| BALI STORY 2000 - Day 9. |
| Saturday 23 September 2000. This is the eleventh chapter of the diary of our trip. It is not the usual short and snappy ‘Just Back’ report but it’s only three pages today. Day 9 Should I tell you how we started the day? Mistri brought us pineapples today and, if Wayan’s were gob-smackers yesterday, these are the original nectar of the Gods. The bananas look so damn awful that we would not buy them at home, but close your eyes and suck them in and they are incredibly creamy and ‘bananery’. At this point in my notes I’ve written, “I can’t resist – I’m going to have one now’, and there is an oily mark on the corner of the page. Sort of mid-morning we picked up Margaret at her Barong Hotel in Poppies Lane. Two star? Three star? I don’t really know but the pools were nice, the first floor room she had was clean, the double bed looked comfortable enough for a party animal to sleep soundly in it early in the morning and the bathroom was more than just adequate. Surprisingly, despite this being mid Saturday morning, there was no street noise from either Poppies Lane traffic or from that in nearby Jl Legian. We felt venturesome, and didn’t realise the distance, so the vote was taken to walk through to Dolphins Leather in Melasti Street to pick up our order. The map, when I looked at it later, shows no streets directly between the two, but we walked, one left – next right, wandering generally north. There are some interesting little shops and stalls, cafes and home stays, through these back pathways that I never knew existed. We are greeted warmly at Dolphins again, and the long thin bloke breaks out into unrestrained laughter when I walk in with my back to the wall and obviously keeping a firm grip on the top of my shorts. Last year when I was trying on a pair of trousers I was told to hold my stomach in. I did so and the trousers, having nothing left to hold them up, fell to the floor. There was stunned and embarrassed silence until I pulled them up again and, after a brief pause, repeated the performance. The silence turned to gales of laughter and when I pulled them up for the third time ‘long and thin’ sneaked up by my side and with a swift and un-ceremonious yank, repeated the show without my assistance. Claire was fortunate to catch him in the act with her camera and it is one of our treasured snaps of Bali. By this time strangers were putting their heads in the door to see what the noise was all about, and were quickly being measured and given quotes. They had not forgotten the incident, or us when we first came in to place our order, and this time again we all re-lived the fun once more before getting down to business over a cold soft drink. One of the earliest things I remember Chris telling me about his impressions of the Balinese was that they have a quiet but unquenchable sense of humour. That he is right was shown here once more. From Dolphins by taxi to the Sri Ratu Hotel in Legian, further north, where ‘Si Badak’ was staying with his Sunshine, Marie. Si Badak is the web name used by a garrulous old ex-Irishman turned garrulous Ozzie from Western Australia. We met through his regular polished prose and God-awful doggerel on the Bali Travel Forum, a web site we both frequent. Strange thing, as we walked up to the reception desk to ask for him, I noticed a figure sitting in a breezeway by the far side of the pool. ‘I’ll bet that’s him!’ I said to myself with unusual certainty, and it was. Somehow he seems to have transmitted his image to me through his writing. We talked, ‘of shoes and ships and sealing wax’ over a couple of ‘hooligan soups’, with Marie getting in an occasional word too, before accepting his invitation to have lunch with them. Margaret felt quite at home with these two ‘paddies’ as she had just spent a fair bit of time in Ireland and could swap new tales for old. Lunch was good and plentiful Mi goreng for three, with drinks, for Rp45,000 in total. I’m sure we’ll go back again sometime. We had to leave too soon to go back to Nusa Dua Galeria to pick up my glasses ordered a week ago. This was unknown territory for Margaret so she came with us. I think the guy who fits the lenses into the frame was having his afternoon sleep. As soon as I asked if they could be sent to the shop at Legian which is much closer to us it seems that they would only be half-hour we if we’d like to wait for them. This is particularly fortuitous, as there was now time for the girls to slip across to the Armani shop and pick up a bag or two of jeans etc. The glasses eventually turn out to be fine, which is no mean feat given my wobbly eyes. The acid test would be when I get them home and sit down in front of the computer with them, and when I did they were still fine. To the Inn via Matahari’s in Kuta to pick up the caps we were getting embroidered for our coming visit to the Forum Bar by the Life Saving tower on the beach at Legian. One out of the four was right so we left to change more money while three were re-done. This also provided some welcome time to do a bit of shopping in Mataharis! When we returned one of the re-done caps was still not right so we left them to be picked up later and headed off to Happy Hour and a shower at the Inn before dinner at Kori’s in Poppies Lane II. Kori’s will never make the list of the 10 cheapest restaurants in Bali or the list of those with the widest variety of cuisines, but neither will it make the most expensive list. It may, however, make the best food list, the best value list, the most reliable list and the list of those with the highest ceilings. Claire and I have pre-dinner drinks at the bar while we are waiting for the others who are farewelling new found friends who are off home tonight. I’m not ready to think about going home so I’m a bit surprised and a little curious when they all turn up for dinner and thoughts of home come to mind again! It seems that the flight is delayed and instead of hanging around the airport for three hours they decide to try the highly recommended Kori’s. We had the Grilled Bruschettas almost all round and they are good. Thick, with a slathering of topping loaded with garlic. It’s probably a good thing that we did all have them! Claire has fish grilled on a very hot stone that she can’t resist and declares it delicious. I have the Bombay Curry in which there is a nice contrast in textures between the potato and the cauliflower. With drinks and aqua the bill is Rp212,520. It sounds a lot, and in Bali it certainly is, but it’s really A$22.50 each. We can’t think of too many places in Oz where we’d get this quality for that price. The taxi ride back to the Inn is Rp4,750 – A$1.00 before tip, and he qualifies because he’s a friendly, talkative guy who comes from Padang, an island way up north off the middle of Sumatra’s south coast, beyond Java even. A long way from home to get work. A late night cool-off in the pool, shower and a half-hour trying to get these notes into shape before welcome bed. Another quiet sort of a day if you’re not an avid shopper. Tomorrow is another day – and a new notebook. 15.10.00 You're right! There are links below. |
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| LINKS - Back to Day 8. On to Day 10. Today we visit the Street Animal Rescue home at Sidakarya village. We shop at Mayang Bali and at Mataharis. We get to Sammi and Sussi's bar with their caps and have dinner at Mamma Luccias. View the photos of Days 5 - 10. or to the index on our Home Page, for a new direction. |