Lazy day, Kuta beach again.

30.10.11

We decided to have another lazy day at the Full Moon. We spent a happy

few hours planning in more detail our stay in Bali next week. We

alternated between sun and shade reading our novels and admiring the view.

We opted for an early dinner at Warung 1 this time, and watched as buffalo

lumbered past in front of the football match, while we enjoyed a very

good Nasi Goreng and Mie Goreng.

Exploration by Moped.

29.10.11

I was really excited about today because Martin was feeling brave enough

to hire a motorbike so we could revisit the beaches Gemma had showed

us on our orientation tour. We were both a bit more nervous than

we had been last time we went travelling,I'm not sure why, so we made sure

we had helmets and Martin drove at a cautious speed!

There is such a sense of freedom that some with riding a moped/motorbike.

Something about the wind blowing your hair, whizzing past a beautiful beach.

We visited the first 2 beaches Gemma had taken us to. Each beach was

just as deserted as the first time we went, we had trouble finding any

shade. At the first dounble-barrelled bay we did find some shade in

a little cove created by the rock between between the 2 bays. This was

great because all we could see was our little cave and the sea, along with

teems of gleaming black crabs shuffeling around. At this beach we made the

acquantance of 'Linda' and her crack team of very smiley, rotten-toothed

friends who managed to team sell us 2 sarongs. One of which Martin is

rather smitten with!

On the second beach, which is really good for paddling and exploring

rock pools, we enjoyed a coconut each. It was so good to be sat on a

near empty beach tipping cool, sweet coconut milk in to our mouths

(or all down our t-shirts, in Martin's case). There was an amazing

amount of milk in each coconut, Martin was glugging away at his for

about half an hour and I gave up. When he had finished the seller

came back and chopped the coconut in half and chipped of a couple

of spoons out of the shell. So we took it home to enjoy.

I went for a little paddle and a clamber on the rocks to spot star

fish. The star fish seemed almost to mark the path of higher sand that

you could walk on between the rocks out to the rock monolith still

surrounded by water. I had never seen star fish like this before.

In their centre they have what looks like a limpit shell, not sure

if it's hard or soft and then five spindly, wavy arms that grope around

them. There was hundreds of them, some half buried beneath the sand.

It was slightly trecherous driving away from the beach as there was

deep sand in places and lots of pot holes, but we made our way back

to Mimpi Manis.

Early evening we drove back in to Kuta for dinner and found a couple

of little warungs. We chose Warung 2, for no particular reason and

had a very cheap and tasty dinner, with a good view of the

kick around going on across the road.

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.

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

Finally in Lombok!

26.10.11

We slept well last night and it was so hard to get up. But we had to get up

early again to be in Kuta, Bali for 5.30am for our final day of travel to Lombok.

It only took 15 minutes by taxi to get to Kuta, to the Perama office where

we had booked a shuttle to Kuta, Lombok.

So once again we got on a minibus! 2 hours later we were in Padang Bai, sat at

a little cafe, waiting to get on the ferry. This ferry was much bigger, another

car ferry. There were 2 upper decks on this boat. The middle deck had a lounge

area, where people wre sat in the dark watching the tv. There was also a little

tabled area, again with a tv and a small shop/snack bar. Then up on to the upper

deck, it was completely open with a few solid fixed benches and tables along the

sides and very little shade.

We spent the 5 hour journey dozing on our backpacks, following the shade around

and standing at the helm of the boat making the most of the sea breeze. For a

little while we were being accompanied by several dolphins, including a mother

and child. They kept darting across the front of the boat and then circling round

and leaping in and out of the wash of the ferry.

When we got off the ferry there was a Perama staff member there waiting for us and

he directed us to yet another mini bus! On this mini bus were a French couple who

were 7 months in to a 12 month trip. Before they left they had both been accountants

in Madrid. Exciting lives! We were expecting a 3 hour drive to Kuta and were busy

chatting. We were just explaining where we were staying when the driver asked

where we were staying. When we told him he told us we were there and stopped the

car!

We were finally home! We had read great reviews about this homestay, Mimpi Manis,

and we would not be disappointed! We were greeted warmly by Ilu who showed us our

rooms and made us a fruity drink. We had 1 of 2 rooms in a separate block adjacent to

the main house,each with their own terrace. There is also a little 2 storey

house for a family to rent and a small restaurant area to eat.

As soon as we'd had our welcome drinks Martin raided the owners vast collection

of DVDs they have for guests to borrow. A.s.a.p. we headed to our room for a cool

shower and bed, after 3 days of travel.

A few hours later Gemma, who owns Mimpi Manis, along with her husband Made, came to

introduce herself and to arrange our free Orientation tour for the next day. She

then offered us either a lift in to Kuta town or dinner from their menu so we

decided to have dinner here and an early night. The food was really good. We

tried a Nasi Campur for the first time which includes boiled rice and side

dishes of vegetables in a a tasty sauce, tempe and fried tofu. As we

were eating we had our first experience of the Prayer Call from the nearby mosque,

which is in the practise of letting children have a go! Their parents must be very

proud but to us all you can hear is wailing, shrieking children so loud that you

can't always concentrate on the conversation you are having. This takes place

twice in the early evening. But Lombok is a Muslim country and we had begun to get

used to hearing this in Java.After dinner it was time to fall asleep to a film or two.