Because our scooter was zooming towards it! Speaking of birds.... I'm really excited to be heading to Singapore as there won't be any roosters to wake me up at 5 AM. ANYWAYS...
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| ~CRAZY EYES!~ |
So, it’s been a while since we’ve blogged.... Bali went by in a bit of a blur. Where in Thailand we had specific activities and adventures planned basically daily, in Bali we took things day by day, and mostly just played.
We stayed a week at Echo Beach, Canggu area, and then moved on to Balangan. We had specifically chosen both of these areas b/c of their proximity to beginner/intermediate surf breaks. We loved both areas, as they were quite quiet BUT the waves were quite big in both places for several days.
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| ~ Quiet enough for a snake to cohabitate with us ~ |
We did however get opportunities to surf, I had 2 lessons (and then figured that if my instructor was only asking me “What happened?” after I didn’t catch a wave, or ate it, that it wasn’t very beneficial... If I knew what I did wrong, or knew how to surf well, would I be getting a lesson?) and Lockey surfed probably 4 x at echo beach and then 2 x when we were in Balangan (both on the same day) in the morning at Balangan break and in the afternoon at dreamland... The waves at Balangan were SICK! Gorgeous color and we saw guys getting barrelled!!!
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| ~ Lockey surfing at Dreamland~ |
Dreamland was bogus. A million people there and a huge complex, waterpark and resort being built right where the locals love to surf... no longer a dreamland unfortunately. But the waves there were decent, softer and smaller.
Because the waves were so big at Echo beach I had suggested we try kitesurfing. I had seen some brochures, and Lockey hadn’t done it since we lived in Texas, and I thought I might get some lessons too. So Lockey did some research and found us a place in Sanur, a mere hour (sarcasm intended... any length of scooter ride is too long in Bali as your life is basically in danger the minute you get onto a road...) scooter ride from our cute little 24 room resort.
*Side note* Our resort was killer. It had 2 pools, overlooked the beach, had a trampoline, outdoor pingpong, 2 outdoor movies a night, volleyball nets and the best free breakfast we’ve had (not that we had time to enjoy ALL of these perks, but it was nice that it was there! ) *Tangent finished... back to my main point*.
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| ~ Balangan Beach ~ |
SO we went to Sanur, to kite beach which they had doctored by adding sand and creating a break to make it ideal for kite surfing. Lockey had gotten us both lessons, (him a brush up, and me a beginner) and we went to it. I hung out on the beach for a bit (maybe 20 mins) practicing w/ a 1 meter trainer kite, reviewing how to handle the kite (as I had flown our kites on land in Texas a few years previously). And Lockey got to start in the water. By the time the instructor got me into the water he decided that Lockey in fact didn’t need a lesson, so sent the boat that was accompanying Lockey back to shore and let Lockey just rent the kite and board. Lockey was on a roll, he picked it right back up, and he loved it! He stayed out there for over 3 hours! By the end of his first day back kitesurfing he had gotten some big airs and a back roll, and grabs. By the end of my first day I had cleared out my sinuses REALLY well, was bloated on salt water, and had gotten up on the board 3 times... well sort of... maybe once that actually counted... but I had fun! So I planned on going the next morning too.... until I woke up and couldn’t move my neck... So I took some extra strength advil (Loni would be proud!), accompanied my man to Sanur, and brought along my book, a towel and sunscreen (all staples in Bali).
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| ~ Lockey kiteboarding after more than a 4 year hiatus! ~ |
Actually I did try to go for a run that day, but when I got on this path a short ways from the beach there was a HUGE sign that said “RABIES” and then had a couple of paragraphs in Balinese and a big picture of a dog baring it’s teeth... I started to continue on the path anyways (brilliant right?) but alas, I thought better of it and turned back to the beach. So I’m glad to report that I am still rabies free!
So after Lockey’s 2nd day of kitesurfing, again for a ridiculous amount of time... He’s always the longest one out there... He had accomplished a double back roll, double scarecrow, roll to revert, front roll, raleys, and surfed in the waves.
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| ~ Cock Dogg showing the world what's up ~ |
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| ~ Ow Ow!!! That's ma boyfriend, that's ma boyfriend... Lockey's hooked in raley... stellar moves. ~ |
He had a great time, and was worried that I would be bored, but I hadn’t even opened my book! I met a French guy who had been in Bali for 9 months and kiteboarding for just as long and had learned some Balinese. I met a woman from Perth who had her own kiting school in Perth and her girlfriend was teaching her other friend to kitesurf. I met a girl from Zurich who was traveling btwn her semesters and was just learning to kite also. I chatted w/ these people for the whole 3 hours! The next time we went I met a couple from London who had just learned to kitesurf in Vietnam, a mother from Perth who loved absailing (she’d never heard the word repelling) and had just gotten married in Bali and her new husband was learning to kitesurf, another woman from Australia who had sailed around Australia and Indonesia for 10 years, and a Belgian living in Mexico working for the UN in Disaster prevention. (They don’t actually prevent the disasters like it sounds like, they just prepare for them by building stronger structures, educating the people on where to build their homes, farms and businesses etc. I thought it would’ve been cool if they could shoot off some bizarre rocket into the atmosphere to ward off a looming hurricane... one day perhaps... I’ll invent it I think.) Anyways, very interesting all the people you meet just hanging out at the kitesurfing shack.
