Day03

BALI STORY 2000 - Day 3.

Sunday 17 September 2000.

START THE DAY WITH A MASSAGE ON THE BEACH !

Now there�s a motto for life; and one to live for.

If only . . . . . .

This morning she gets those sore spots. Just when you are about to cry, �Hold. Enough!�, she smooths it all down in the opposite direction, just like settling a cat�s fur. But, when you�re feeling nice and relaxed again those thumbs, without any hesitation or warning, search and, hit them dead on again. Bullseye!
Aaarrrgh !

Have a swim � and yes, the pool�s still nice.

Check the e-mail.

Down towards Benoa to change some money ready for the day�s activities but the Kodak shop changer recommended on the Forum, opposite Club Bali Mirage, is not open. With a taxi waiting this is no time to quibble. Ten paces further down the street there is a little stall with one of those sandwich boards on the footpath that we seriously try to avoid. Boldly, hoping our suntan is dark enough already not to mark us as fresh off the plane and ready for plucking, we take a fresh grip on our calculators and step up to the mark.
�Do you have big notes?� we ask, perhaps hoping she�d say �No� and we could avoid the issue and depart.
�Oh yes!� she replies, �100,00 rupiah if you want them.�
OK. I brace myself and step forward to go first. Travellers Cheque given a cursory glance, �Sign here� she says, �name on back and address!� �You want hundreds?�
She�s obviously done this so many more times than I have its plain that if I�m going to be swindled I�m probably not going to know about it until much later, and at least, I console myself, I�m going to be swindled by someone who is pleasant.
With great care and what I hope is an air of casual expertise I start counting the money, spilling it all over the counter half way through.
DAMN.
Start again, with Claire watching intently. All correct I think. I glance sideways at Claire and she nods in agreement. I look up at the lady and say �Terimah kasih�, thank you. Is that the whisp of a smile at the corners of her mouth?
Claire changes (much more than I do) and we climb back into the waiting taxi and head off to the Mini Restaurant for breakfast.

The Mini Restaurant is just where the posting on the Forum said it would be, opposite the Novotel Hotel but there�s no one in it. Still it�s fairly early on Sunday morning after all and the waiter comes to greet us in a friendly manner as we pay the Taxi the Rp6,500 meter fare which includes waiting time at the money changer. $2.68 in home-money terms! I don�t think I�ll ever again look an Aussie cabbie in the eye without smiling. I think Claire gave him Rp10,000 which is our normal habit if we can get the guy (are there any female taxi drivers in Bali?) to talk to us. If we only get grunts to our enquiries about how long has he been on this shift?, or is he the person who keeps the taxi so very clean?, we wait to get the change (or to see if we�re offered change) before deciding what we�ll pay. Because the restaurant is deserted we would probably have looked elsewhere if the waiter had not advanced to open the door for us. I think that it�s the little thing in life that seem to guide our actions in ways that are so subtle that we usually don�t recognise them and in fact we probably don�t even recognise that we�re being guided along certain paths and guided away from others. Is there really a grand, divine plan?

Hell, this is Bali.

Forget the philosophy and get back to the diary!

We opt for the Rp12,500 (A$2.68) American breakfast again, in my case to compare it with the disappointing Rp43,000 one at the Galeria in Nusa Dua yesterday. It�s about the same but we get both fruit juice and fresh fruit this morning whereas yesterday we had to choose one or the other. Even if we add in the cab fare, this one still wins hands down, and we�re not surprised.
We hail a Blue Bird taxi for the trip back to the Sheraton. Beware the blue taxis that are just a shade darker in colour than the Blue Birds but are not so reliable in their use of the meter. I can�t remember one occasion when I got into a Blue Bird taxi and the driver had not already put the meter on or was reaching to do so. That�s so much better than needing to ask, and I suppose I�ve got to admit that asking is still a long way in front of forgetting and being stung for five times the correct fare! And I�ve also got to admit that that did happened to me once on this trip. But more about that later.
We stop on the way to pick up a Fuji Superia, 200 ASA, �4th colour layer�, 20+4 shot film for Rp25,000 on the way back to the hotel. The taxi fare was Rp9,300 because it is apparently necessary to drive up around the Bualu markets on the way back, avoiding a one-way section of Nusa roadway.
This is the day for the wedding at Ubud which we are looking forward to, so the day is planned around much shopping on the way.
The Sukawati Markets (which are supposed to be the market at which the ordinary street/Kuta sellers buy) are almost the same as ever but this year we find out where to get a drink way down the side street. It makes it almost bearable.
The main market building, that multi storey concrete monster crammed with material goods and humanity, is so crowded that the walls seem to be bending outwards under the pressure! I kid you not, it was so obviously packed that the girls unanimously decided against entering and opted for the stalls down the side road instead.
Now that�s FULL!
Evidently a more or less regular trip is organised by sellers in Java. They come over by the bus load to buy in bulk for their businesses in Java - and today was the day!
I suppose that�s what you get for trying to shop on the Lord�s day!

