Bingin - Beach Living on the Cliffs

We wake early to make the journey to our new home and on the way stop to stock up on provisions. We have been eating out forever and the idea of making some home style food is very appealing. A simple domestic chore like grocery shopping in a foreign country is fun, trying to figure out labels and making sure you are buying toothpaste and not bum cream. Makes one feel like a local.

Another stop is Kuta, a busy seaside town and surfing Mecca to find a surfboard for William. I hook up with a local board rental guy who takes me on a tour of all the surf shops, second hand boards are a rip off in this town but as luck would have it I stop at a book shop and end up buying the owners board for a song, he is broke and desperate. Its a classic quicksilver gun, really cool and one to take back for a big day at Elands.

We arrive at the top of the cliffs laden with boxes, bags and boards. No shortage of labour though and we are soon a long procession with Made, Ketut, Wayan etc as porters carrying our assortment of bundles down the stairs. There are 130 big steps down the cliff to our Villa and over the next month we become fit going up and down.

After nearly 2 months on the go it feels good to unpack and call this home, its an intimate unusual set up, being at the base of a cliff and the end of the line so to speak, the only people around are resident and so within no time at all everyone is a familiar face. From day one we feel at home, secure to leave the house unlocked and allow boys to wonder off for hours unsupervised.

The break directly in front of our Villa is a very technical, hollow left that breaks onto shallow reef at low tide but at mid to high tide it becomes a friendly soft wave perfect for the boys to learn on.The first day out I slip and smash our beautiful new camera on the rocks so from now on we are relying on friends photos to illustrate the story further. Bummer but we are philosophical it could have heads connecting reef, we are insured and will buy a new one in Singapore.

To the right of Bingin and a 15 minute walk at low tide is Dreamland which has an amazing left working best at low tide, a fast and hollow wall that gets the adrenalin pumping. For some reason its often empty and this turns out to be my favorite wave. To the left and a 500m paddle is Impossibles and just past that Padang Padang. Around the corner and a 10 minute scooter ride is Uluwata, all world class surf breaks. William and Nicky were learning to get their head around the surf, reef and beach and it was so fabulous to watch how they progressed - no school work in sight.

Janine and Lawrence our Canadian friends arrive a few days later. Janine chose Kellys Warung a simple room with a share bathroom over the beach (they didnt get much sleep as the pounding surf literally broke on the rocks below). It was so fun to have them join us, we have spent a lot of time together in many different countries and unusual situations. Janine and I climbed the dreaded steps 3 times a week for yoga at Temple Lodge (stunning classical Hatha yoga with Christiana as a fabulous teacher)

The time with the Canadians went so fast and on our last night we had dinner at Temple Lodge with the owners Mario and Christiana (both keen Elands aficionados, Janine and Lawrence as well as Cameron an American friend whom we had met at Elands in South Africa - what are the chances?

We morph into Bingin life and get to know the locals as well as an interesting array of people from around the world who pass pleasantly through our lives. I am happy to sit around for hours doing nothing just shooting the breeze as they say, understanding how other people live and think. South Africa shrinks into perspective, we have'nt read a paper or listened to news for months and whilst we love our home and wouldn't swap it, its just another country like so many others around the world.

We each take turns shopping and cooking, simple food with the limited availability on the peninsula. Louise makes the odd trip for a treat to the Gourmet Garage a superb foodie store which supplies the hotels. We also have many fine fish barbeques at Didis our French neighbour, whatever the days catch - simple, fresh and delicious.

As the sun sets each evening we take the few steps down to the beach and pop open a quart of Bintang. The little rocky beach fills with locals, surfers, animals, fisherman, children and the scent of incense from the newly charged Hindu offerings. The light is magnificent, the air is still and a peaceful silence descends with the setting sun.

Paradise Found

Ketut arranged a stop over in Nusa Dua (a really touristy part of Bali) we checked in for 2 nights and began the search again.

The place in Nusa Dua is clean and respectable but the owner a Dutch guy is vile, he has 2 monkeys in a small cage, they have no food or water and they pace up and down on their pole all day, when I asked him why he never let them out, he said they were 2 vicious and naughty, - I wonder why?????, we were all tempted to let them free, the only thing stopping us is that they might attack us, we feed them fresh fruit and peanuts and they were very jittery, shame poor things there was also a bird – Indian Mynah who spoke in Dutch and made these shrill noises, Thank God we weren’t there for the holidays it was depressing.

