life's a beach

Attention: Three days until Tom's birthday. Better get your gifts sent this way.

Let's talk about the beach.
Tom and I have been frequenting the same beach in Sanur every weekend for about two months now. Seriously, we never miss a weekend of having at least one day at Sanur beach. We go and sit on the same beach chairs that cost a meager $1US. We buy local fare, spicy grilled corn and sometimes a Bintang (beer) from the same lady with a warung (locally owned shop/cafe) behind our chair. We get hassled by the same man selling pearl necklaces, Dr. Pearl aka Wayan. Sometimes we chitchat with the chair rental guy, Ketut. We buy spring rolls from the aptly named "spring roll guy" for about 50 cents. Spring roll guy is awesome. He walks up and down the beach all day with hot spring rolls, chilis, and sauce stuffed inside a glass box that he carries around on his head. He's always prepared to answer to a holler and make you a packet of chopped spring roll/pepper mix. Stellar job. It's a joyful place. They smile each time they see us walking up and recognize our clearly western looks. Me, with bright blonde hair, and Tom, with the beard: We are noticable everywhere we go. Even in traffic people will pull up next to us and start a conversation. And as it should be the beach people were stunned and full of questions when Tom showed up without a beard. These were in fact the first people to see the beardless wonder.

So you might say going to the same beach every weekend is boring. Bahhhh. See, the thing is, we've tried other beaches.
We've gone to Seminyak where there are hawkers galore and the tide comes in so quickly on the vast flatland of beach that everything around you gets soaked. The waves are good there, so for our inner (yes, still inner) surfers it's nice to know where some gnarley waves are. But we have tried this "Beverly Hills of Bali" beach twice now and decided that's not where it's at. Plus, they charge $10US for a chair. Pssshhhhhhhhhhh. Forgetaboutit.
We went up to the black sand beaches north of Sanur. Gorgeous. You'd think black sand beaches would just look like dirt. Which they do, once the black sand transfers onto your wet skin. But the beach itself glitters. Seriously. Twilight vampire style glitter. But the terrifying thing is that you can't see anything in the water. When we happened to go, the current was really strong so it made it a little more terrifying. Translated:  We didn't go in the water at all that day.
Last weekend we went with a few friends and got a few rooms in Balangan- $6 each. Tom and I had been there for New Year's Eve as well, which was a comparably less successful night. So let's forget about NYE and talk about last weekend. Balangan is a huge mecca for surf where the tide is raging and the waves are superhuge. All along the beach there are raised houses made of wood. Most of these are some kind of restaurant/bar or cheapo rooms for rent. All of the places cater to the surf crowd morning, noon, and night. Run by really low key guys, this place was excellent. Sure there are hawkers there as well, but with other people around I was able to sit back and peacefully ignore them. Why not let my friends do the talking? So we made a full day and a half of being beach bums, definitely NOT surfing, and barely even going into the water. But it was fantastic none the less. It was also around full moon, so the tide was seemingly run by some demon dragon cult from Texas that couldn't control themselves. Seriously, by the time we left, the floorboards of the restaurant next to us were coming apart. Read: Tsunami Jr. coming to a theater near you. I'll say Balangan was a great place to spend the weekend. Cheap still and everything there at your fingertips. Absolutely gorgeous sunset, since it's on the west side of the island. But what did we do Sunday after we came home from our mini-vacay?

We went to good ol' Sanur beach 5 minutes away from the house. Got some chairs, springrolls, and took a 2 hour nap on the beach. #predictable