The first place I went after landing at Denpasar Airport was Canggu in North Kuta. It's kind of on the outskirts so it's not as touristy as the main city but the streets are still packed with scooters and surfboards. I stayed at the Brekele Berawa Beach House which was just a few hundred meters from the ocean. I met Jochen, as well as some new and exclusively blonde, German friends, here. They surfed way more (not to mention way better) than I did but I attempted to catch a few waves myself and did actually stand up on occasion.

Some highlights here include starlit scooter rides on the way back from dinners and/or drinks, whizzing through lush, green, tiered rice paddies on a cobblestoned causeway, sipping coconut water straight from the source at sunset, and developing a taste for roadside fried banana. Bali has been so much fun - even when things don't go according to plan. Like when every single ATM was out of order or money or both so we were cashless for about a day and when the whole area experienced a power outage on our way to dinner one night, forcing us to dine in the dark. (Well there were small tea light candles and we kinda cheated by using our smartphones as an additional light source.)

The sand is dark, thick and covers your feet in clumps like wet, moldy sugar. The water was a bit cold but by no means unbearable. The weather was great; not too hot and I don't remember any rain. I even attempted to do some asanas on the sand while Jochen surfed, which makes maintaining your balance all but impossible. So I gave up and rolled out my mat later at the beach house.

We also took a trip in town to Kuta which entailed nonstop scooter swerving and maneuvering. It was like we were wheeled contestants on that show Wipe Out and had to get from point A to Point B while avoiding a whole hot mess of obstacles like cars, trucks, pedestrians, dogs, sidewalks, street signs and several other scooters. We did make it there and back surprisingly unscathed and I was finally able to mail my yoga books home.

After three days here, it was time for me to ramble on to Ubud.