Quicksilver Surf Competion Kuta Beach Bali

Sunday was a fun day for me. I started off by checking out a new place, Aroma Cafe on Jalan Legian.

This place is a cut above the Poppies Lane type of place with delicious croissants and bagels. I ordered one of each which were large and very tastey. They came with butter and jam. This combined with a Bali coffee was 25,000rp.

You can find way cheaper breakfasts but if you are looking for the best croissants and bagels this place scores highly.

Today is Indonesian Independence Day and flags are flying all over the place. Military ceremonies were going on today in Denpasar. Indonesia as a country is actually a strange idea when you think it ( 13,000 islands, 180 ethnic groups, a variety of religions, tribal groups and degrees of modernization). Indonesia became a republic in 1945.

Sitting in Internet Outpost I was aproached by Neil Berrecloth who had e-mailed me a few days before requesting his free beer.

We stolled down to Taman Sari restaurant on Poppies II and spent an hour or so sharing stories and and talking about travel.

Neil is from Islington London and is on a 2 year trip around the world. He has visited Bali a few times before and we chatted on how the country as whole was developing. Action sports fan Neil told me stories of scuba diving in Australia, parasailing in New Zealand and canyoneering in NW Australia.

Ever seen a horizontal waterfall? This guy has, a freak phenomenon in WA Australia.

Neil told me that many people get into parasailing and then incorporate it into a mountain hiking trip. I like the sound of getting a ride down a mountain and asked Neil how feasable it would be for me to get one of these things and do some of the volcanoes over here. You need stable air for the thing to operate properly and a conical shape ( volcano ) maybe isn’t the best thing to incourage a stable air flow. Oh well maybe if I take off from the halfway point it would work.

Neil is here for a couple of weeks and will most likely rent a motorbike and check out some of the highlands and east coast. He’s staying at Poppies Inn after reading the recommendations in the guest house guide. Thanks go out to the people who commented.

I took a ride down to Pantai Kuta where Quicksilver is holding a surf competion.. They definitely created a scene with flags, tents and loudspeakers. I saw a lot of people photographing other people with cameras.

The competion featured many locals surfers who were very impressive. These guys can rip a wave right to the end doing top turn after top turn. The actual waves sizes weren’t so big and on Kuta beach the waves are coming in rather flat for longer rides but we still saw great action.

The local surf fans showed up too and stayed in the shady areas. Beach vendors were loving it. One lady tried to sell me a mango so I tried a piece then handed it back as it wasn’t ripe….”you make me bankrupt” was her reply.

Got a message from Baliblog poster Zoe who is in town. Will try her phone again later.