Mulloskeys Adventures Abroad

Okay… last but not least, all the other stuff we did over 4 days mixed together in one hodgepodge of a post. Fasten your seatbelts.!

Lets start with our resort. Erin found this wicked off season special for 4 nights which included breakfast, 1 dinner, 2 massages, free drinks, airport pick up, etc. for super cheap. It turned our to be super posh and well worth the $40 a night for the package. Even better, we were upgraded to the deluxe cottage as all the standard rooms were full. Rainfall shower, plasma screen, daily fruit baskets. It was the nicest place we have ever stayed.

Im not sure whether it is a Hindu tradition or simply Indonesian superstition, but everywhere you went you found offerings. These banana leaves filled with flowers and burning incense are placed in the front of buildings, establishments, on the roads and even on the beach in front of some guy selling beers. All are wishing good luck for the day. Luck is such an important part of life for these people. Even when you bartered really low, most gave in saying “okay - it’s for good luck”

As for beach culture, it’s very public here. There are no resorts on Kuta beach.. only across the road. This means access for locals and tourists alike. Every 15m you find the same set up: guys renting surfboards and another guy selling drinks out of a cooler on a stand.

The only bothersome part was people constantly soliciting for massages, T-shirts and crappy souvenirs. Erin tried to get a beach massage by one lady but it backfired. Others saw that she was “paying out” and knelt beside her head while getting ruined selling this and that. After there were 4 people doing this she finally gave up trying to relax. Occasionally there was some good stuff like this head pillow that looks like a mini folding chair.. but that’s about it

Kuta is a surfing mecca and we were surrounded by Aussies enjoy the huge waves. The morning is high tide with high rollers coming close to shore. Toward the afternoon the low tide gives swimmers and surfers shallow waters to take on easier waves and currents. Here is what is is like in the morning.

Even the McDonald’s has a place for customers to store their boards. And good ol’ Ronald shows us how it’s done.

I had been boogie boarding before but had never surfed. The waves seemed ideal and the pros out there made it look do-able. I had to try it. I rented a long board and dove in. My first thought was how much bigger the waves are once you are in the water. Second, how the hell do you get past them when they are crashing on you in a wall of white foam and rip currents? I spent 40 minutes been beaten and battered, tossed and flipped. While being tossed, I held onto my board for dear life. I was clearly out of my league here and exhausted from paddling. There is a reason why surfers have wicked bodies, it’s the hardest exercise there is. Here is me on my way out….

………and my not-so triumphant return; utterly exhausted and glad to be alive.

;

When the tide lowered in the afternoon, I gave it another shot. It was easier to get past broken waves as I could walk a little on the ground. The long board helps beginners to catch the smaller waves and stand up. There were surf schools all around but I tried to do it myself. And I did!

Sure I wasn’t gliding through a 15 foot pipe, but I was riding a wall of water and the thrill was indescribable. After about 2 hours I asked Erin to try and get some video. Unfortunately this meant coming much closer to the shore and riding some brief and puny waves. So in video form.. here is me riding a wave for about 2 seconds before it dies. Ohh well.

Still I was exhausted - time for a beer!

Sunset is when the real action starts. It feels like the whole island comes to check it out. We would take our little bamboo mats and cozy to watch it all go down. When you buy a beer you it comes ice cold and in a beer sleeve (that you give back). There is tons of action and even some die hards catching the last of the days waves. We saw 4 of them and here’s a few pics.

Erin also snuck some of our VIP free drinks form the Ocean club - Here is us celebrating.

On one of the days we took a taxi north to Seminyak. Erin had heard from one of her trashy magazines that there was an ultra posh beach club that the stars frequented in Bali. It was open to the public and their outrageous prices (by Indonesian standards) where about the same as in Canada. How could we not go for lunch? The place was called Ku-de-ta. Our cab let us out near the valet parking and we tried to look as un-poor possible as we walked through the gates. Everything about this place was cool. The benches, pillows, lighting, architecture, and staff uniforms were of top design. There weren’t lawn chairs, there were lawn beds. Next to them were ice buckets with champagne bottles. My idea of true heaven.

In the restaurant we drank Canadian priced drinks and ate lobster sandwiches, crab cakes, calimari, ahi tuna and more - all for the price you would pay at Jack Astors. It was well worth the splurge. I totally recommend going there. It was a major highlight of the trip. We would have taken more pictures but we didn’t want to look like “those people”.

Our favourite happy-hour/lunch place was the Ocean beach club. The venue was really chill and the food was awesome. We weren’t ones to take in the late club scene after dark until. that is, on our 2nd night we were approached by a promoter with VIP passes to various events there for the next 4 nights. Each night had free cocktails for an hour, free admission, and 1/2 price drinks the rest of the night. What a bonus! Here is a ceasar-martini with a giant pepper as garnish. Plus some more from around the place

Also as art of their promotion they put on these ridiculous shows. The skanky costumes and brutal lip synching had little to do with traditional Balinese dance.

Erin really liked the guy with the penis shooting fire in this next one… she commented that it was guys like that that were the reason behind the ‘no glove, no love’ campaign in the late 90s.

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Basically the rest of the time we went from beach, to resort poolside, to massage tent, to sunset, to food, to free drinks, to watching Discovery travel shows in our cottage - and doing it all over again the next day. It was a great last trip and a perfect finale to our South-East Asian tour. Let’s finish with some more photos of the sunset from other nights.