We had to skip a day of kitesurfing as Lockey kept rubbing off his sunscreen around his eyes and got uber burnt. But the next day we were ready to go again! Lockey had helped me to understand the theory behind kiting better (my instructors didn’t feel the need to tell me what to do AFTER I got up, therefore on my first lesson after I got up I didn’t STAY up) and I felt prepared to rock that day. (I was being optimistic). Anyways, I got up on my second try! It was pretty rad. And I continued to be able to get up, and I even got up switch more than once! (Lockey was in the boat which was super helpful b/c he’d give me tips on what to do, he even got me to stop the kite which would stop the direction I was going in and then start in the opposite direction... Great coach!) All in all it was a successful kitesurfing session for me.
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~ I'm basically shred din it, while my coach Pande watches in awe ~
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| ~ I am now ripping it up..... all those layers kinda make it look like the pilsbury dough boy is ripping it up actually... I swear it's just the layers! ~ |
After I was done my lesson I stayed in the boat and the followed Lockey a bit so I could get some pictures of him being awesome. Unfortunately, I’m not such a great photographer... one time I even thought I was recording him, and I really wasn’t... whoops! But I am a witness that he really did do the things he said he did even if I didn’t catch it all on tape. |
Another activity we did was go to the movies. It’s a random thing that we like to do in foreign countries, get out of the sun and see how the locals live day to day. Going to the malls and movies is pretty standard everywhere. We were surprised that we actually had assigned seating at the movie, and apparently you need to get there really early or you get the front row (we only made that mistake once) Also there are only 2 movies to choose from. So we saw Harry Potter (**insert shout out to Sheena here**) and although I don’t know all of the history I still enjoyed it. The other movie we went to was Transformers 3... Decent flick, not gonna lie!
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| ~At the Movies with Chic Chocs~ |
One afternoon before our movie we went to the arcade at the mall... Lockey was basically dominating the DDR. I tried and just didn’t have the coordination for it... but I recorded him doing it which I think was just as fun... maybe more fun... And then we played a basketball game... guess who won? And we played a cat and mouse game... who got more tickets? And then we played Dino Dash... Lockey copied my technique and beat me first round... But then I came back to win the 2nd round!!! Ya that’s right the ONLY game I won.... and I got 100 bonus tickets!! Whoo whoo! I was pretty stoked when we won that magnum bar b/c I had won Dino Dash (never mind that Lockey actually won more games than me, b/c I won more TICKETS!) It was all good fun! And sharing our icecream bar was icing (or icecream?) on the cake.
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| DDRing to the EXTREME |
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| ~You're supposed to hit the Mice and not the Cats, but I don't discriminate... nor do I win... ~ |
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| ~Hitting the Dino Dash JACKPOT~ |
Also at the mall they have this great place called “Breadtalk”.... fresh baked bread, like homemade bread, not your average Safeway Bakery... it made me really happy. Oh and we also found this place called Roti Canai, and the Roti was to die for! (But apparently Roti isn’t always “Roti”, sometimes it’s just bread rolls, or bakery crap, don’t be fooled. it was even different from regular indian roti... I”ll have to find a recipe, and if I do I’ll blog it.)
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| ~ Roti is the bomb diggity, and they serve it with a bag of curry that was ridiculously delicious, so obviously Lockey needed to suck it out of the bag... Literally ~ |
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| ~Locklyn w/ his bag of curry and me w/ my sweet chocolate condensed milk roti, why don't we utilize condensed milk more in Canada?~ |
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| ~Yee Haw for Tigers - These things are battery operated and kids actually ride them around the mall and apparently so does Locklyn ~ |
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| ~This is approximately a third of the scooters at the mall~ |
We also got a couple more massages. The first one was a reflexology massage, which I’m not going to lie, really actually hurts. Lockey hated it, and maybe even cried a little, I didn’t love it, BUT I had the best sleep EVER that night! I didn’t even want to get up to go to our kitesurfing lesson that day! (but I did.) The last one we had was supposed to be a deep tissue type of massage after all of our kitesurfing adventures, so we get onto the tables and I don’t know if Lockey’s girl asked him or not, but my girl asked if it was ok if she put her legs on me, which I said sure, b/c that’s how they do Thai massages too.... This was different.... She literally had a surf stance on my back and was alternating pressure from one foot to the other, and then putting her toes next to my spine and pushing away to make it crack... Also she was basically asphyxiating me when she would step on my upper back... very uncomfortable and my spine still feels bruised. Other than that part it was actually quite relaxing! Lockey relayed the story somewhat the same, but with much more passion.... “And she was digging her elbows where they didn’t belong! She was basically giving me a beating... she drop kicked me in the back! She jumped on my spine! She pancaked my biceps!” He’s very dramatic about it all... But it entertains me, and I just tell him he’s a big baby... (Which we all know boys can be when they are sick or hurt....)
