South Beach on Easter

The Engineer, Boss and I found ourselves with little to do on Easter Sunday. (pssst...none of us even talked about going to church!)

So Boss and Engineer came up with the idea of going to South Beach. I suppose it's called South Beach because it's at the south end of Dar.

The Engineer and I went there with a group of friends last year but we were totally unimpressed. The water wasn't very clear and the beach was very crowded - much like the clips you see on tv of California beaches. The only problem is the South Beach crowd is hardly the 6-pack-displaying, bikini-wearing types at all.

Instead, sprawled across the sand were old Aunties and Uncles, their kids and screaming grandkids all running helter-skelter. There were people in long-sleeved blouses and what looked like formal wear. Yech!

Anyway, this time it was thankfully different. We gave the crowded beaches a miss and just drove around from one campsite to another. The places we chose were fairly deserted and absolutely gorgeous.

Boss made some fabulous lamb mince and ham sandwiches. I should've taken a picture of them but we ate them all before I thought of the camera! They certainly looked like they were made by a man because there was nothing delicate about them at all. I call them 'man sandwiches' - huge cuts of bread, really generous meat filling and a slice of cheese.

The Engineer bit into one and discovered that the plastic wrapper was still on the cheese and said, "these sandwiches are defintely made by Boss," with a sly grin. I think he meant that while Boss is nice enough to actually go to the trouble of making the sandwiches, he probably ran out of patience long before he'd finished making them : )

I managed to buy something even though South Beach is hardly a shopper's paradise. Here's The Engineer picking out a rasta coloured hat for me at a stall by the beach:

The caps were cute but I suspect the bikinis in the background were not new. I don't think second-hand tops are that bad but a bikini top is a whole other story - and don't even get me started on second-hand bikini bottoms. Yikes!

We eventually stopped to use the restroom and I actually found myself in a ladies' room which was basically a hole in the ground. Don't be fooled by it's castle-like exterior:


It was astonishingly dry, looked and even smelled clean! I think some of the toilets in Mid Valley Megamall is a lot worse!

We eventually made our way to a horse farm (is that what they're called?) where you can learn to ride. It was literally in the middle of nowhere and this road just seemed to go on and on:


It was worth the trip though because it was a really, sweet, quaint little place with dogs, cats, chickens and horses all living together in harmony. They had this lovely bougainvillea tunnel leading toward the stables:


Here's The Engineer giving Steffie some love - the only girl I would actually approve of him caressing!



We thought about walking to the beach which is about 20 minutes away from the stables but decided we were too lazy. Besides, we could catch a glimpse of the ocean right from the stables:



The Engineer and I have decided that South Beach isn't so bad after all and we're definitely going back. There's talk of doing a camping trip but I'm hoping everyone will decide to rent a bungalow instead. I can never understand why people like to do the outdoor thing when the indoor-with-a-bathroom-and-fewer-mosquitoes thing is so much better!

The only part of our trip that wasn't good was Girlfriend's absence. She's was away in South Africa and I can't wait for her to come back.