Surfin’ Safari

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By: Christina

With four straight days of surfing under our belts, the title for this entry was a no-brainer. Surfing has played a prominent role in our visit to Bali, and Dan and the kids have thoroughly enjoyed their time hanging ten. I, on the other hand, have engaged in some major retail therapy – be it at the shops lining the streets of Seminyak, or with the folks plying their wares on Kuta Beach. By land and by sea, all of us have thoroughly enjoyed our time in Bali.

The flight from Lombok to Bali was the shortest one I ever have taken – 14 minutes and 27 seconds (I know this exactly because Grayson carefully timed it). The views from the plane window were glorious, with the shining blue sea below and islands with golden beaches scattered about. All of us were pretty jazzed to be arriving in Bali because we knew it would be a beautiful and comfortable way to end our time in Indonesia. We were not disappointed.

Enjoying our hammock
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As always, our first order of business was our accommodations. I had decided to harken back to the early days of the trip when we were in apartments and cottages, and had booked us a little house, with plenty of space and a kitchen where we could cook meals (or certainly make coffee). Villa Prana Bali was perfect. It was in the town of Seminyak, an up-and-coming part of Bali (a lot of expats live there), that still retains a rural feel with rice paddies and roadside restaurants (warungs). Our little house was set in a lush tropical garden with a swimming pool, and had two spacious bedrooms, two bathrooms (one with a great outdoor shower) and a little outdoor kitchen and dining area. I would spend mornings swinging from our hammock overlooking the garden, while sipping my coffee. Nice.

Kuta
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Villa Prana was also quiet as all get out. There were no minarets with loudspeakers screaming out at the crack of dawn* (Bali is primarily Hindu) and Indonesia’s legendary squawking roosters do not seem to have conquered this part of the island. The only noises are the birds singing in the trees and the surf crashing in the distance (we were about a half kilometer from the beach). (*To be clear: I love the call to prayer at any other time of the day. The sound of the minaret is a comforting and hauntingly beautiful part of traveling in Muslim countries. It is just tough to take at 4 or 5 am, particularly if it continues for close to a half hour (as it did on Gili T).)

Abby and Cate dealing with touts on Kuta Beach
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Like Hawaii (and believe me, there are a lot of parallels), Bali has a type of trade wind that blows most of the time. For this reason, it has not been as sweltering hot here as some of the other places we have visited in Indonesia. Don’t get me wrong, it is still plenty hot, but the breeze helps keep the sweat down a bit. Bali is also very developed, so pretty much every single building you go into has the air conditioning cranked up on high. This helps with the heat factor as well.

Our friends Liam and Cate had highly recommended Rip Curl School of Surf, so we headed there and signed up for surf lessons for Dan and the kids. As mentioned, the surfing was a huge hit. All three of them got up on the board without any problems, and by the end of the first day, were riding the waves for fairly good distances. Lessons were repeated on subsequent days and Grayson also rented a board and surfed for hours at a time. He got into surfing so much that he is talking about surf camp for next summer. Look for Grayson’s separate blog entry covering the surfing.

Pool at Villa Prana Bali
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In past visits to Bali, I have enjoyed the shopping, but nothing like I did on this trip. The streets of Seminyak are literally lined with boutiques, each with unique clothing, jewelry and artwork. There are also a lot of clothes catering to the surfing crowd (Rustys, Billabong, Rip Curl, Surfer Girl, etc.), and the newly christened surfers in the group had to buy boardies and rash shirts to complete their looks. Surprisingly, Dan and I managed to steer clear of the stone artwork even though we loved it. Given our existing load, we just couldn’t see how to get anything else home!

Villa Prana Bali
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After seeing a stuffed monkey in Cate’s suitcase, Abby became obsessed with getting one of her own to take home. We couldn’t find the monkey in any of the shops, however, so I had to call Cate in Australia (they went home mid-way through our Bali time). She was able to provide specific instructions on where to find the coveted monkey, so one day Abby and I headed over to Bali’s main department store, Matahari, to pick one up. Since then, Abby has been toting “Kuta” (named after Bali’s famous Kuta Beach) every where she goes.

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Visiting Matahari was really quite surreal. It had everything that you would find in a Macy’s back home – house wares, toys, lingerie, clothing, shoes, etc. Like Bangkok, Bali is one touristy place and all of the creature comforts can be found there. Most of the Balinese people make their living off of tourism in one way or another, and it is really weird to see fancy villas, hotels, spas, and restaurants everywhere, when a week ago we were driving past rustic villages on Lombok. Sadly, the legacy of the terrorist bombings in 2002 and 2005 continues to have a huge impact on this ordinarily peaceful and gentle country. While Bali appears to be slowly recovering from the “Bali bombings,” other islands like Lombok and Sulawesi are still hurting for tourist dollars.

Our final night on the island was spent getting the full Balinese spa experience at a place near our house. At my coaxing, Dan agreed to join us (he usually does not partake in the massage excursions), which worked out well since there were two-person treatment rooms. He and Grayson trundled off to one room and Abby and I to another, where we were massage, scrubbed, rubbed down, and bathed in a seaweed and flower strewn bath (Abby loved this). The grand finale was a “cream bath” on our hair, where vast quantities of conditioner were rubbed into our hair as part of a neck and head massage. We exited the spa feeling relaxed, clean, and hopeful that our skin and hair might actually have slightly recovered from all the sun and salt water we have been enjoying.

Continuing a tradition started at the beginning of the trip, we headed down Jelang Legian for our “last supper” at Wild Ginger. There we dined on Asian fusion dishes while listening to a live version of “The Hotel California” play over and over (they must have had the CD player on repeat mode). While waddling home, we checked out the Southern Cross for the last time.

With all our surfing, shopping, eating and massaging going on, we failed to take advantage of the numerous cultural experiences that Bali has to offer. It was just painfully clear to me and Dan that we would not be able to convince the younger crowd to go for a walk in Ubud, watch a dance performance, or visit a temple. That’s fine. Now we have an excuse to return.