Now that we know we are going home in TEN DAYS, we can’t quite believe it. Somehow the urgency to get home has become, well, less urgent. And ahhhhh, the pressure is off. Yes. I can actually say there are certain pressures involved with travel; finding a place to stay, mapping out our route, finding food and keeping occupied to everyone’s particular desire, to name just a few. We have booked about 3 days at Legian Beach with the objective to learn how to surf, followed by a week in Padaing Bai Beach to relax, enjoy and perhaps do a bit of navel gazing. Except for finding local activities, we can put The Lonely Planet down.
Things I will miss about travelling;
banana lassies, Thai night markets, wearing a sarang and feeling like it’s haut couture, Bali surf, the Elephant Nature Park, Indian head waggle, riding a motor bike with my kid on the back, playing cards, Hindu God offerings on the sidewalk, street pet pals, Buddhist prayer greeting, so much time with my family.
Things I will not miss about travelling;
garbage and pollution, horking phlem, hard beds, traffic and horns, touts, carrying tp at all times, public displays of peeing, teaching math, being able to sit on the toilet and shower at the same time, sad and sick street pet pals, The Lonely Planet
Legian Beach was amazing. I think we went expecting a terrible resort strip with high rise buildings and crowds. Somehow Bali seems to get tourism right. Instead we found a nice long beach with lots of room to find your own space and not a high-rise in sight. Yes, it is quite dense with buildings and especially shops but it is not nearly the tacky tourist spot we thought it was going to be. Why were we there? Why to surf! Apparently the beach from Kuda up to Seminyak is the best spot to learn how to surf. We rented a great bungalow which had a pool and about a 10 minute walk to the beach.
We chose Double D Surf School which turned out to be a most excellent choice. They set us up with 3 instructors for about 3 hours, including a break (much needed). Now for those of you who think learning to surf is hard, it totally is. The first part of the lesson is on the beach where you feel like a rock star nimbly jumping from your stomach up to your feet ready for anything. Then you head to the real surf. I was still wading in when I looked up to see Sadie sailing in on her feet catching her first ride on her very first attempt! Whoo Hoo! Anna and Ron were quick to follow suit. I on the other hand took a while longer swallowing a bit more water, sand and pride. Eventually though I did get up and even though the waves were pretty small, they felt HUGE and FAST. It was great ‘cause the instructors held the board until the exact right moment and then pushed us to catch the waves. I really missed them when they finally disappeared. Paddling, timing and getting up is an amazing feat. Surfing is yet another very humbling sport. But I think Ron has caught the bug. He spent hours out there for the next couple of days. Sadie, Anna and I chose to sleep in, do a little shopping and enjoy the beach and surf in a less exhausting manner.
The next destination for a little R&R was Bloo Lagoon Resort in Padangbai on the east coast of Bali. We were very fortunate to have made contact with a Calgary family, the , who had spent a year travelling and volunteering in 2008. They fell in love with Bali and bought a funky, open air, eco-friendly bungalow at Bloo Lagoon. They generously offered their place to us so we could spend the last 5 nights of our trip in luxury. It was great to lie in the shallows of the pool reading under the in water sun umbrellas and wandering into the village for meals. Finishing the day with a before bed swim in the cooling fresh water was awesome. It was hard to motivate ourselves to do much, but managed a few adventures.
We hired a car and driver to take us to Ubud for the day. Ubud is a town in the interior of Bali that is the cultural and fine arts center of Bali. It is now so popular that there are numerous stores, hotels, restaurants and service oriented businesses. Some people hang out there for a month or more getting into all sorts of self realization modes, becoming art critics, finding their purpose in life or just enjoying the laid back atmosphere and all the good food and drink that goes with it. It will become even more popular once the Julia Roberts film Eat Pray Love is released, as Ubud is a feature location in the film. We just walked around, didn't buy any of the cool stuff because we thought it was fake or overpriced, ate some good food, had a couple mandatory beer/coke and checked out the monkey forest where the monkeys took liberty to jump on us and check our pockets for treats. They really aren't so cute!Ron thought he would rally the Gosney motorcycle team (moped team) for one last 2 wheeled exploration experience, but he fell short in the sales pitch. Instead the female Gosney's enjoyed another day at the pool while Ron headed off on his own with no real map, but a sense of where he wanted to go. 8 hours later he did return having put on 160km over a combination of paved and dirt roads, and some sketchy tracks. Apparently, it was fantastic as he climbed through rice terraces and forest into the interior mountains, snorkelled out to a sunken WWII wreck on the north coast, got lost and came across where they make salt, and travelled a remote road that took him through little villages and spectacular scenery. We enjoyed the pool and the company of the nice Dutch family that was also staying at Blue Lagoon. We shared what felt like our private pool with them!
And then that was that, we left the luxury of Bloo Lagoon behind and headed for the homeward leg with mixed feelings. Excited to be going home, but reluctant to enter back into the "rat race". At least that was Ron and I, the kids did not have any hesitation as it was time to see friends, eat normal food and sleep in one's own bed. A quick night in Bangkok and then on we went. Many movies later and we arrived in Vancouver on the morning of December 20th. The adventure was over, but hopefully it has given us all something that we can take with us for the rest of our lives!
