Beach paradise!

27.10.11

What an amazing day today turned out to be and all thanks to Gemma and Made.

This morning Gemma took us out to show us around Kuta beach. Mimpi Manis is

about 2km from Kota, which to our surpise consists of only a small strip of

losmen, bars and warungs around a beautiful crescent shaped sandy bay. It was

a lot smaller than we imagined. Gemma drove through Kuta and continued

along the coast road to another beach called Tanjung Aan.

At this point in the day, I had never seen a beach like it.

It is a double cove, shaped like a 'w', in

the middle is a large bolder. The sand is so deep and golden on one side and

paler and finer on the other side. The water is a bright turquoise in the shallows

and a deep blue further out and so

clear. There is barely any shade along the beach apart from a few wooden

shelters and the odd small tree. The beach is backed by dry rugged hills and scrub.

On the beach there was only a couple of

other tourists and a dozen locals hoping to sell coconuts or sarongs.

Next we drove five minutes or so back towards Kuta. Here we came to another

beach. Again pristine, with only seaweed strewn across the sand. About

20 metres off shore there are 2 shallow rocky islands with elongated domes

of rock in the centre of each.

The third and final beach we drove to, again deserted, was just as beautiful

and is famous for surfing.

We only stopped at each beach for a few minutes just so we could get our bearings

and hopefully find our way back another day.

Gemma then took us back to Mimpi Manis as she had to drop off Made to do

another fishing trip. They had apparanetly had a very successful trip,

catching 3 baracuda and a 17kg GT! Which

meant Gemma very kindly invited us to a fish supper this as the

couple who went on the fishing trip would be coming back this evening

to see their fish get filleted and to eat it!

While we waited for Gemma to return we got chatting to some friends of hers;

Al and Debs, who had been some of her first guests 7 years ago. This

demonstrates what a lovely places Mimpi Manis is and what friendly and

accomodating people Gemma and Made are, as it seems guests keep coming

back year after year. Al and Debs are a couple from Perth. Al is a very

softly spoken professional masseuse/alternative therapist and Debs is a

truck driver in a gold mine. I'd never met anyone who works in a gold mine before!

They have visted Bali and Lombok many times and been on yoga retreats in

Nepal, so they were very interesting to chat to.

Gemma had organised to spend the afternoon with them and drive to a raved about

beach, about 45 minutes away, called Selong Blanak. So Gemma very kindly

invited us to tag along. At this point we hadn't

read or heard about this beach so we were in for a pleasant surpise. We

all bundled in Gemma's car including Gemma's young son Martin. It was a pleasant

journey chatting and enjoying the scenery. When we got to the beach we drove

down a private road, on the way we passed some young deers in a small enclosure.

The road took us to some villas and an exclusive looking cafe,

that I would definately recommend, but it was a little out of our budget!

However we did treat ourselves to one of theie divine mango cheese cakes,

which we shared.

After a relaxed lunch time we ambled down to the beach - another crescent of

beautiful barely touched golden sand. This time much wider as the tide

was out. At one end of the bay,two dozen colourful narrow fishing boats

sat on the sand in front of bamboo huts. The water was so warm but still

cool enough to be refreshing. Again there must have been about 10 people

on the beach! Just incredible.

To top the day off, when we returned we were joined by the Danish couple,

Tobin and Tina, who had caught the fish that morning, along with Deb's

brother Craig, for a huge fish supper. There was plenty of fish to go around,

cooked to perfection and accompanied by veg and steamed rice. A sensational

meal with fantastic company. And of course the evening wouldn't be complete

without the excitement of a power cut!! The funny thing is Gemma and Made

have a generator and when they switch the generator on there is alot more

power than through the mains supply in the evening, so the lights get brighter.

Gemma says there seems to be have been less voltage since development started

locally.

Anyway we had a fantastic day thanks to the wonderful hospitality of Gemma

and Made.Thank you x