Bali, WE'RE GETTING MARRIED!!!
Trip Start
Aug 12, 2008
1
13
26
Trip End
Nov 21, 2008
Bali,
Indonesia
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
So here we are, Kevin and Lauren in Bali, Indonesia, and we're getting married.
Thur, 18/Sept:
We arrived pretty late at night, and were picked up by Nyoman at the airport, he drove us straight to our bamboo room at Padang Padang Inn. This place was a recommendation (thanks Grant!), and saved us a good 2 days figuring out where we wanted to be, and how we wanted to begin our trip
Lauren was barrelled 1st
. Padang Padang Inn is a surfer's dive of 20 or so rooms with private bathrooms, located right at the point behind Impossibles, next to Padang Padang. We got dialed into our rooms, rented a motorbike, and spent the night playing some guitar with the Brazilians that were next door to us. Be it noted that Padang Padang is like Little Brazil, we were the only ones in our row of houses that were non-Brazilian, which made for some really fun nights and classic sing-a-longs.Fri, 19/sept:
We woke up and spent the day scoping out the different surf spots, the swell was dying off, and the tides were very extreme - so a lot of spots were washed out in the morning. Uluwatu is the Huntington Beach of Bali. There's a cliff full of restaurants, surf shops, and ding repair/massage/lifeguard/photographer/rookie information stands on the lower level of the cliff. The line-up on a meager day was over 50 people easy. I looked all over for a decent board, and found a pretty nice one but realized we didn't have enough money to get it, so we geared up for an early morning buy and surf the next day. We spent the rest of the day chilling at Padang Padang Beach, hiking through the caves and around the shoreline down toward Dreamland (the break further down from Impossibles), and got a nice cliff-top view of the sunset. Our first full day, and it was clear this place was going to be hard to leave
First Bali Bottom Turn
. In the night, we embarked on a hectic motorbike adventure through the dark winding, loose-gravel roads to the ATM in order to pick up my board for the next month (here and New Zealand). This night ended in a jam session with not just us and our neighbors, but now the neighboring building of bamboo huts, and a nice crowd for the Miso show. Bin Tangs were flowing heavily, and in fact, half the crew didn't wake up till 2pm the next day. I however, hadn't surfed yet, so was determined to be up early.
Sat, 20/Sept:
We had our day already planned, we woke up went straight to Ulu's, I got my board, and was in the water, just as the tide started coming back up and wet the inside dry reef a bit. Ulu's was a fun wave that day, I mostly sat at the Outside Corner in the beginning of the day, and then worked my way down the line-up into the inside by the end. A couple sets came in and cleaned everyone out, I was caught inside once and it cost me a good 35 minutes to paddle be washed right past the cave you paddle out from, and back around the inside point. I was so happy to be in the water and surfing. Surprisingly, the line-up wasn't full of just surfers who save up for their once a year trip, there were a lot of first-timers that didn't usually surf at home, so it made for a kind of chaotic crowd
Impossibles at Low Tide, Day 1
. A few rippers and locals that could beat the inside section without looking, connecting the entire wave all the way to the inside, a good number of us that were still dialing the place in, and then a bunch of newbies that were taking off on everything, going straight into the reef, sitting too shallow and paddling on the shoulder when you were already surfing that wave. It was actually pretty entertaining. This also was a result of minimal swell, and the fact that Ulu's picks up the most swell on any place in the island. When it got bigger, it wasn't like this...After the surf, we again just chilled on the beach, met some more friends, and got good advice about getting around the island. Saw another legendary sunset, and had a good opening jam before the crowd bailed to Kuta, and we got some rest.
Sun, 21/Sept (The Day of Our Engagement!!!):
This was an all around amazing day, even up until the sunset, we kept repeating to each other how nice it finally was to have a day focused on relaxation. It's funny when you travel like this, you spend all your days planning on stuff to do, packing and unpacking, hiking, swimming, ok I know, it could be worse, but seriously, after 6 weeks of travel, you need a vacation
Bin Tang
. We decided to head into Kuta to get one full day and night in a nice hotel, something we haven't done since we left on August 12th from home. Over 6 weeks of loud hostels with typically cold water showers, stained walls, and no air/con. We had two recommendations on nice places, 1 where all the "pros" stay, it was in Kuta. It was nice, but not amazing. We took the 2nd of the two, and it was definitely a GREAT decision. This hotel "Kumala Pantai" was seriously incredible. It was almost too nice, we felt kind of uncomfortable when we first got there, because we hadn't been to such a nice place in so long. It was a trip. The irony was, we payed $52.00 for a super-plush room (everybody said this was the best deal in all of Bali), when in Santa Barbara, we pay 120.00 for a low-budge place near downtown.
We spent the day sitting by the pool, sipping on tropical drinks from the poolside bar, feasting on our lounge-chair lunches, and enjoying the perfect all-day temperature. In the evening, we decided to head to the beach, Lauren got her 3 dollar beach pedicure, and I had a 30 minute, 3 dollar massage. We wanted to have our typical sunset beach walk, and so headed down from Legian towards Seminyak, to escape the crowds a bit. Unbeknownst to Lauren, I had been carrying her engagement ring on me for the last 6 weeks, through 5 countries, and numerous occasions tempting me to break it out
Brazilian Jam Sesh
. This day turned out to be the time. Just past sunset, we were a bit more secluded, and I chose this moment. I asked Lauren to marry me, and after a few minutes of tears, she said yes. We were both so happy, in a flurry of emotions. We celebrated with an amazing beachside feast, steak, crab, some tropical drinks and beers. It was even that more amazing that we finally had a plush place to stay for the night. Start to finish, this was quite obviously the best day of our trip for the focus was not about seeing any new monument or exploring new territory, it was simply about the two of us. We feel so lucky for this, but also a bit tortured as it we are not able to share this with ALL of you back home. Our engagement couldn't be more perfect, and here we are, in Bali.Mon, 22/Sept:
Most of the morning, we were calling you guys!!! Our family. This was a very exciting day, played around Legian and Kuta for the day, took our time heading back to Padang Padang, and ended the day on the beach at Padang once again. All of our new found friends here threw us a mini-party at the bamboo huts, singing songs, we passed the guitar around, and were the honored guests for the evening. They made it pretty special for us, we were stoked. Miss all you guys at home, but can't wait to share this with you when we get back!!
1st Night´s Sunset
!Tue, 23/sept:
Surf, rest, surf, eat, surf, eat, sleep. I got Impossibles so good in the morning, the best waves of the trip so far. This is probably one of my favorite breaks I've ever surfed. It's a forgiving left, not as hollow-racy as Padang or Bingin, which put me immediately at ease. There were 5 of us out when it was really good mostly Hawaiians and Aussies, and we just switched off, egging each other on to take off deeper, and calling out whoever didn't make the inside section. It was a blast, the most fun day of surfing I've had in a very long time.
The second session was not as good but still pretty fun, the first time surfing any Rights here in Bali. Padang nor Impossibles was really working on the high tide, so I stuck to a mini-right that popped up at the edge of Impossibles. It had a mean current which was a pain, cause I was so tired.
I was wiped out by the end of the day, and crashed by 10pm. A good day in Bali.
Links to pics below:
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k38/misajon/DSC05251.jpg
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k38/misajon/DSC05288.jpg
