Ubud was great. We spent 3 days in a cute little place arranged by our hosts at the Bali Dream Villa in Seminyak. Mostly we ate (and ate well) but we did log some time at the art museum and watching the monkeys in the "Monkey Forest." Thus began an infatuation that, within two months, would net several hundred photographs in two countries on two different continents.
(**apparently to some tourists, Lars is a bigger attraction than the monkeys)
I had a spot of bad luck along the way. The traffic in Bali is insane - the same ordered chaos that one observes everywhere in Asia, with a slightly higher proportion of motorcycles.
But add to that lots of foreign tourists on rented scooters and you have a formula for trouble. Motorcycle accidents are the leading cause of injury for tourists here, and send many folks home in casts with broken arms or worse. So it was no surprise really that I broke my foot walking on the sidewalk, with no traffic whatsoever to blame.
Seriously... We were walking on the sidewalk, but I wasn't really looking where I was going (I was checking out the surf). Instead of metal manhole covers, here they use big square blocks of concrete. These are not flich with the sidewalk, and I tripped. By bad luck, my stumble-foot didn't land squarely, but rather right on the edge of the orthoganal edge of the damn thing. My whole foot twisted sideways, and by even more bad luck I didn't twist my ankle, but sort of fell sideways with my stumble. Net result was all of my body weight and my rapidly-moving foot crashing solidly only that one little bone that sticks out of the side of my left foot.
It hurt like hell, was the size of an orange in no time, and after 5 days of not getting any better Susan convinced me to go to the doctor for an X-ray. The doc confirmed what I had dismissed as impossibility ("I've never broken a bone"). I broke it. Technically, "a hairline fracture to the fifth metatarsal". I would need to cast it for 2-3 months. Fuck.
Susan was crying, and I was doing my best to be optimistic. Thankfully the second opinion (best $70 I ever spent, well technically World Nomads, my travel insurer even spent - thanks guys!) from the orthopedist called for an ace bandage and lots of limping.
Naturally, this put a bit of a crimp in my surfing. Not that is stopped me - I just got a little more selective about which days I went out!
This was less of a tragedy than you might think. We'd already been kept dry by ear infections (2 for Susan, 1 for me) and alternatively HUGE days and tiny days. I will never actually admit it, but being under doctors-orders to do nothing was perfect. I could finally really rest. I still went out some, and sometimes would go with Susan to give her some lessons in between her real surf lessons (me just floating in hip deep water, her surfing). But there were days and days where I laid on the daybed in our villa, ate delivery food and did nothing but read.
So it was that Susan and I spent most of our time in Bali. Finally getting the rest we needed.
About 4 weeks into our temporary residence in Indonesia, Susan made friends with two Canadians in her surf class. Trevor and Ray(line) were teachers - in Qatar. Awesome! We had a blast hanging with them, Trevor and I went surfing a few times together, including one day at Dreamland where I've come as close to drowining as I ever care to be (sorry Mom - don't read that part to Oma). OK, i wasn't actually drowning or anything, but it was just a really, REALLY big day and the sets came through as these monster close-outs. Susan and Ray would sit on the beach and do that girl-thing. It was funny, cause we'd come in from surfing and Susan would ask, "What did you talk about?" - "Surfing. How about you?" - "Teaching and Qatar and relationships and family and traveling and..." I think we both appreciated quality time with playmates of our own gender.
Awesome human beings, Susan and I are now pinching our pennies to see if we can swing a flight to Qatar from Jordan to visit them this winter.
Then, one day, Susan was walking down the street and saw... Benji and Dee! This is not as likely as one might think. This isn't the Thailand-Cambodia-Vietnam circuit where everyone goes to the same places, and every town has 3 bars. Bali is the Hawaii of Australia, with soooo many people everywhere. We only overlapped with them for a couple of days, and regrettably could only meet up for drinks and dinner twice, but had a great time (Hi guys!)
One of the great things about travelling is the people you meet along the way; kindred spirits I suppose.
The end of our Bali sojourn was filled with another friend, but an old one rather than a new one. Susan's friend Amanda linked up with us in Bali for the last few days we were there (she stayed two weeks).
We had a grand time, and again Susan benefitted from having someone to gossip with that didn't need to be taught how. Amanda's visit also served to get us off our asses. We'd settled into a nice eat-sleep-watch pirated DVD's routine, and showing someone new "our" island was just the thing.
We spent a day circling the Bukit peninsula, checking out "the legendary" Nusa Dua, and seeing the spectacular temple at Uluwatu. We got more Monkey photos - they are pernicious little buggers and more than happy to steal from people. Hawkers sell bananas and nuts at the entrance, so they've learned. One swiftly plucked the eyeglasses right off the face of a Japanese tourist and was gone in a flash. Real coke bottles too - I was sorry for the guy. He got lucky, as a zealously protective tour guide went over the cliff edge to chase the monkey and get them back, but lots of other folks are not so lucky.
By pure happenstance, we ran into some other "friends" from back home. The Rip Curl Search was going on, and a big surf competition was set to start the next day. The Top 45 best surfers in the world were in town, and we stumbled on a press conference featuring the new local champ and none other than reigning world champ Mick Fanning:
and 8 time champ Kelley Slater:
Not a bad haul for our last day in Bali!
