What do a young ex-British army captain, Cathay Pacific pilot and his two sons, honeymooning Londoners, a beautiful, bronze Spanish foursome, an Adidas regional salesman, and a twenty-six year-old, Serbian, Italian-raised cardiologist have in common with Nick and I?
Give up?
Surf Camp!
This motley crew was to be seen lazing about in hammocks, enjoying the morning’s banana pancakes, and trying our best not to drown at Padang Padang Surf Camp in Bali.
Staying at surf camp is a bit different from other vacations. It’s social, inclusive, and great fun. You won’t find big, fancy rooms, endless beach umbrellas, cheesy resort shows, or even TVs (or alarm clocks!) in your room.
You will find a comfortable, beautiful, relaxing compound, an close-knit community, and overwhelmingly kind and interesting people. The experience is wholesome, healthy, and, truly relaxing.
Our “schedule” at surf camp went something like this:
5-6 am (one day 4am!): Meet in the dining area for morning surf session, load up the boards, drive to the site
6:30-8:30ish: Surf as the sun comes up
8:30-9:30ish: come back, have breakfast together, prepared by the surf camp
9:30-1pmish: Lounge about the hammocks, sleeping mats, read, nap, sunbathe, swim
1pm ish: eat delicious, homemade lunch together, prepared by the surf camp
12-4 pm: leave for second surf session
4:30-6:30ish: Surf
7ish: camp owner drives to a restaurant, eat dinner together if you want to come
9-10ish: Hang out/go to sleep–there’s another early morning tomorrow!
You didn’t have to do any of this stuff. For example, it’s ok if you just wanted to surf in the morning or afternoon or go on your own for dinner or stay in your room all day. It was just chill, relaxed, and full of nice, beautiful people. What an awesome vacation!
Plus, it’s one of the only vacations where you actually loose weight/get fit/tone up. You surf hours a day, which is HARD WORK fighting the waves and paddling everywhere, eat small portions of homemade, healthy food, go to bed early, wake up early, walk a lot. Candlelit seafood on the beach at night, sipping from coconuts–ya know, your typical paradise.
The only bad thing is that we stayed for far too short of a time. Six days just wasn’t long enough!
Taiwan has never felt so crappy! 🙂
Next time, next year (hopefully!) longer and stronger.
I don’t want to let this get to long, so I’ll just leave you with some picture links.
Hope you enjoy, and as the Balinese say, Terima Kasih!
——————————————————-
Pictures (all links open in a new window):
The Surf Camp, Padang Padang, and Other Beaches
This is where we basically spent most of our time–our camp, our room, where we hung out/ate, etc. Also the walk from our warung to Padang Padang beach, where we usually surfed. Also general vacation pictures.
This cool temple is full of cheeky monkeys, ready to steal your stuff. One large male monkey actually ran up behind me, jumped on my shoulders, and ripped my elastic ponytail band out of my hair. Ouch! Oh monkeys!
Kecak Fire Dance at Monkey Temple
A very cool dance interpretation (involving fire!) of a story from the Ramayana. The pictures look a bit mental, but start from the beginning and you’ll get the whole story from beginning to end in the captions.
——————-
ALSO:
Thanks to everyone for toe concern! Once we got to Bali, I un-bandaged that thing and dove right in–it has healed nicely! In retrospect, getting it ripped off was the right decision. Even if you read my story and were frightened about your own upcoming fun-filled terror fest, just remember that it really does help it heal quickly! And it doesn’t hurt afterwards for very long!
Now that mutant toething is gone, now I just have to worry about these gashes on my feet from surfing the reefs and rocks…
It’s a hard life, but someone’s gotta live it.
Taiwacky's Weblog 