Bali: Seminyak Sunset

Following a truly taxing day on the beach in Seminyak, we retired to our beachfront hotel for a few drinks at the swim-up bar:

And by "a few drinks," I mean a few too many.  Oh well...

As a side note, the poolside bartendress alerted me to the fact that my new signature drink, the gin rickey, may also on occasion be called the gin fizz.  Good to know, although further research shows that the difference may that simple syrup/sugar is added to the gin fizz, whereas the gin rickey is sugar-free.  Either way it's good, but I think I lebih suka the gin rickey.

As a side note to my side note, Joan ordered a gin fizz on Mad Men a couple weeks ago.  I love Joan!

Drinks or no drinks, the sunset was lovely that particular evening.

A pretty finale to a relaxing day.

Post sunset we headed out for some tasty Balinese food.  Post-dinner we all passed out at approximately 10 pm due to our massive Bintang and pool-side cocktail intake.

Bali: Relaxing on the Beach at Seminyak

After our lovely trip to Jogja, Borobudur and Prambanan, the ladies and I sadly bid farewell to Fran (who was off to Jakarta for, as she put it, "a challenging regime of spa treatments, open bar events and low-impact shopping") and hopped a flight to beautiful Bali.  

 

Our first stop in Bali was Seminyak, where we engaged in our own challenging agenda of a) sitting on the beach, b) playing in the water and c) ordering a steady stream of Bintang besar. 

As you can probably see from the photos, we had a really tough time of it, as the weather was terrible. 

Just awful.

We took a break from sitting right on the sand and headed to the second story of the beach front restaurant, La Plancha, where we dined on tasty garlic squid and shrimp and drank more Bintang besar, ice dingin.

I love their colorful umbrellas!

Beanbags on the beach.

After lunch, we headed right back to our spot under the beach umbrella.  Torture, I'm telling you.

The people-watching on Seminyak is pretty amazing... pushy salespeople with a strange assortment of goods (pirate ship kites, random paintings, carved coconuts, unsanitary pedicures), weird long haired guys with horses (below), Speedo-wearing old men with double walking sticks (also below), amongst many others.  

Bali: The Beach

When we went to Bali earlier this week, we stayed in Seminyak, a beach town with lots of restaurants, shops and spas.  

The beach was pretty nice- super warm water, small waves perfect for beginner surfers, lots of beachfront restaurants with fresh seafood and freshly squeezed juices, and most importantly for me and Tim, umbrellas for rent to stay out of the sun.

The view from my lounge chair.

View to the right.

Tim and Ben riding giants. 

Bungee jumping by the beach... apparently someone jumps off while attached to a motorbike on occasion?

Tim, tired after a couple hours of riding the waves.