We did it!

We finally did it!  We buckled and payed up for a surfing lesson and who would have thought, it actually worked! Our instructor was this great little Balinese guy who was shocked when we both got up first try and then started catching waves and surfing like it was no big deal. Well, actually we both took quite a few spills in the middle of all that surfing, but we are stoked to have finally got the hang of it! Anyways, we are off to check out the real surfers at Ulu Watu today, and then tomorrow we might give surfing another go, as long as our bodies have recuperated from the soreness! (One downside- the beach from Kuta to Seminyak is highly polluted from river run-off, so every few seconds we had plastic of some sort sticking to us or the board while we were in the water! Not the best place if you are coming for a pretty beach vacation, that doesn't exist anywhere in Bali and you are better off sticking to Mexico!).

Photos: Lovina

A + B in Amed for a special dinner of suckling pig (not my favorite!), but they made awesome hats for us and we dined like kings because we were the only ones in the restaurant!

Photo Friday

Enjoy!

 

Photo:  On the beach in Lovina, Bali

Lovina to Munduk to Seminyak

Well we've been on the road...We stayed in Lovina for a night because we quickly discovered it to be a ghost town and then we moved on up, literally, to Munduk. Munduk is located in the northern part of Bali and is perched high on a ridge. It was the first cool weather we have experienced in a while, which was such a relief! Most people staying in Munduk come for the trekking. We decided to give it a go and trekked an hour up to the "red coral" waterfall and then took a different path back.  We thought the path would lead us through the many rice patties and coffee plantations up there, but unfortunately we either got lost, or the guide lied, because we trekked up and down through dense jungle and came across far too many vicious Bali dogs. Bali dogs sit and bark/snarl at anyone/thing that passes by, which is ok if you have one dog doing that, but most people own multiple muscular pooches so we had packs of two or three snarling at us from each angle, which happened about every ten minutes, talk about a fun situation! Needless to say, we survived and left Munduk the following morning for the low-brow scene of Seminyak. We are definitely ready for some civilization and Seminyak is a thronging mass of people, a 360 degree difference from the ghost towns we experienced on the other side of Bali.

Photos: Gili Meno/Air

 

Rocks (Amed) and Woman (Luang Prabang, Laos)

Back to Bali

We stayed one night in Gili Air and decided that we had a serious case of island fever so we headed back to a bigger island! That's the one downside of Indonesia, you are always on an island...  Anyways, we traveled for most of the day and then by nightfall made it to Amed, which is really a string of little villages connected by a jet black sand beach. Unfortunately, it rained on us the whole time, so we stayed two nights and today we drove around to the northeast coast of Bali. We are currently camped out in Lovina and have yet to explore, but we will keep you posted and we should have some pictures up soon!