Seminyak, Indonesia

Sunday 01/07/12
Mark and I headed out for a morning walk at about 7.30am. We were grateful for the cloud cover as it kept the temperature down to a comfortable level. We were amazed at the amount of rubbish littering the beach and found this rather disturbing. We wandered back to the hotel and up through the restaurant and found some familiar faces there; Matt and Annabelle. We decided to settle into breakfast then and we were soon joined by Ali, Tom Nick and Eleni. Following breakfast we went for a walk to the local supermarket to pick up some supplies and change some money. It was then back to the hotel and beach for a few hours. Matt, AB, Nick and Eleni headed out shopping for a couple of hours at around 2pm and Mark, Tom, Ali and I wandered up the street and did some bargain shopping for Tom.

We re-grouped back in the lobby at 5pm and drifted down the beach for pre-dinner drinks at Crystal Palace. Crystal Palace sounds quite glamorous…yes?. Think make-shift huts like on Gilligan’s Island. This is more like it. They had a rough timber deck with some chairs and tables and then assorted bean bags scattered along the beach front. There were two guys playing guitars and singing but they were making up the words to many western style songs, as they went along and as they saw fit too. Give me this place, any day though, over Ku De Ta or the trendy places further up the beach. Crystal Palace is very quirky and has loads of charm and character. You can even buy a cross bow, complete with arrows, whilst you sit there with your ‘Happy Hour’ cocktails.

From there we wandered a bit further down the beach to Lanai for dinner. We walked back to the hotel via the beach and turned in for an early night.