Chasing Amy-Lou

Canggu, Bali, Indonesia;

Today, all my prayers were answered and Karma and I reignited our passionate, if not slightly tumultuous relationship, firmly cementing it over cheap Bali Hai beers down by the beach and a delicious Indonesian meal.

It was the start of a brand new week, it was time to put the past behind me and begin a fresh. And as far as Mondays go, this one hadn’t been too shabby.

Waking around 7:30am which was pretty good seeing as recently my body clock had been telling me that 4:30am was a reasonable time to wake (for the record, it’s not), I was shocked to see blinding sunshine pushing its way through the curtains to my dorm room. Immediately feeling the effects of the vitamin D, the serotonin levels increasing at rapid speed, I sprung from my bed and poked my head out of the door. “Hooraaaaaahhhh!!!”, I screamed, “Sunshine! There’s finally sunshine in the morning!” It was, in my eyes, going to be a glorious day.

Slapping on the suncream and donning my bikini I started out on the long, arduous walk to Canggu beach. Headphones in, smile on my face, I trotted along taking in hilarious bits of graffiti and admiring the picture-perfect scenery; I eventually arrived at the beach at around 11:30am, a little bit sweaty, a little bit out of breath, but I arrived. Beers in hand (I’d gone prepared), I laid down my towel, secured myself in a comfortable position, cracked open a coldy, and lay there for the rest of the afternoon, baking in the heat of the gorgeous glowing sun.

And to my sheer delight, my prediction came true, the day in fact did turn out to be glorious. Aside from a teeny bit of sunburn due to only using factor 20 sunscreen (red raw thighs constitutes as teeny, right?) the day had panned out perfectly.

On the way home I stopped for dinner at Taman Nauli, a restaurant that had swiftly become a favourite go-to of mine, and ordered a dish called Gado-Gado. Gado-Gado is an Indonesian salad that consists of boiled eggs, potatoes, other slightly blanched vegetables, tofu, and a delicious peanut sauce. I was in culinary heaven. The flavours complimented each other so well that I could’ve easily consumed another plateful.

I’m glad that my eyes decided not to think they were bigger than my belly though because as soon as I’d finished I was presented with a complimentary dessert – Dadar Gulung. Not knowing what I was tucking into (the dessert looked a bit like some sort of weird green spring rolls), I gasped in orgasmic delight as I bit into the soft outer shell and consumed a mouthful of sweet devine goodness.

What was this treasure I had discovered? What was this delicious treat that was tantalising my taste buds? Asking the waitress what I’d just devoured, she told me it was a sweet coconut pancake – essentially a green coloured omelette (the green comes from pandan leaves) filled with grated coconut and palm sugar. I had literally just died and gone to dessert heaven.

Karma hadn’t been so good to me the last four days, but today, gosh, today, Karma had pulled out all the stops; and with a full belly and a happy heart I ended the evening in some much needed ecstasy – finally I’d gotten what I came for, and I was feeling on top of the world.