I am intrigued by a fast flowing, concrete contained stream which I find disappearing under the north side of the road but can see no sign of, even behind the houses, on the south side. The map certainly shows a river flowing through Sukawati at about where I think we are standing, and which reaches the Selat Badung (Strait of Badung) near Segara north of Sanur. None of the locals seem to know, or indeed care, where the miserably littered stream goes.
One points vaguely along the road and allows his hand to wander off to the left somewhere between here and the horizon.
Does it indeed go along under the road before being turned left and spilling it�s load of foetid God-knows-what across the rice fields behind the village? If it does then the thought of driving over it along that road will forever haunt me, and considering the Balinese/Indonesian disdain for any sort of standards in their civil engineering road collapse is not beyond reality. It would be like putting your foot down an open cover into the drains under the footpaths of Kuta, but on a much grander (is that really an appropriate word for these circumstances?) scale. Now there�s a thought to put you off your lunch.

I am a little concerned that we will be late for the wedding in Ubud, but it seems that I am mistaken because we head off, not to the wedding but to the Ubud Markets from Sukawati. More of the same there but, somehow that I don�t understand, its different! Along the way we�ve identify Ananda Cottages where the wedding is to be and the Indus Restaurant where we will have dinner afterwards. We�ve brought along two bottles of my favourite Sparkling Burgundy Champagne, with champagne glasses, so that we can share a toast with the bride and groom.

It should be easy to get back there after the markets.

And so it proves to be, with about 3 minutes to spare before the reality that I have of this image of the shyly smiling bride gliding down some sort of an aisle towards a trembling groom. Some of us gather around the back of the mini-bus changing our sweaty clothes before we take up our places. Jay is amongst the leaders rushing into the Cottages reception area.
When I turn around the next time I can see him coming back to the bus.

�It�s not until tomorrow.� He says. ! ! ! !

I think I must have frozen in my tracks, and Nell says, �That�s right. You�ve got the date wrong.� In a mental fog I go back through the e-mails I�ve received and clearly remember the last one that confirmed the change from Monday to Sunday.
I forwarded that to everyone else so that they all knew.
What could have gone wrong?
To this very day I don�t know, but I do know I was on the receiving end of some less than funny remarks for a few days � and I still am when the occasion presents itself.

Well, never let a good opportunity pass by without profit, is the motto of some people, so it�s back into the bus, open the Sparkling Burgundies and head off to the new Galeria shopping complex which includes a new Matahari�s.

Along the way we stop to have a walk across the old Dutch bridge and inspect Murnie�s Warung nearby. I�m invited by the hostess to walk down the stairs to the bottom level close to the river where the world is lost under a dark green cover of forest lifting up the sides of the ravine that the river has cut over the years. I am told that the lower levels are lit by naturally occuring glow-worms at night.
It certainly looks as though it could live up to the recommendations that it has received.

The new shopping centre is very impressive with a grand entrance and well spaced, gleaming service counters amongst the displays.
I�ts not yet finished and construction work and fitting out is still going on. This is now Sunday night, remember. Never-the�less there are things to be purchased.
I think I�ve said that before somewhere.
All prices are in US dollars and it dosn't take too many conversions of the price tickets to scare us off into the adjacent Matahari's.

Eventually back into the bus, back to the Sheraton and a Room Service dinner for all.

A day to be remembered, or a day to be forgotten?

I guess only time will tell but it seems to me that the time between the end of breakfast and bed was pretty much a waste of a day in Paradise.

7.10.00

There are links below.
.

Where would you like to go today?

Here is a link that will take you back to our Home Page.

Here is a link that will take you back to Day 2.

Here is a link that will take you to the photos of days 1 - 4.

And this little piggy will take you on to Day 4. Now Day 4 does mention massages again, but also raises the question of whether the Galleria can be cheaper than the beach for shopping. I get stung by the hotel's taxi service and there's the Benoa fishing village and the beaches as well as the Jl Pratama restrauants.