expiration date 

today is a no-plan day. which means, it’s a Beach Day! yay!

we all woke up and went to breakfast around 8:30 in the morning. everyone was already there. the kids immediately played together. kids from other guests have also joined.

when the food arrived, the small kids gathering was disbanded and they all went to their own tables. aina had chocolate pancakes, ari had mie goreng and i had various bread. the pancake was a bit too flour-ish and wasn’t fluffy enough, though.

after breakfast, everyone got ready for the beach time: sand playing and a little bit of ocean-swimming, mostly for the kids.

it turned out that the wave was a little stronger than we thought, so no ocean swimming for the kids. but that’s okay, because they were quite satisfied with building sandcastles. gaizka, who’s never been to the beach was having a hard time with the sand. he hates he feeling of the sand sticking to his feet. so he quit the beach and settled on the pool instead.

aina and alika had a blast with the sand, though. alika even had some in her mouth… ayoub and ditha were having as much fun (if not more) as the kids, building tunnels and bridges in the sand.

since the wave was small but rather strong, and there were boards rented on the side, ari and i decided to try our super-novice surfing skills. it’s been a while… our last surf was in Siargao, back in 2008. and it turned out that my balance sucked this time… hahaha.

ari was first. after a few wipe-outs, the guy who owned the surfboards gave him a quick lesson, probably because he didn’t want us to break his board.

then, it was my turn… ari was my coach :)

fun, Fun, FUN!

right after the surf, when the sun was right on top of us, we took aina into the water. the wave was a lot tammer and it felt good to be in the water during this hot day. i’m pretty sure i got 2 shades darker from today… then, we continued swimming in the pool with alika and fenny, while Oma was laying around in the nearby gazebo. such a relaxing day…

meanwhile, ayoub, ditha and ramanda was still busy with their sand-structure.

after the whole swimming time, we all went back to our rooms to shower and got ready for lunch. but it turns out that our hot water in our room is dead. we called the guest service, but it took them forever to fix it. so, aina and i ended up taking our shower at alika’s room… and their bathroom is awesome! it was large and has no roof… so we showered under the sky. their room was the 1st floor room. it turns out that 1st floor rooms get large bathroom, 2nd floor rooms (like ours) get normal bathrooms, but have pretty balconies instead.

after we were all done, some of us met up again and went to a Warung a few steps away from the hotel, by the beach. it’s called Paradiso, recommended by ari’s work colleague whom he bumped into in the hotel’s swimming pool… yes, weird, isn’t it? it’s weird enough to bump into someone from work during vacation… but it’s even weirder that we all ended up staying in the same exact resort…

the warung was nice. everyone (especially those of us who do not live in Indonesia) welcomed the coconut drinks.

while we’re having our lunch there, the rain poured hard! we could see it coming from inland, as the mountains afar slowly disappeared, swallowed behind the thick white curtain of rain. it was kinda cool. but of course, rains on the beach never last long…

after lunch, we all went back to our rooms and rested. chili came over because our room has the best wifi connection. ari slept and aina went over to gaizka’s room to hang out with alika and gaizka. the pamulang room was definitely the kiddy hangout, since it has toys and TV.

around 8pm, we all walked to the dining room. tonight’s dinner theme was kampung food. so they served mie bakso, serabi, asinan and satay.

the whole beach and surf thing we did today really beat us up. so by the time we finished dinner, we were dead tired and hit the sack immediately.

noushka and naomi were arriving at 2am, and tomorrow would be Gili day. yay!

» today’s photos are in flickr’s 05/04/2013 photo album.