well I was thinking back today about our first Bali trips and this is truly my most incredible experience:
1982 2nd trip to Bali we were young and eager, I really wished that we had the technology back then as we met some amazing people. We travelled with my little sister my hubby and our cousin who is a journalist stayed at Kuta Beach Club and met a terrific group of young guys from Perth Kim, Beardo & Wayne our cousin being a journalist took off on the first couple of days searching out where the best waves were and places to go, he ended up at the Sunset Club where he befriended a young chef called Peter (he was from Nusa Lemgonban) just a lovely young man, would love to know where he is now? anyway Peter invited Mark and our group over the Lemongan for the day to meet his family. This was very adventurous for us. So off we headed to Sanur, Peter had organised some type of dug out boat I cannot for the life of me remember how many of us were in this boat but the trip over the sea was calm and weather absolutely beautiful, it was so funny as a nurse from Sydney who the guys had met travelled with us was sick the whole trip over. When we got reasonably close to the island I looked down and could see every grain of sand the water was so clear the sand pure white I thought probably only about 6 feet deep our guide advised that actually the water was about 21 metres could believe the clarity. We pulled into the shore unloaded the boards and were introduced to Peters family. I know we also signed some sort of register but there was no hotels only this little hut in the sand, we were treated to lunch which consisted boiled chicken with rice, friend chickens blood and fried garlic and onion,we did not even think about Bali Belly or the like just tucked into our meal. The rest of the day was spent with the girls baking in the sun on pure white sand the guys surfing and snorkelling it was paradise and we were in it. Then time to go well we forgot about the wonderful storms in Bali at that time of year in the pm and 1 hr out of Lembongan with no land in site it hit. The swell must of been about 10feet and this relic of a boat motor everytime we rose in the swell came out of the water and we were going nowhere in a hurry. The nurse who spent the whole trip over being sick had no sign of sea sickness as we were all scared did not see we would be seeing land again. We looked at the boat guide and his expression had never changed so no reassurance from him. The boys had arranged if the boat sinks (it was filling with water) there were enough surfboards for 2 to share. Well you could imagine we were preparing for the worst, we looked ahead and finally we could see land again, phew not long to swim from here. When we finally pulled into Sanur we hopped out and kissed the sand, so glad to be back on firm ground. I would not have changed anything this memory was something that would be impossible to experience in Bali now,
would love to hear some other memorable experiences from times gone by