Full Moon at Kuta beach

28.10.11

Gemma had recommended the Full Moon cafe/bar on Kuta beach where you could have

beach loungers and enjoy some shade, so we decided to go and spend the

day there. I was looking forward to reading my book and cooling off

in the sea. I would recommend this cafe, because it is so laid back,

you don't get hassled to buy drinks, in fact you have to seek them

out if you want to order anything! So we had a few soft drinks throughout

the day and some lunch. The only thing you have to be a little tolerant

of are the many children selling bracelets and sarongs. But they seem

to have a good sense for those who don't really mean 'No' and otherwise

once they have asked you once they will generally leave you alone!

Although there are some excpetions!....

Mid-afternoon we decided to go for a walk along the beach, to the left.

The sand is suprisingly difficuly to walk on because it is so deep.

Kuta beach is large crescent bay, with only the odd tourist on it and

a few fisherman. We watched as local Sasak people began wading out in to the sea

carrying large buckets to collect the seaweed. The bay is very shallow

and the waves break about 500m off shore. When we walked to the end

of the bay there was a group of trees in the shallow water, the tide was

out. Under the trees was a bed of strange spiky organisms growing out

of the sea bed (I'd seen them before in Palolem). They look like someone's

inserted nails in to the sand and left them to rust. The water had receeded,

leaving glimmering ripples of sand and the sun was low.

Then it happened...we were accosted by the terrible two, our nemisis(es).

These two were a force to be reckoned with! It started with a simple,

cute, "Hello! Where are you from?" Then they began counting Martin's

steps and following behind him, chorusing in different languages. The

eldest whispering the correct numbers to the littlest. They trailed

all the way up the beach behind Martin, waving their card of colourful

bracelets. We stumbled back to cafe, still being pursued, hoping to

seek refuge, but no one would protect us. So continued the relentless

sell and questioning, "Why do you speak English?"

"Because I come from England."

"You should buy for your girlfriend, or your girlfriend cry and leave you"

"She doesn't want one"

"You can buy one for your mother"

And so on. Then came the repeating everything we said! Oh what fun! It was

tempting to buy one but we had seen what happened earlier when someone

bought from one child and not the others; the tantrums (purely for show!),

along with the sob story (It's not fair, why can he buy books for school and

not me!). We also did not want to risk getting mobbed by every child selling!

Anyway eventually she left us alone! And we walked back to Mimpi Manis.

This was slightly more eventful than we'd hoped aswell! As we came to the

end of Kuta beach we came across a friendly looking brown dog, who seemed

to be wandering in the same direction as we were. He crossed the path

of several other dogs and got in to a few scuffles and they began to follow

him. We came to the junction with the right-turn that leads to

Mimpi Manis and still our mate was with us, along with 2 other dogs that seemed

to be chasing him. We crossed the road, he crossed the road with us! I was

a bit nervous, I don't mind dogs at home, but they are usually pets and a

bit more predictable. We eventually lost our original 'friend' after about 15

minutes of walking but all the way to Mimpi Manis we had a crew of 3 dogs

following us! One of the dogs was white and across both sides had Eva written

in large black writing. She followed us all the way in and had to be shooed

away by Ilu. Eva was sat outside for quite a while. Very strange! Martin

thinks it's a sign, because Eva is the name I would like to call my daughter

when I have one, after my granddad. So maybe it was my Bupu saying hello!

I'd like to think so.

Today is our 5 year anniversary so we went out for a 'posh' dinner! Gemma dropped

us at the restaurant,Bule, again highly recommended. The chef is Novetel trained.

We ordered duck and beef and both dishes were really good,the meat was tender, presented

beautifully and the service was excellent. It was worth the extra money and the beer was

cheaper than some of the other cheaper cafes. For desert we had fried banana with ice

cream and chocolate sauce. It was a huge portion and delicious.