We wake to yet another gorgeous blue-skied morning - not a hint of rain to be seen.
I've spent the night dreaming about watermelons in the shape of the minarets of the Taj Mahal held up by intricately carved carrot columns and turnip arches, and I'm VERY excited about fruit carving school.
The morning slips by quickly and when Ririn arrives at ten Munchie and I slip out to catch the hotel shuttle to Hardy's. We walk along the main street towards Smorgas where we normally turn in to walk to the beach, and along the way I spot a necklace in the window of Kapal Laut which I quite like.
I first shopped here on our trip last October, they're very reasonably priced and have jewellery designs that range from quite 'safe' and classic, to more contemporary things. I defy any woman to walk in and not find something they would like :). The necklace is a blue moonstone pendant set in silver, it not my usual 'thing' but I'm drawn to it anyway, so I try in on and gently remind Munchie that it's our wedding anniversary on Sunday. Two minutes later the store assistant is wrapping it up. Got to love a man that can take a hint.
Back out onto the street and down the laneway to the beach and to Crema for our morning fix. One of the resident beach dogs has had a puppy, gorgeous little thing called 'Bulan' and while we're there a local expat walking his own dog stops and gives Bulan some worming tablets and a bite to eat - nice to see that this puppy will have a decent chance to start off healthy.
On the beach where Crema is a young Balinese guy runs a business renting out sun lounges for the day with some pretty good patronage by the looks of it - most days there were at least 10 lounges taken by late morning, mostly by older European tourists who I assume are staying on the opposite side of the road in Sanur and without direct beach access. We noticed for the first time this trip a large number of French-speaking tourists, aside from the usual Dutch, Germans, a smattering of Aussies and of course, more recently the Russians.
I fully understand that in some parts of Europe it is wholly acceptable to sunbathe topless, but I think it's very culturally insensitive to bare your baps in Bali in the middle of a popular public beach. For some reason I seem to attract public nudity (ref to Euro-Nudie in last year's JBR) without actually engaging in it myself, and so each morning for the duration of our short trip we were subjected to some Frenchman's grand-maman getting the old girls out and parading around in front of Crema like she was 21 again.
Not only was she unashamedly sitting up in front of all and sundry to rub on the 30+ so they didn't burn, but I found it very uncomfortable when she actually stood up and held a 5 minute conversation with the poor sun lounge guy, hands on hips (makes them look less saggy) facing the beach path, while scores of other tourists riding past on the beach bath copped and eyeful of Grandma's wares. One Taiwanese bloke stacked his bike on a barrier a little further down the path - not sure if it was related to what he just saw, but I like to think so.
There are ways of sunbathing topless discreetly, but this lady was quite happy to let her 70-something year old assets swing gently in the breeze as she got up time and time again to adjust the sun lounge to the optimum angle, or swing her legs over the side of the lounge and start up a conversation with the neighbouring lounge. 'Hi, I'm Jeanne and I'm French, please ignore my wrinkly brown boobs while I talk to you. And where are you from?'
Don't get me wrong - the female form is a beautiful thing, and I am fully supportive of breastfeeding in public (which in my experience most women do quite discreetly anyway) but I think that it's quite arrogant to assume that you can just get your gear off wherever you feel like it in a foreign country and think that it's OK, because it's not.
After 15 minutes of incredulous gawking at French Grandma it's time to head back to the hotel and have lunch with Snubs, Mookie and Ririn. Today we choose Bobby's Bar just next to the Sanur Beach hotel.
Thankfully the food was dismal, drinks barely palatable and service delivered almost begrudgingly, because we were running late for our pick-up for Fruit Carving School, and we were encouraged to get out of there as fast as possible. Munch ordered Cap Cay and Rendang (always have a back-up dish in case the first one fails) - both were watery and awful, my caipiroska was undrinkable, and the boys shared a tuna steak that was so tough Mookie couldn't chew it. I had a simple nasi goreng, which was OK except the chicken tasted a bit off, until I realised it was actually chunks of tuna so felt a bit more comfortable eating it, but it wasn't what I'd ordered.
Can't win them all.
We all bailed out as soon as we could, and Ririn took the boys for some sand play on the beach while Munchie and I raced out to the front of the Mercure to meet our ride to fruit carving school.
