Civilization

Back in Bali …. Ahhhh …. Good coffee, whole wheat bread, broadband internet, flushing toilets and soft pillows. After returning from the wilds of Flores, we headed back to Ubud, the artsy tourists’ Mecca of Bali. For about a day and a half we ate well, relaxed and shopped for traditional wood carved masks and shadow puppets.

Having dove to our hearts content, we decided to head to Kuta (the commercial tourist Mecca of Bali) to try our hands at surfing. I can safely say that I will never try surfing again (sorry, Kathleen). Edan started our lesson with an unfair advantage having tried surfing a couple of times on the shores of northern California. I, on the other hand, was a complete disaster.

The truth is, it’s not that hard to stand up on the board and to “ride the wave” for all of three glorious seconds. The real problem is that getting out far enough and positioning oneself properly to “catch the wave” is a real bitch. I wasn’t even so bothered by the paddling, which is what most beginners complain about. I just didn’t enjoy getting pounded down and bounced around by the waves like a small fishing boat in a massive rainstorm. After two hours, our eyes stung our nasal passages had been corroded from several flushings of salt water and the sun had burnt us to a crisp despite that we were wearing t-shirts commonly known to surfers as “rash guards”. Today, my abdominal and arm muscles are killing me and Edan’s forehead is so red that I’ve started calling him Lobster Head. Well, it was an experience, I can say I’ve tried it and Edan might even be crazy enough to do it again.

One of the greatest things about spending our last two days in Kuta is that our friend Marie, one of our fellow divers in Flores, returned to Bali at the same time. We decided to meet up at Bali’s trendiest restaurant, KuDeTa. This was the polar opposite of Labuanbajo. The restaurant is set on a private beach with huge lounge chairs facing the water. Inside, the restaurant and bar had the same trendy minimalist design of many places we’ve frequented in New York.

Upon arrival we passed several security checkpoints, no doubt an effort to assuage tourists’ fears of terrorism. We were ushered to our table, already reserved by Marie – the first reservation we’ve made for the whole trip! Before ordering we were served bread and olives …. REAL olives, not the canned ones that have made appearances in other Southeast Asian restaurants that try to be trendy and western. The food only went uphill from there. After dinner, we adjourned to the beachside lounge chairs for desert where we watched the surf pound the beach under spotlights.

Today we will nurse our aching bodies and watch movies (our hotel rents dvd players for $2.25 at day). Tomorrow, we’re off to Kuala Lumpur ….