A healthy meal for two dudes working on one hour of sleep. Mi Sedaap and Beng-Beng. Amazing. We were both exhausted, but the night before, we had booked ourselves two surfing lessons in Uluwatu, the first starting at 5:30 am, and being 30 minutes away, that means one hour of sleep. Nothing could stop us. We were commited.
Needless to say, when I watched some surfing videos online before coming, it looked difficult, but nothing could prepare me for the sheer amount of physical exercise surfing is. Paddling by itself is an incredibly difficult shoulder exercise, and being tossed around by huge waves over and over doesn't make it easier (also apparently starting on 5-7 foot waves isn't normal, Bryan told me later he almost drowned). Nonetheless, the pure elation you feel when you catch your first wave makes it all worth it. In both the sessions, four hours in total, I only caught around three waves. Though that doesn't seem like many, it was an absolute blast. I can't wait to do it again. Here are some post-surfing vibes:
As you can see, we were very tired. We grabbed lunch at a nearby Warung (small family owned restaurant), and hung out and explored Uluwatu until it was dinner time.
As we got more and more hungry, we decided it was time to eat. We pulled up a list of good restaurants near us, and booked a car to the nearest one, called The Warung. We had no idea what we were in for.
As we walked in, dressed in our admittedly not-that-nice surfing clothes, we began to realize how out of place we were. The location was amazing. It turns out the restaurant is inside Alila villas Uluwatu, a very nice set of private villas. The food was absolutely amazing. They gave us complimentary home-made ginger ale, a sampler tray of 12 different Sambals, and even let us go finish our meal and drinks at their view bar. Check it out.
Absolutely gorgeous. The drinks were amazing too, Bryan ordered the clarified Piña Colada and I got an original mixed drink containing Arak, a traditional Balinese alcohol usually used in religious ceremonies. They were interesting, well presented, and tantalizing. After that amazing meal, we reluctantly headed home to take a quick nap before the night time activities, because after-all, tonight was the night of Kate's cousin's wedding, which we somehow got invited to.
Keep in mind, as of that moment we had slept for exactly one hour in total, so we were absolutely zonked. Right as we arrived home, we decided to go through the photos we had taken so far, and with the traffic and time it took to go back, by the time we finished doing our digital nomad activities, we were starving again. We once again turned to our local Warang, and had a quick meal of Babi Guling. Once we finished, it was time to head over to Kate's hotel room in the Kempinski.
We walked in and immediately realized we weren't going to be leaving anytime soon, because none of the family was ready, and it usually takes Kate about an hour to be ready. Bryan and I decided to sit on the couch and rest our eyes for 30 minutes to pass the time. I woke up to Kate lightly shaking me, with Bryan still asleep next to me. The second my eyes focused, I realized it was noticeably darker. I asked Kate what time it was, and she said it was 11pm. We had slept on the couch for nearly THREE HOURS. we scrambled to get ready for the wedding party, and rushed out the door, headed to the top floor of the Apurva Kempinski.
The party was so fun, there was around 250 cousins there, and Bryan and I brought the party. We met so many people and made sure everyone had fun! It looked like this.
It was an absolute blast, and I can't thank Kate and her family enough for letting us crash their wedding.
Thanks Kate ;)
The final touch that made this night even more memorable is that at the end of the party, the hotel brought out a cart that served only one thing. You guessed it. The very thing that started our day, Mi Sedaap.