November 9: Bali - Day 4

This morning for breakfast we had some of the fruit we bought at the market yesterday. Upon further review of the mangosteen the texture reminded me of a soft Hachiya persimmon except stringier and the best way I can describe the flavor is a mix between a mango and a lychee. Anyway, on to the rest of the day. This morning Charlotte set up a half-day surfing lesson for us in Kuta. The lesson was a lot of fun and the surf was totally different than what I'm used to over on Maui. The instructors had us begin by catching some of the white-water waves that were coming in.

The boards we used made it really easy to catch the waves and it seemed like there were good waves coming in continuously. The waves were about three times as big as what I'm used to and the power behind each one was incredible. Later in the day the instructor said I should go farther out and catch one of the bigger waves. The first one I tried to catch totally rag-dolled me and put me through the washing machine, but eventually I was able to catch a couple of the slightly larger waves. They really beat us all up, but it was a lot of fun. Even Mom and Dad were able to catch some waves. 

When we were done surfing we caught a van back to the hotel and had lunch at one of the restaurants there. After lunch Dad had arranged for us to play golf that afternoon at the number one ranked golf course in Asia so we ended up leaving for that at about 2:30 so that we could play for the discounted evening rate at 4:00. In my opinion the course lived up to the hype.

The course wound around through jungle, rice paddies and beaches and it had a great view of the Pura Tanah Lot temple which is supposedly the most popular and most photographed temple in Bali.

Luckily the beauty of the course and its surroundings took my mind off of the way I played because it was U-G-L-Y. No matter how good the rental clubs are, they still aren't your clubs and by the time I thought I was getting the feel for them I would pull-hook or power slice a ball. It was frustrating to say the least. With just Dad and me playing we were able to finish eighteen holes in about two hours and fifteen minutes even though we were skipping around from one hole to another trying to avoid the other groups on the course, most of whom were playing really slow. 

On the drive back to the hotel it occurred to me that Bali is the first place I've been to where McDonald's isn't the most popular American fast food chain. There are KFC's all over the place here, or at least in the bigger towns of Bali. One of the cool things about both KFC and Mickey D's is that they have a delivery service at each restaurant. Anyway once we got back to the hotel we had dinner at the teppanyaki restaurant in the hotel and then called it a night.