Baliwood, Beatles Style

Our sunset view at the hotel

CC, me and Facebeat! CC had spilled on me, of course!

Me at the W Bali

Yesterday was lovely. I was up at 7 am and took a walk on the beach. (As an aside, anyone who's ever met my acquaintance picks up fairly quickly that I am NOT a morning person. I never have been and thought I never would be. But since moving down under, I have been getting up early with little difficulty. Its very strange.) Anyhoo, the water is refreshing and warm, just as you'd expect. The beach was quiet and peaceful.

Then I woke Christian up, and quiet and peaceful was a thing of the past. (Just kidding.....it was still quiet through lunch). We had a great morning at the pool, overlooking the huge waves in the Indian Ocean and saved up our alcohol consumption for the evening by opening our day with dragonfruit probiotic shakes. Yum. The purple color of the fruit is so vibrant that I can't even describe it and give it justice.

Quiet and peaceful went to the wayside when we ventured out to the windy and narrow street for lunch. There are no sidewalks, cars honk constantly and there are no fewer than 1,653,908 motorbikes. We wandered around and found a sweet cafe called Gourmet Cafe. We ordered half the menu, and had the most delicious mint iced tea that I am still craving 1 day later. More relaxing at the pool and then we switched rooms to a top floor oceanview room that is wonderful!

We had made plans with Christy (my boss and friend) and her hubby Todd for dinner in Semanyak. Being Easter Sunday and all, the good restaurants were pretty booked up but the hotel suggested Bale-Bali. So off we went! What an experience! It was pretty authentic in that most other guests were Indonesian, it wasn't fancy, there was a cute dog running around and there was....live music!! But first things first - drinks. You had a choice of fresh fruit juice or beer. The beer is Bintang, a local light beer that is quite refreshing. Oh, but that isn't the end of the choices! Oh no....you could get Bintang in small or large size. The large was 2x as big as the small, and only 50c more. Large please!! So we settled in to catching up with the Forests, and then the music began! Much to our delight and surprise (read: irony), it was Facebeat, a Beatles cover band (natch)! So to the tunes of "Hey Jude" and "Love Me Do", in a steamy local Balinese joint, we sipped Bintang and laughed over old memories while making new ones.

Our taxi driver to the restaurant was called Kutuk. He was named so because he was the 4th child in his family. There are 3 or so names available for the first child, same for the 2nd and 3rd. The 4th gets Kutuk, and then if a 5th is born, they start back at child #1's names. Fascinating.

CC and I had one last drink at a place down the road from our hotel called The Living Room. It had tonsof little lights and plush plants - just lovely. After a harrowing stroll to the hotel and a stop at the local convenience store for a Coke, we were off to bed!

Today is sightseeing galore - temples and rice fields and such. I can't wait. Until next time....xoxo



p.s. Pictures coming soon!