We had had a week of limbo and from phoning around it seemed that what we were looking for was becoming impossible to find as season approached and it way beyond our budget. Ketut rented us his taxi and Craig and I set off again for the elusive dream. We had decided that Uluwatu the little nipple on the south of Bali is where we were headed and let the universe guide us. We took a few side roads and then ended up at this shop where we hopped out to ask if they knew of Villas for rent. We were directed vaguely through a field with beautiful cows and clinking bells and arrived at the top and saw a sign saying temple lodge and Marios left. (My chiropractor had told me about Mario and so we took it as a good omen and universal one too) We followed the signs and bumped in to Christiana, Mario’s wife who was on her way to the beach. We chatted – she didn’t remember Patrick the chiropractor- (it turns out she had been in SA at the time he stayed there, they are Italians who lived in Cape Town for 15 years) She directed us in the other direction for a villa and we eventually ended up at the car park for Bingin Beach.

We chatted to the locals who sent us Made (2nd child). Made was a skinny gorgeous tiny Balinese woman who whisked us through a labyrinth of paths down a steep cliff to a village of little warungs and beach villa’s (very simple, reminded us of what Clifton might have been like 50 years ago.

Craig was sooooo excited when we arrived at the cottage. It has 2 bedrooms upstairs with 2 bathrooms, a balcony with a view over the surf break and downstairs a simple kitchen (yes), a lovely chill out lounge with built in sofa with lots of cushions and our own little garden. It was exactly what we had been looking for.

Our Neighbour is a Frenchman married to a local with 2 little villas he rents out, a intimate little bar, sexy French music and a deck over the beach. We discover later that he makes the best fish barbecue ever.

We negotiate an excellent rate on a long rental and speed off home to tell the boys to pack up, we have found our Villa on the beach.

Mission to find Paradise

Whilst Ubud is a dreamy utopia we are here to surf and need to find our patch of beach to spend the next month. We decide to hire a car and take a day exploring the island looking for Craig’s elusive dream, a place where he can start his day surfing and end his day surfing.

Thank God we have Lawrence as navigator extraordinaire, Craig as driver and Lou as the final say. The poor kids are dragged along for good measure (they could have stayed and swam and had a good day poor critters)

Driving a car for the first time in Asia is going to be a new challenge and I approach it with a good deal of respect. The roads are narrow, potholed and crammed with people, dogs, kids, scooters, trucks and cars. We set of and surprisingly find our way to Uluwatu the grand and famous surf venue featured in a 1000 surf magazines. The roads are narrow and windy and there is little or no signage so most of the time we haven’t a clue where we are. We wander down little severely potholed roads that take ages to negotiate, stopping frequently to receive vague advice from well meaning locals. Time is pushing, its now already 1pm and we are nowhere closer to finding ‘that for which we seek’.

We read in the book that there is a fantastic surf spot called Medewi, its right up the West coast about 140km away. We think okay lets just skip all this and head out to the middle of nowhere. First though we have to fight our way through lunch time traffic, the centre of the city, past the airport and onto the coastal road. We discover that there is no highway, the first 80km’s consist of built up towns crammed with dogs, kids, footballs, scooters, the odd funeral procession, you know just your normal island life…….on the streets.

Its 4.30 when we arrive in Medewi which is literally just a surf spot with 2 basic resorts and a few warangs (general dealers). Rural to the extreme with black volcanic sand and a wave that makes Craig tingle to the toes. As always the Gods send us a guide, this ones name is Harris, a charming young surfer, facilitator and translator. He shows me the break which is outstanding with the promise of big swells arriving in the coming days and then says he knows of a good place 300m (read 3km) down the road. So we jump in our car and chase his scooter through friendly little villages with people greeting us from all sides. Suddenly a tiny little child darts outs of nowhere and appears smack bang in the middle of the track literally under my wheels. I slam on brakes and stop with my bumper inches from this smiling little cutie pie. Our aching nerves!

We arrive at the Villa which belongs to some Aussie guy who checked out of mainstream and now has 2 suites to rent and spends his days surfing and drinking (his complexion is ruddy to the extreme). He is keen to have us, but we really envisioned our own villa with a kitchen as I am desperate to cook without MSG (trying to keep the itching at bay). He says no problem we can use his kitchen. Not ideal and we are not sure but the surf is beckoning Craig, our suite is large and comfortable with exquisite uninterrupted views over a rim flow pool, rice paddies and onto the ocean without a single building in sight.

We are under time pressure, its past 5pm we have been driving since early in the morning and we still face a four hour journey back to Ubud. It’s an all or nothing kind of decision so we commit to the Villa and start our return journey.

The trip back is worse in the dark, the road is full of trucks carrying containers to the city. In India we had experienced a different type of driving, let’s call it ‘just in time’ driving, similar rules apply here. There are no double lanes and very few straight sections. In order to overtake you have to face oncoming traffic up close and in your face. Between you, the truck you are overtaking, the dogs, scooters all around and the oncoming traffic everyone gives a little and somehow you slip back into your lane just in time. With trucks crawling along at a snails pace I was forced to start driving like a local or we would have taken all night!

We made it back late that night, the car was intact but our nerves were in tatters. I can say with a fair amount of confidence that I am now qualified to drive anywhere.