Big Breakers in Bali

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Arrival in Bali was traumatic! In brief - the flight was delayed, the airport ATM didn't accept VISA, paying for the taxi in dollars cost a fortune, the first town we tried, Legian was beautiful but too expensive, the second, Kuta was like Ibiza for Australians and the cheapest beer we found was over £2 a bottle. After a night in a pretty rough guest house we hired a bike to look around, got pulled by the police, I lost a ring on the side of the road and I burnt my leg badly on the bike exhaust. Thankfully, after this we found a decent hotel in Kuta out of the crazy night life street but still in the mix and things did improve.

Bali is just one of 17,000 islands in the Indonesian archipelago and the only Hindu society in SEA. A volcanic island with a population over 3m, Bali is rich in culture and privilaged in it's landscape but unfortunately is now seeing some of the detrimental effects of tourist and commercialisation.

We headed straight to the fantastic 8km long golden beach on day 2 feeling optimistic and in need of a refreshing dip. Looking for the safe-to-swim flags we found them closed together i.e. no swimming... surfing it was then! Math's bad ankle meant that he had to sit on the beach drinking beer and eating free pizza (poor boy!) whilst I went out for a lesson. I hoped that within the hour I would get up on the board once or twice but in fact the excellent instruction had me on my feet first try, balancing in 5 tries and kind of in control and steering within 10. With my teacher choosing the waves and helping me get the board back into the surf the session was a real success and towards the end I had a go at setting myself up but it seamed this was where the real skill was so progress was slow. Nevertheless, I had learnt enough for me to be able to go out alone the following day and have a decent session with Math enjoying a body board. A very addictive sport and requiring so much fitness, mostly to get the board out into the surf through the 6' waves, it was an exhausting couple of days for a beginner.

In order to explore the island a little more we hired a bike on day 4 and went to Uluwatu on the Bukit peninsula. Uluwatu is one of the best surfing locations in the world but since my surfing teacher had told us he didn't surf there because he didn't want to die we knew we would just be watching. The enchanting village is pure surfing mecca with surf gear shops, repair shops, photo shops and a few bars and restaurants cut into the rocks in the cliff. Steep steps wind through the shacks down to a cave below which is the only access to the water. There is no beach, just rocks and coral and suicide surfers bashing about. Watching for a while with the photographers from one hidden ledge we were in awe of the skill and bravery of the guys inside the 15' breaks.

We also stopped by Jimbaran Bay, a beautifully deserted beach, for a play in the crazy breaking waves and weird swirling currents. We were caught out a few times paddling in a few inches of water with freak waves higher than our heads. Such fun!

Whilst most of the restaurants here are geared up for the many holiday makers, it is possible to eat cheaply if you eat what the local eat... as always, it's the best food anyway! Here, the dish is 'Nasi Campur', literally meaning mixed rice. The dish is kind of like buffet and in most cases is likely to be left overs. Served in a pyramid of folded grease proof paper for take out or a banana leaf in a basket if your eating in, the dish comprises of a dome of rice plus anything else that might be to hand. Perhaps curry egg, chicken or fish, sauteed vegetables, chilli relish, tempe (soya bean cake), veg or potato fritter and/or and/or... we fell in love with this and soon decided it was our favourite cuisine of the whole trip. Other good Indonesian dishes we tried were 'Nasi Goreng' - a meat and veg fried rice topped with a fried egg and 'Gado Gado' - steamed veg topped with peanut sauce. We shall definitely be trying to replicate Indonesian food when we get home.

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