Today's exchange rate: IDR 10,700 per AUS $
Today's weather: gloriously sunny morning, overcast afternoon
We were all up early today to get ready for our next adventure; quad biking with Aussie Bali Adventures. I had booked this a few weeks in advance when all the girls agreed that they definitely wanted to do it. It was another thing we were all really looking forward to. I woke the girls at 6:15. We had ordered our breakfast for 6:30 even though it doesn't officially start until 7:00. We had let the staff know the day before that we had an early start and they were happy to oblige.
Our breakfast arrived right on time, and we scoffed it down before going to reception to meet our driver. We made a stop at another hotel to pick up a girl who was going horse riding. The drive took about an hour and once we got past the Seminyak traffic, it was quite scenic. We drove along huge ric e fields and saw all the ladies bending over to plant the rice. Even though it was early, it was already quite warm. After a bit of a bumpy ride, we arrived. The company is up near Canggu at Yeh Gangga Beach and with an Australian owner, it's very well run and most importantly, the equipment is all kept in good condition and services regularly. The owner, Shifty, introduced himself and we were directed to the lobby area where we were offered a drink, given the safety instructions to read and a waiver to sign. Shifty explained to us, and a group of boys that were there to ride motorbikes along the beach, to just be sensible. He was very clear about things, that this was something to do just for fun and not extreme sports at all.
After a while, we were lead to the quad bikes and shown how to use them. Because the bikes are all automatic, it was straight forward; accelerator, front break, back break. After that, we were off. We went straight onto the beach and rode North. The beach was sadly pretty dirty; there was rubbish everywhere, but the further north we rode, the cleaner it got. We all used this time to get comfortable with the bikes. We started to speed up a bit and chose our own paths along the beach. We them turned onto a road for just a minute before turning onto dirt tracks that run along side the rice fields. Oh my, what an amazing view it was. The fields were so green and seemed to go on for ages. The track here was quite narrow so we barely went above 10 kilometres an hour during this part.
We stopped along the way for a quick drink (included in the price) before continuing. We went through a local village and once again, went quite slow. There was barely any traffic going by, but there was a couple of times that we had to squeeze past a truck on the narrow roads. There were a few kids around, waving to us with big smiles on their faces.
We made our way back to the beach and once again rode North. We were feeling much more confident by this point so Sami and I were having a bit of a race. Even at this time, the fastest we went was 25-30 kilometres an hour. It turns out Sami is much more of a daredevil than I am so she won. We looped around and rode North again with another quick ride on the roads before pulling back in to the company's head quarters. We were once again ushered into the lobby area where we were given cold towels and drinks. We chatted with Shifty while we waited for the girl doing the horse riding to return. We all had a great time doing the quad biking and once again, it's another thing I'd happily do more than once. At $85 per person for a single person quad bike, it's pretty good value for money. We had a good 1.5-2 hours ride, and it included hotel pick up and drop off. It's an awesome way to see a bit more of Bali and it was such a beautiful, scenic ride. If you're not into extreme sports, I'd still recommend this. I personally felt it was quite tame in regards to the speeds we went, but it is meant for fun and a bit of sightseeing so that was fine with all of us.
We got back into the car and made our way back to Seminyak. The ride home was much quicker and by 11:30, we were back at the villa. We were so happy we still had the entire afternoon free. We had had an early and quite small breakfast and we were starving. Mikhala and I decided to walk down to Werkudara road to a place called Swich which is similar to Subway but with tasty, fresh ingredients. It was about a 5 minute walk down Double 6 from the villa. We ordered for ourselves and Sami and Courtney and waited for it to be made. It didn't take long before we were walking back again. The all sat down at the table in the villa and dug in. The sandwiches were delicious!! I'd definitely reccomend going there if you're feeling like a meal a bit closer to home. The 4 sandwiches, drinks and 2 serves of fries it cost us about $30.
When we'd finished eating, we had a bit of chill out time. We all got comfy in the aircon of one the bedrooms and watched TV. We agreed that at about 3:00 we'd get up, and head out. The girls wanted to do a bit more shopping along Legian Road so a bit after 3:00, we made our way out. We had a quid stop at reception to ask them to make a reservation for us at a restaurant. Sami loves this particular restaurant and it was her one request for our trip. I'd heard many great things about it so was keen to give it a try. The lady called, and made our booking so dinner tonight would be at the Padma's teppanyaki restaurant.
We walked along Double 6, stopping to look at a few shops here and there before crossing over to Legian Road, changing some money and then starting the real shopping. We got some DVDs and CDs before popping into a few other stores before going to one of my favourites; Somwhere. After having a good look around, I settled on a top for a friend and a black maxi dress for myself. There was a very similar dress at Bamboo Blonde that I had been eyeing off and considered going back for. This one had nicer material and it was $30 cheaper so I was a happy girl.
After Somewhere, I popped next door to a jewellery store called Filthy Gorgeous. They have two stores; Legian Road and Garlic Lane and have recently been becoming more popular thanks to a Bai Facebook group. Mum had seen photos of some of their products and they were right up her alley. I ended up buying a pair of earrings and a matching pendant, but she won't be getting them until Christmas;)
I had had enough of shopping by this time. Courtney and I decided to walk back and leave Sami and Mikhala to shop a bit longer. We cut through The Haven and spent a bit of time at the communal pool to use the WiFi and FaceTime our families. The mozzies were going mad, so we went back to the villa to chill out. Sami and Mikhala got back not long after and shared their shopping goodies with us. Dinner wasn't until 8:15 so we agreed to go down to the Padma a bit early and visit the markets before dinner.
We left at about 7:45. There was a bit of traffic on the street so we got out and walked the rest of the way, looking here and there but not buying anything. It was a short walk down the road to the Padma. We walked through straight to the restaurant. We were welcomed in and shown our seats. Because we were wanting teppanyaki, we were seated around one of the teppanyaki grills where all the cooking would take place right in front of us. We ordered drinks, were given our special teppanyaki aprons and our chef came and introduced himself. The cooking began. First up for an entree was an Asian salad and grilled vegetables. I'm not much of a veggie eater but I gave the asparagus a go. Sorry mum, I'm not going to start eating it regularly anytime soon.
Next up was the seafood; prawns, snapper and tuna. I love my seafood so I was very excited for this part. The prawns were cooked beautifully and the chef even cut off the heads and legs. He actually kept the legs and fried them so they were crunchy and served them to us. He told us it was like a prawn cracker but I was very hesitant to try it. When the other girls all have it ago, I told myself to toughen up and do it, so I did but only 1 bite. It's not something I'd eat again because, hey, it's prawn legs. He set the grill on fire with the help of a bit of wine. If you want to see the video, go here to my Facebook page. The snapper and tuna were also delicious. Each time after the chef had cooked one of the components, he told us which 3 of the dipping sauces in front of us to have it with.
After seafood was the chicken and beef. With his very sharp knife, he cut them to precision. The chicken was a bit on the dry side, but the rest was great.
To finish up was fried rice that was once again cooking right in front of us. The garlic went on first with a sizzle, then the rest like spring onions and carrot. He cracked a couple of eggs onto the grill and scrambled them up with his knife. I loved watching the knife action. Just a clickety clack, tap tap and scrape and there was a meal in front of us. After our meal, we paid the bill ($150 for 4 of us, including the teppanyaki, 8 drinks and a big bottle of water) then got in a taxi back to Villa Coco. We were all very tired from our early start so we spent a bit of time watching TV until we couldn't keep our eyes open any longer.
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