable - but, please, do bear in mind that I haven’t consumed very much wine in the time that we have been away, so, really I am not at all qualified to make such an assessment.

Our journey to the restaurant was an eye opener - quite literally. Having the car was great but we had failed to notice numerous shops along the way which, between, them are so well stocked that we probably won’t need to make a trip to Carrefour for quite some time. We tested one out on the way home. It looked like a small aircraft hangar, was pretty well stocked and is easily walkable from home - but something tells me that we won’t last for long without any transport. How else is Gregg going to get to the sea?

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Photos

You find these offerings in front of nearly every door way in Bali
they smell great because they include a couple of joss sticks but, apparently, once the ritual is complete they become superfluous and people seem quite happy to trample through the middle of them

...or like this...
for next year's weddings, he says.