Legian by foot and bike

We were up at around 7am and thought we would go for a run at the beach but once we got outside we’d realised we’d left our run too late as it was already hot and sunny. So we decided to go to breakfast and then do a walk along the beach.

There’s a pretty big buffet available for breakfast and the food is good. I started with fruit and muesli then had salad and dumplings, finishing with fruit. I tried on of their passion fruit as they are orange on the outside. The inside was a surprise as it’s kind of a grey colour with black seeds. Not overly appealing looking but it has a nice flavour with a bit more of a tang than our type.

We walked for ages, all the way to where the umbrellas end at Seminyak. It probably isn’t actually that far but it feels it in this heat. We stopped to jump in the water a couple of times on the way and back. We went to the gym after that which is tiny and is a hot box. I only last around 15-20 mins before getting into the pool. TAB managed to keep going a little longer than me.

With nothing particular on the agenda we decided to go for a wander after showering. It’s the kind of place where showering doesn’t make much difference for long as you are sweating after walking 5 minutes up the road! We stopped at the hotel bar first for our complimentary welcome drink but they were mocktails so TAB got a shot of vodka and I got a shot of Malibu to give us a kick start. They sure did have a kick to them!

We didn’t have any idea where we were going and walked along the beachfront but that was just all hotels so we turned up the first side street we found. We wove our way through lanes and didn’t feel we were achieving much except for working up a sweat so got to a main road and took that instead.

The footpaths weren’t very busy people and it was much easier to walk instead of dodging motor bikes in the smaller streets. We are surprised about how it doesn’t smell here like we remember and the footpaths are in reasonable good condition with little rubbish around. Brad had a go at looking at some street stalls but he wasn’t buying so sellers were getting shitty with him. I wasn’t into it at all and although there was plenty of stuff that caught my eye there wasn’t anything I felt was worth going through the barter process for.

We stopped for a Bintang and did some people watching for a while as it’s a good way to cool down, take a rest and use a decent toilet. Also TAB can practice his Indo as there’s always someone willing to have a chat. We kept going and I had no idea where we were but TAB reakoned he had a handle on it. I wasn’t too convinced as his sense of direction is usually pretty poor, but after a fair bit of walking he had managed to get us to Kuta Beach. I was impressed!

It was still a fair walk back to the hotel so we stopped at a hotel bar for a rest with a cocktail. I let TAB order for me while I went to the toilet and I cant remember what it was but it was bloody strong. I felt a bit woozy after that so we kept walking and I thought food might be a good idea so we found a place that was cooking Mie Goreng fresh. We both had this with a can of coke instead of a beer as the cocktails were still working their affect!

We were so hot that we decided to go across to the beach for a swim and walk the rest of the way along the beach. This ended up being a good idea because it made the walk feel a bit shorter and we could cool off along the way. Finally we reached our hotel but stopped at Kangaroo Bar for a couple of beers before we had to get ready for the foodie tour I’d booked.

As we walked back past the pool TAB suggested we stop for a mango daiquiri and I agreed as we still had two hours before getting picked up. Well that daiquiri was the death of me! They make the cocktails so strong here and it sent me completely loopy, but thank god didn’t put me to sleep. We went back to the room to shower and I sat on our verandah and had a Jim Beam can, just to top me up because I really needed it at that point. I’m supposed I made it to the tour I was that drunk, but thank goodness I could still function and had some sense as I’d taken a can with me to have on the tour but I didn’t open it. And neither of us drank for the rest of the night so I managed to sober up. I had a massive headache by the time we got home though....

Anyway, the tour was fantastic and it’s so much fun being driven around on the back of a bike, especially with the night so warm and balmy. We stopped at places where the locals eat and got to try so much tasty food. One of the stops was a guy crouched down over a small flame cooking a type of rice pancake, literally on the side of the road. Then he topped it with chilli and roasted coconut and it was bloody beautiful. Then he got TAB to have a go at cooking one and he looked huge crouched down in that small space. But he managed to cook the pancake and he did a pretty good job of it! The guy who cooks them had a taste and gave the thumbs up!

We had sate badam which is from a certain part of Indonesia (Bakso Campur) meatball soup with different types of meatballs including one that was stuffed with minced tendons and mie (noodle) with ayam (chicken).

Then we drove through Denpasar to their local market Basa Kereneng. Basa means market and Kereneng is the name of the place where the market is. Our hosts, Nancy and Desy said we could buy anything in the market as we walked through and they would help us. They said the prices are real Bali prices as this is where the locals shop and they said the prices are inflated by five times for tourist prices. When we got in there it was crowded, hot and hectic. Things had prices on them and they were dirt cheap and it would have been the perfect place to do all our shopping but my head still wasn’t completely straight after my boozy afternoon and I knew TAB wouldn’t cope being dragged around shopping so we were in and out fairly quickly.

We went to a fruit stall and the girls explained what a lot of the fruit was and we got to taste it all. Most of it was really good and it was a good experience as often it’s hard to give strange looking fruit a go when you have no idea what’s inside. We had salak which is snake skin fruit as the outside really does look like snake skin but it was nice and sweet. We also had honey mango, mango stein and karliasam which looks like a cherry but has white flesh and is quite sour. There were many others but I forget.

The last stop was at a stall where they have two specialties that are only available at night between 5pm and midnight. Nancy explained as one side of the cart cooking salty - which we would describe as savoury. And the other side cooks sweet. Both have menus with varieties of fillings and the salty one was kind of a buttery egg pancake with a range of vegetable fillings, kind of omelette like.

The sweet one was delicious and a highlight end to the tour. I didn’t understand what all the filling options were but Nancy did mention you could have cheese or chocolate or a number of other things. She asked what we want and we weren’t sure so she said have the special,which is everything. We were a little reluctant about cheese and chocolate together and who knows what else but we gave it a go and were blown away by the flavour. It was warm, cake, but pancake, but crumpet like and filled with oozy chocolatety stuff that reminded us of Nutella. Whatever it was, it was amazing!

That finished off the night and my headache (or hangover?) started to come on strong on the ride home. I went straight to bed with panadol hoping to wake up feeling normal in the morning.Read more