11-16-19 - Water Sports in Nusa Dua
/Day 153. Kyle and Leanne joint blog. Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia.
We only really have one full day to enjoy the Balinese beach scene so we head out in the morning to the Watersports desk to inquire about what adventure activities we can check off that we have yet to do on this trip and we find several!
John stays in the hotel to study while the rest of us head out to the nearby beach. The water sports are definitely cheaper that what we’d spend in the US doing them. Better still, the bay is relatively uncrowded as we are not in their high season.
Each person got to pick three water sports from the menu of options. First up is parasailing for Kyle, Leanne, Justin & Corey. The last time Leanne parasailed was a couple years ago but it’s one of her favorites. We take a small boat out to the parasailing boat. One of the locals is wearing a Kobe Bryant Lakers jersey and gets totally excited that we are from Los Angeles and a lively conversation about the Lakers resurgence ensues. He impresses us with the fact that he is conversational in 13 different languages. We hear him rattling off five of them just with the customers and crew on the boat.
The boys are talking about the scene from one of the Jurassic Park movies where a dinosaur eats the driver of a parasailing boat and Leanne is not too thrilled to hear about this. She initially wants to back out but we convince her to go for it. The parasailing goes off smoothly and Justin and Corey and thrilled when the boat driver slows down enough to dip them in the water while Kyle inquires about sharks in the ocean. Next up is tubing for the four kids. The boat driver takes them out and whips them around back and forth to their delight. Two down and still no injuries.
The next water sport is a new one none of us have ever done, or even seen, before. It’s called fly fishing (no relation to actual fishing) where two people are standing in columns in an inflatable raft that is attached to a boat. When the boat takes off, the raft flies up in the air behind the boat at full speed and whips around high in the air while the two people desperately hang on to handles (no seat belts here) to keep from flying off and getting run over by a jet ski. Stephen commented on my FaceBook post picture that it doesn’t exactly look OSHA approved to which Kyle notes that few things in life that are fun are OSHA approved.
Last up is jet skiing which we are all doing. Ashley goes with Kyle and everyone lets it rip on the open water. Justin emerges from his jet skiing googling how much it cost to buy one. “Dad, that’s a top five definitely”, he says referring to our ever-changing lists of favorite activities on the trip.
Having survived all four water sports with no injuries despite the lack of OHSA approvals, we had back to the hotel and enjoy the beautiful property and pool. Justin brings his frisbee for some dad time. We enjoy tropical drinks and bruschetta by the pool and ocean.
Justin and Kyle play pool on the outdoor pool table during happy hour. Then, we head down to the hotel’s ocean-side restaurant for dinner where we catch a Balinese fire dancing performance. Leanne and the girls head out to the swing and hammock that are out in the ocean and lie right over the water. It’s a little piece of heaven on Earth just swinging over the water. The girls head back to the dinner table before our food comes and Corey points out that he saw an eel in the water. Yikes, Leanne is thrilled she missed that as that could have ruined her oasis moment in the hammock.
There is a local band playing live music. The scene is deja-vu to the Hard Rock Café in Cambodia. Lots of people at outdoor tables, great live music and no-one dancing. So of course, Kyle and Leanne jump up and start dancing. Everything is going great until the band starts playing Whitney Houston. “Uggg, no better way to kill a dance floor,” Kyle bemoans and they return to the table for dinner leaving the dance floor empty once again`.
Off to bed feeling we could have used another couple days here, but the best part about wishing you had more time somewhere is verification you had a good pick!