The course takes place in an open balé in the forecourt of a small salon a few streets back from the main drag in Sanur, so it's a very quick ride for us. The other participants for the day are already there, as well as a few curious bystanders - friends of the school's owners ready to jump in with some constructive feedback :) In the centre of the balé are some stainless steel benches lined with cutting boards, a selection of very sharp looking knives, a watermelon, some carrots, tomatoes and daikon (clearly my dream was more like a premonition, though admittedly, only one of these is technically a 'fruit').
At the back of the set-up is another set of stainless-steel benches laden with Balimoon mixers and cocktail -making paraphernalia ostensibly so that even if you're an epic fail at fruit carving you can still put that watermelon to good use. In fact, at the end of the course we were offered a choice of a fabulous cocktail or two while we sat back to admire our artistic creations which was a really nice touch.
Our Master Carver is Putu, a handsome Balinese craftsman who is initially a little shy, and he opens the class by showing us a very serious-looking toolkit of the different types of knives used for carving and what result you can expect from them. My Dutch grandfather was a carpenter, and I can see the same look of respect and reverence for his tools that my Opa had for his favourite chisels. It's at this point that I'm confident we're in the presence of a true professional.
We start with something 'easy' :) a simple tomato garnish, where we slice the side of a tomato in a zig-zag pattern like a caricatured easter-egg and split it into two to reveal an attractive lotus-flower, most of the class' first attempts are entirely passable, and it's great to have a quick result for a bit of confidence. The knives are exceedingly sharp - be warned. Thankfully we had no accidents on the day, but be wary if you have a touch of the DTs... Step two of the tomato flower is to carefully and patiently slice the 'petals' even finer so they fan out a little and finish off the lotus flower perfectly.
Buoyed with confidence the class moves on to carrot and daikon rosettes, watermelon 'leaves' and a full rose in bloom carved out of the side of a watermelon which we all took turns in helping to carve. The end result was truly spectacular considering that before this class started, the most shapes I'd ever thought about sculpting a watermelon into was half moons or fruit salad cubes, or if I'm feeling really wild and crazy I might even whip out the melon-baller.
The leftover off-cuts of the vegetables are scooped into a bag and taken home for stock - there is almost no frivolous waste in Bali.
We line up all of our artistic creations and I genuinely think Putu is quite proud of his inaugural fruit carving students. We all pose for a group photo taken by Munchie and admire our works of art with a Pluto's Punch or an Illusion and chat with our fellow students. I'm seeing an opening here for some hen's day 'special' carvings :) and I suspect you know where I'm heading with this, so enough said. If you have this in mind I'd contact the school's owner, I reckon he'd be open to it, and it would be a great day out with the girls.
If you've done all the cooking classes, temples, hikes, markets, quad-bike riding, elephant safaris, and rice-paddy photography you can take, and are looking for something fun and different and a bit of a laugh, then give this a go. I'd have no hesitation to recommend it to friends and I think it's going to be a roaring success. If you google Bali Fruit Carving School you should find it easily.
Warmed by a few cocktails we ride home and spend the afternoon hours playing dolphins with Snubs and Mookie in the pool until we all turn into human prunes and then get dressed for dinner at 3 Monkeys so that Dean can have his wood fired pomegranate pork dish again (for the record, not as good as he remembered it, but it did have a lot to live up to...) The Absolut Ginger martinis were however, just as good as I remembered them, and went down exceptionally well with my aromatic snapper dish. Munchie was disappointed, but then his true love is now the roast pork at Linga Longa which we have slated in for Sunday night, so really he's OK about it.
Mookie and Snubs wolf down some pizzas and spend the evening hitting on a couple of older blondes in princess dresses, and soon the four of them and Ririn are playing chasey at the back of the restaurant and counting the fish in the fish pond until it's time for the princesses to go home. Mookie voices his displeasure by howling at the top of his lungs until the younger princess doubles back and hands him a chupa chup out of her purse and gives him a cuddle before she runs back to her Dad. Marry her Mookie - you're highly unlikely to find another woman who understands you as wholly and quickly as this one!
Sampai Nanti!
Dutchnat