My little corner of the world: Bali

We have only been in Bali for 4 days, and we have only seen just a small fragment of this wonderful place. I would truly like to spend more time here, exploring not only the many beautiful beaches but also the interior mountain areas.

We spent 2 days on the beach right near our bungalow, Balangan beach.

I have learned a lot about protocol........you have to rent the chairs for the day and whichever restaurant you rent the chair from is where you have to order your food and drinks from as long as you have that chair rented...... Once you give up your chair you can eat wherever you like. We have gotten to know and like one of the restaurant ladies and we like to give her our business, but she let us know that it would cause trouble for her if we ate at her restaurant, since our chairs were rented from another restaurant. Guess it makes sense!!????

Mel surfed both days for just a couple hours. Yesterday the waves were double overhead!!! I couldn't get the guys on the waves farther out, they were just too far to see with the camera, but even as they got closer to shore you can see that the waves are still big!!!

I watched as surfer after surfer attempted to get thru the whitewater to be able to have a chance at these great waves. So many of these guys came in after about 20 min of struggle. There was a short period of calm between the sets, and if they timed it right, they could get thru. The majority of them did not make it out. I spent a good part of my time on the beach just people watching. It is really a lot of fun. :-)

I drug Mel into the city/town of Legion one day to go shopping!!!! He was soo excited!!! Hee hee

I knew there was a shop that sold the hand dyed batik fabrics that we pay a small fortune for at home. They were no l longer located where I thought they were supposed to be. We walked and walked and walked and Mel asked several people, all of whom gave us different directions. I think we walked one of the streets at least 4 times and still could not find it. I was about ready to give up!! Finally we did find it and it was everything I hoped for and more!!!!! I loaded up!!!!!! Now, batik fabrics like these are about $11.00 per yard at home. They are sold by the meter here for 30,000 Rupiah.

1 US dollar is equal to about 11,300 Rupiah. You can see why I couldn't pass up the opportunity to grab up as much as I could!!!!! Now I just have to figure out how to get it all home!!!

This is about half of it in my suitcase!!! Mel has a bunch in his suitcase, plus I have more in my carry-on bag. The tricky part will be that we have a weight limit of 33 lbs for our next flights over and back from Lombok!!! YIKES!!!!! I might have to drape it all over me and wear it!!!! Hee hee

I tried to pack lighter from home because I knew this might be an issue.......guess we'll see what happens tomorrow at the airport.....

Today we walked what was supposed to be a 25 minute walk down to another well known beach called Dreamlands. It turned out to be more like an hour walk and what a disappointment!!! There is a huge hotel that has bought up basically all the hillside around this beach. From what we could see, this hotel has a zip-line, a water slide and it looks like a circus!!l. Once you finally make it thru all the buildings to get to the beach, all you see are umbrellas!! The water was a gorgeous turquoise color, but that is the only nice thing i can say about it. They are bringing the tourists in by the bus loads. We saw 2 buses pass us on our walk down. We did walk a little ways down the beach and we were able to get away from all the people. All along this beach are well known breaks: Bingin Beach, Impossibles, Ulu-Watu at the point and Padang Padang just around the point.