Monday, September 3, 2012

Bali Chillhouse Surf Retreat - Day 2

We spent about 12 hours in our cocoon of cheesecloth netting, being serenaded by dogs, geckos, the end of Ramadan, then roosters as the sun came up. Certainly not the quietest of places but we have earplugs, should we need them.

After a late breakfast (more strawberry and chocolate pancakes) we hired bikes to see the local sites. This in itself was a small adventure; trying to get four bikes, all with inflated tyres, some with baskets. We ended up with one basket, eight mostly inflated tyres, two swiveling seats and three lots of breaks. James lucked out on the low-riding cruiser, dubber the silversurfer. My bike had no breaks, apparently three gears, and a seat with rusted off springs that swiveled. It's redeeming feature was that is rolled faster than the others, even Tania's which was the same model. Kristy's red racer made for an exciting ride with a seat that pivoted, not only side to side but up and down.

I'm not actually sure what our destination was at any point during today's journey. We saw banana palms and rice fields, cows and dogs. We found two beaches that we weren't looking for. We did not find a bakery or the Canggu Club. We took a detour down a side road which cut through a rice paddy. The road was completely paved but covered in sand, making the downhill run challenging sans breaks. Over a bridge, up another hill and we found ourselves underdressed and in the Islamic district. Some directions from friendly locals and further map consultation from our fearless navigator, Kristy, got us back onto Jln Canggu, through the traffic and home in no time.

All this exercise called for a dip in the pool, which we did. Lunches included copious helpings of fruit followed by chicken and cashews, pad Thai and chicken satay. A happy couple of hours were then spent on the sun lounge, reading, snoozing and finding good words in my Scrabble games against mum. I had help this time!

We walked to Echo Beach for dinner. And found where all the bogans have been hanging. Super cheap and yummy seafood for everyone including our new New Zealand friends, Nina & Andrew. We got a taxi home but not before running into some outstanding Australian ambassadors who puttered along on their scooters before chucking monos to impress Kristy, then doing a burnout in the sand...

We got back to the Chillhouse to score desert and to find the surf schedule for tomorrow morning. Up at 6 for a 6:30 session at Tugu. People are going all over tomorrow as the swell is pretty small. Hopefully there is enough of a wave or us!

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