To the beach!

 

      We finally figured out how bus transit in Bali works and made it to our destination: Padang Bai. Ahhhh, the beach! To be honest, the bus system seems a bit shady and I had my doubts, but we made it to and from our destination, so no complaints there. And I still prefer that to trying to navigate on poorly labeled Balinese streets, while driving on the left side of the road, and trying to avoid the myriad of people on motorbikes. In any case, we did arrive at Padang Bai and checked in to a little inn there. Anxious to get to the beach right away, we walked over to Blue lagoon. You walk up over a hill on the far end of town, and then a set of stairs takes you down to the water. Its not big, but it was not crowded there either. It was really a pretty nice beach. Unfortunately, it started raining around noon and didn't stop for the rest of the day. Despite our relatively short stay at the beach, it was still plenty of time to get thoroughly sunburned! Yes, thats right, I am now sporting my first Balinese sunburn.

        I am pretty religious about my sunscreen and always put it on in the summer. I have been wearing it every day in Bali. I absolutely HATE sunburn. So I can't even remember the last time I got it quite this bad. Even Dov, with his relatively dark complexion, got a little bit pink! When they try to tell you that the sun is very strong here, don't take it lightly. I followed pretty much the same sunscreen regimen that has always worked for me at the beach, but to no avail. Anyway, the next day was bright and sunny, and sunburn or no, there was nothing that was going to stop us from a day at the beach.

        So off we went, this time toward the other end of town. We followed a steep, unpaved path up a big hill. At the top we found some pretty nice views. And once we got to the bottom of our steep path, we were rewarded with finding a pretty great beach. A little bit bigger than Blue Lagoon, with wider, sandier beaches. We sat there for quite awhile reading and relaxing and swimming.

Eventually we decided to go back to Blue Lagoon for some snorkeling. With the snorkels we were able to see lots of fishes and coral - pretty cool stuff. All in all, a great beach day. This time we were smart enough to stay in the shade any time we were not in the water. But as great as the beach was this weekend, we still paid for in the accrual of sunburn. I marched my pink skin over to a store to get some aloe. Unfortunately, my Banana Boat aloe vera which had to be imported from the USA is pretty expensive here. There might be a local equivalent to aloe, but if there is, I don't know of it. The local Balinese with their dark complexions probably don't need to worry about sunburn much. In any case, the aloe is much appreciated, and is helping the sunburn. We've learned our lesson about the strength of the Balinese sun and will probably be a little more careful in the future.