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| ~ More Massage OK? ~ |
Bahaha, speaking of hurt, after Lockey’s first day kitesurfing he had a SWEET burn line... he looked like he had colored his man thighs w/ a pink highlighter!!! As for me, my hurt was my thigh too... holy hannah a bruise the size of my hand on my inner thigh from hitting my kiteboard! But I don’t remember getting it! And Lockey had rashes on his chest from surfing, and on his waist from the harness kitesurfing... It was kind of hilarious. We almost couldn’t touch eachother! (Almost...)
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| ~ Bahahaha, Burn Shorts - OUCH ~ |
Holy this is a really long blog... you can stop reading any time... BUT I”m still going to continue.
We also went to Ubud. The capital city of Bali. It was the same as any other city or town in Bali... Down each street you will find:
Warungs/restaurants (A warung IS in fact a restaurant... but not... you get food and a place to sit... but not the atmosphere or the government tax... and you may get a tapeworm... free of charge) (the food just sits out all day... we avoided food that we didn’t see getting prepared.)
Salon/Spa/Maaaassssaaaaaage OK?
Motorbike rentals
Hotels
Art Galleries/tourist shops...
Temples
Lather, rinse and REPEAT!!!
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| ~ Cool Wood Horses~ |
So we saw the Royal temple in Ubud, where they had just had a huge royal cremation ceremony a few days before, which was kind of neat. We then found another temple, which I was not permitted to go to.... Women have to have a sarong and waist sash as well as sleeves to enter... I somehow forgot my sash that day... (sarcasm again intended) SO I sat on the steps outside the compound while Lockey went in. Then he showed me pictures of what was inside... does that defeat the purpose? I suppose I didn’t defile the temple, so that’s a positive. One other rule which is the same for all of the temples, is that women cannot enter if they are menstruating... So if you’re sitting on the steps w/ your sarong and sash on, but not going in, then I know your secret!
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| ~ Royal Ubud Temple ~ |
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| ~ Chocolate Avocado Shake... tried it once... enough said. ~ |
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| ~ Down by the Crick in Ubud ~ |
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| ~Another temple in Ubud~ |
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| ~ Ubud Temple Dragon - What up Prycen? ~ |
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| ~ Ubud Temple Sculpture ~ |
Here are a couple of funny things that we heard people say in Bali:
-Transport Yes??? (we always said “transport no”....)
You have sexy calves, they are the size of my tigh (Said to me by my surf instructor who was a male, and when he said “tigh” he meant thigh... and it was true, my calves were the size of his thigh....)
No have.... this was said at every restaurant about at least one item, sometimes they would just warn you in advance.
I only surf in bed w/ one fin....
Boss... They liked to call Lockey “Boss”
Jiggy Jig (which I didn’t know what it meant, so I asked an old lady who “gaffawed” *that was for you mom*, aka laughed very loudly, and said “it’s Boom Boom... you know, the sex”... and the really old grandma laughed at me too... but they laugh at you in such a nice way you only feel a little silly...)
- don't drink too much, it make you fat. (This was said about the very small can of milk that I bought, when Lockey had just picked out a full sized can of ginger ale... and my milk will make me fat? Don't worry my Balinese friend, your milk was icky, and rather than chug it I chose to CHUCK it. Why don't they have options, like skim? or even 1%? I'm pretty sure they only sell homo here... so ya, that just might make you fat...)
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| PLEASE click on this link and you'll understand |
That’s all I can think of off the top of my head...
Oh, and I almost forgot! That dreadful DMV experience we went through? Wasn’t for nothing! We actually got pulled over 2 out of the 3 times we went to Sanur! They were big traffic checks, and I’m sure these cops thought they just made a quick buck, but Lockey whipped out his international license like a guy who really belonged on that sketchy scooter, and they let us go both times... We saw other foreigners standing in line to pay their fine... Suckers!
And now I have exhausted 2 weeks worth of life experiences....
