Watersports extravaganza

 

For our last day on Bali I wanted to give Kris experience of parasailing. Since it came in a package, we also got more watersports. We had a confirmed our early pick up at 8 AM for today from a local firm to go to Nusa Dua for couple hours of fun in the water for an internet price of 650,000 rupees ($71) for two. This included one lap parasailing, a 15 minute ride on a banana boat and a 15 minute wakeboarding session.

Upon arriving at the base, they promptly attempted to rip us off by trying to charge us 650,000 per person. It took a bit of explaining that it was a total rate, then a quick suggestion that we’d get up and walk to the next base 10 meters down if they didn’t honor the price, for the guy to start saying “Solee boss, my mistake. I thought this per person rate. Solee, you get good deal”. Right… several minutes later I still had to remind him to give me back my change which he… forgot. You gotto keep your eyes on the money here at all times.

Parasailing was first. I’ve done it before, a decade ago in Hawaii, but it was a new experience for Kris. The ride was short. Too short honestly, lasting a mere few minutes. You get strapped to a parachute and then to a rope which the other end is tied to a boat. The boat starts running and so do you, and then oopsie and you’re up in the air about 30 or 40 meters. There isn’t much steering involved, only pulling on one side of the parachute strings when you’re landing. Fun, very fun, although if you have a fear of heights (or a fear of falling as Kris describes it) it could be a slightly jarring experience. Just keep in mind you’re completely safe and even if the rope got unclipped from the boat, you’d still have a parachute over your head and land safely on the ground.

  

  

Our parasailing adventure. Great if a bit short though.

Banana boat was next. It is basically an inflated raft, shaped like a banana which is pulled by a speedboat. You sit on it, hold on to a strap and try not to fall off. They actually asked us if we wanted to fall off or not. Kris wasn’t too much into it, so we decided on just one dunk. I mean, let’s at least try it. For all the screaming that you sometimes hear coming from these, the ride was very easy and comfortable. It’s pretty difficult to fall off, unless they’re taking turns and trying to throw you off on purpose. Although getting up on it in mid-water is a whole different ballgame. The raft is quite high, round and slippery and with no footing underneath, it’s a bit of a challenge.

For our wakeboarding session, we were joined by three Kiwis on a holiday. Hannah was celebrating her 19th birthday today and was also the only one with previous experience with wakeboarding which showed immediately as she stood up without a problem and did three perfectly clean and long runs. It was my turn next, and to make a long story short, my wakeboarding experience ended pretty much the same as my surfing experience. I’m still too heavy and together with my balance problems I was tipping the board forward making getting up nearly impossible. I did get up, only to fall down immediately. Although at least I wasn’t in pain as during the surfing lesson. Kris didn’t fare much better this time although for a slightly different reason. She just wasn’t strong enough to pull herself up. Still, for both of us it was an awesome experience and we enjoyed it immensely. Given the opportunity, we’ll definitely try again.

After being dropped off at Kuta Beach, we had our sights set on lunch, then a sunbathing session. Unfortunately there was a monkey wrench thrown in our gears that had the potential to destroy our day and moods. Fortunately it didn’t completely ruin it. We were approached on the street by a local guy handing out scratch cards to see if you win a prize. Of course they were free, of course everybody won something and there was a potential to win a thousand dollars or a week holiday in Bali. The catch was: you just had to listen to a short presentation about their resort and then you’d get free lunch, free taxi home, free t-shirts and your prize. Where have I heard this before? It sounded so much like time-share sales pitch. Free this, this, this and that if you only come in and listen to our bullshit pitch. Kris was suspicious too believing in “What sounds too good, must be too good” but I guess the draw of the potential money prize was too high. I also figured, oh what the hell. We’ll get the hell out of dodge if it is a time-share sales pitch. So we went with our happy hawker who immediately started to tell us what to say: both of us are living in the US now, Kris is actually 10 years older than she really is, we should not show our passports, etc. By now this really smelled like a time-share sales pitch, as they usually approach couples who are over thirty and look like they have money. We arrived at the location, which looked a little bit like a warehouse, and we welcomed by… a slick haired used car salesman lookalike Wayne from Vancouver, Canada. At this moment, this moment exactly I knew this was a waste of time, but since we came here already, we might as well stay here for the next few minutes to get our free ride home and lunch. And of course it began: vacation club, blah blah blah, great idea, blah blah blah, equity blah blah blah. It is pretty difficult to follow American salesmen with interest for me, because after twenty years of listening to their whiny, lying bullshit, my first reaction is to strangle them. But anyways, after doing some surveys about our travel habits and the sales pitch getting long, I basically cut him off saying “Sorry mate, not interested. You’re selling timeshares”. Mr. Interested In Everything We Had To Say disappeared that moment leading us out the door to the reception. Of course the prize turned out to be bullshit. Kris won a fabulous booklet of vouchers worth a whopping $500. Considering all these vouchers were 10-20 per cent discounts in local shops, it is completely worthless. I’m normally able to bet a better discount myself. Our t-shirts turned out to be ugly advertising t-shirts for the company, our free lunch simply a 100,000 rupees voucher to the most expensive restaurant in Kuta and our taxi ride voucher had to be forced out of them by a threat of physical harm from me. They finally acquiesced and unwillingly handed us a 70,000 rupees voucher for a taxi.

Before heading to the beach we checked out the restaurant which was of course ridiculously priced (4* hotel restaurant on the beach: what did we expect). Fortunately there was a slight fortunate catch: the vouchers were also redeemable in the local minimart. Despite being very pricey, the voucher did produce two large beers and ice cream for us plus a couple pot pies which we pitched in for by ourselves. Kuta beach was heaven, strong sun, strong surf, soft wind, tanned bodies all around. We looked a bit out of place being well… maybe not pasty white, since we’ve been getting browner and browner for the past 4 weeks, but let’s say we were among the whitest there. Few hours later it was time to head home. Kris was wiped, so before catching our taxi to Sanur, we stopped for a treat in Starbucks. A double shot caramel frappuccino is as good in Kuta Beach as it is in Warsaw or Seattle.

Leaving tomorrow morning, we still had a few rupees left to spend, so another dinner at our favorite place and picking up some spices to take home from a local mini-mart occupied our evening hours. Happy with Bali, unhappy we were leaving tomorrow morning.