The second day in Sanur, we rented moto's again and drove out to a beach called Karamas. It's a black sand beach, and HOT and reminded me of Guatemala. Surfing was fun (although more fun for Jord) and then we made the hot moto trek back to town. Driving a moto through Indonesian traffic in the middle of the hot day is probably one of the least fun things to do ever. But then we went surfing again at the reef in front of our hotel, which was really fun for me, although kind of small and packed with locals. That night we went out to one of the many cute and delicious restaurants on the sand, which was very fun.
The next day we went to Karamas again, but this time only Jord went surfing. He stayed out for a few hours and got completely fried because our sunscreen is some super cheap concoction we bought in Thailand. That night he got a fever and was stomach sick also. Possibly from so much sun? Anyways, I didn't know what to do with myself that evening, with Jord in bed and the whole night in front of me! I ventured out, but then realized that walking the dark streets by yourself with everyone trying to talk to you or get you to buy something just isn't that fun nor that safe. I've gotten so spoiled having a boy by my side at all times! So since the place we were staying was a homestay (essentially somebody's house), I asked some of the guys if we could rent a DVD player. So one of the guys went into his room and unhooked his DVD player for us to borrow, and the other came back with his personal selection of DVD's. We watched a few surf DVD's and one regular movie called Next, "a fairly competent suspense thriller", according to the rave reviews on the back of the box. But I was glad that we could hang out without me feeling stuck in our room or Jordi having to get out of bed!
The next day Jordi still wasn't feeling well, but we packed up our stuff and took a taxi to Seminyak, another little beach town just north of Kuta, but on the other side of the peninsula from Sanur.
Maybe it was just one too many people knocking on our door at the homestay - "Excuse me, you left this out." "Excuse me, do you want breakfast?" "Excuse me, breakfast is here." "Excuse me, the taxi (that we wanted in an hour) is here now."
Maybe it was just one too many people asking me for something - "Yes, transport?" "You want massage?" "Manicure? Pedicure?" "Come into my shop! Buy something!"
Maybe it's that you can't even look for food without 5 people hovering over you, watching you look at the menu and making suggestions of what to order.
Maybe it was our taxi driver, who followed us all over the hotel until we got our room number, so he could write it down, (all the while making sure we were meeting him Wednesday at 7:30 so he could take us to the airport) and if we didn't keep our end of the deal, he knew where to find us.
Maybe it was a culmination of the past 7 weeks in Asia, where my personal space bubble has been through the ringer.
Maybe it's that during all this I keep a smile on my face and a polite voice.
Whatever the reasons, as soon as the kind hotel man finished showing us how to work the TV and airconditioning and finally shut the door behind him, I started to bawl.
I did not want to talk to anyone and I did not want to buy anything and I did not want anyone knocking on the door. I took a hot shower and cranked up the AC and we watched cable TV until I thought I could face the world again.
So now we have a new system. When walking along the beach, I keep my head down and ignore everyone while Jordi deals with the social aspect:
"No, I don't want a pedicure. No, she doesn't want a pedicure either."
"Hello....I'm Jordi......we're from America.......no I don't want a massage, thank you."
"We're from America....no we don't need any transport today."
"No, she doesn't want any bracelets, thank you."
Over and over and over again, but he seems to not mind talking to people even when all it is is an introduction to selling you something. And as for me, if I'm not going to say something nice, I should just not say anything at all.
ANYWAYS, apart from that whole business, Seminyak is a wonderful place. I like it because it's quieter than Kuta or Sanur, and the beach is gorgeous. There are tons of good restaurants, and supposedly surf out front, although it doesn't look very good.
Jordi is finally feeling better, so we will probably rent a moto again to look for surf elsewhere.
And we are definitely getting excited about seeing Aaron and Melissa in two days!
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