Let's walk to the beach

So we looooove walking. Joe, when he has time is a legit hiker and backpacker. He has gear. And hiking poles(for treachery, I use then because I'm like an old person).  Malaysia afforded us the ability to walk for the most part. There haven't always been sidewalks but it was urban enough that it was safe to commingle with the cars and the motorbikes. 

Jogya was a different story. Canguu, so far, has been the same different story.

We left our villa roughly heading for the beach. Joe wanted a beach day. (I'm not a huge fan of beaches on the ocean versus beaches on lakes, I really dislike saltwater).  So we headed down the road our villa was on. For the most part we were able to walk on a kinda grassy shoulder. All the roads we were on whether heavily trafficked or not, were somewhere between a one lane road and a two lane road, yet app of these roads were intended for traffic going both ways.

After we passed the first main road,  we found ourselves with rice fields on either side!  At one point I saw a path and i surprised both of us with the suggestion to walk down. We saw a collection of bamboo stalks and as I reached out to touch it a small garden snake came close and stuck his tongue at me. I braved on, now wary of what was below and around us.  The end of the path was the edge of a rice patty. I remembered that phones have time functions so we were able to get a fairly good picture.

We continued on our journey, even though it was hot and rather treacherous.  Joe wasn't his normal self.  His stomach was off, his leg still hadn't healed and he was coming down with a cold.  In my research for stuff ti di and places to eat, I saw there was a clean eating cafe sorta on the way, so away we went.

It was amazing to have so many greens and frankly all colors of the rainbow.  We had been sticking primarily to Asian food and this was a welcome addition!  When we left the cafe we found ourselves only a few more steps from the beach!  Two hours after we had left our villa, and two weeks after we began our travels, we had arrived at the beach!

We started at Echo beach and worked our way east(which in retrospect may not have been the best direction as one of our aims was to see the sunset).  We saw lots of chairs lining the beach and initially did not know what to make of it. But as they thinned out, we started to notice that there were like blocks of chairs, separated by color that were rented out by different women on the beach.  We accidentally walked between two women and didnt know who to choose but one of the sets of chairs were fully shaded so that seemed a good a reason as any.

So I don't really like beaches, as i mentioned. But, i do love to read.  Two weeks into our trip and I finally opened a book!  Joe went into the ocean several times, while I read!  It was lovely!

We then wanted to see the sunset, but it looked like there would be too many clouds to see it and we walked in the wrong direction. So we found a spot on a third floor roof that served Japanese food in an old Chinese temple that faced the right direction. We came it last minute and took bar type seats on the outside of the restaurant. It looks like several parties had reserved seats, but no one had come.  One such couple came in right before the time of sunset and of course, we are blocking their view. I'm fairly bothered by this, as we were angry about others doing it. It was hard to reconcile. So I pushed us to leave much earlier than we would have, had they not come in or reserved ahead of time.

We also tried wagyu steak and other delicious items such as sauted duck and mushrooms and it wound up being our second most expensive meal of the teip at around $50.  I've been struggling with this, while this is a cheap meal according to US standards and could be seen as a deal it is near gluttony to locals, many of whom would not have the expendable income to enjoy such a meal. This was also hard, and tasty. Being aware sucks.

We had a gelato while waiting for our ride and got to enjoy the plunge pool again before bed!!