September 14th

Megan and I woke up yesterday and took a long beach walk along the Nikko Bali Resort beach. Off in the horizon many villagers collect seaweed, we collected sea shells. We swam in the ocean before showering and heading over to the town of Benoa where we went to the Sri Angung spa. We got the traditional Balinese full body massage, we were side by side for 1 hour, for $28 each, plus they transported us to and from our hotel. Paul B, i have some funny massage comparison stories for you of your time in Bali…funny…they had me wear the same women like panties that Megan wore for the massage!

After the massage, Megan and I came back to the hotel and had some beers by the pool and refreshed a little. We then met our new friends Abra & Chirs from Philly, who also happened to get married on September 6th, and hired a taxi for the day. Our guide for the Bali portion of our trip, Dharma, recommended that we visit Dreamland beach – so we did. Dreamland is a gorgeous beach, with lots of topless women, surfers, big waves, strong current, good body surfing, and a ton of 20 to 30 year olds everywhere. Off in the horizon you see beach huts and mansions alike. There is a new hotel going up and a new golf course next to the beach. The development is only 10 years old and the area is booming. As you enter the private beaches of Dreamland we saw a statue of Garuda and Visnu. The restitution for parking and beach access was about $5. We also rented a couple of lounge chairs and umbrellas for $5. Our driver waited in the car for 3 hours while we hung out and swam.

After Dreamland, we took Paul up on another one of his suggestions and went to Jimbaran Bay for dinner and sunset. We went to Damos Cafe and for about $100 (not a very good deal) we got a huge seafood dinner of Lobster, Prawns, Clams, Calamari, Snapper, Crab, lot of Bintang beer, and a fruit desert. Jimbaran is right next to the airport so we saw planes land and takeoff next to the sunset, as well as all of the the fishing boats coming and going. It’s amazing how many beach cafes there are (probably 75) and each cafe has 30 or so tables. It’s like a half a mile of tables lining the beach for sunset dinner! Abra & Chris took photos of us and us of them, we all had a nice dinner. Chris is a dentist so Megan and him were totally geeking out about calculus bridges on lower anteriors and other dental talk that would put a normal person to sleep! j/k

After dinner our driver took us back to the the Nikko Club and we had a couple refreshments, some chocolate, and headed up to bed. We were exhausted.