Around Bali

 10/02/2012
  Not such a hectic day today, we wanted to look around the local tourist hotspots. Indy took us to Sanur beach first thing, so I could have a go at snorkelling on the reef, but I had to be content with having a look around under water off the beach. It was obvious we couldn’t get old stumpy on a dive boat and an impossibility to get her off. It wouldn’t have been much fun even if we had managed it , she would have just had to sit and wait for me to come back. I was lucky enough to spot a nice eel, about a metre long, and swim with it for a while, but other than that there wasn’t much to see.
  We moved on through unbelievable traffic to the resort of Kuta where we shoved the Leg iron along the prom and through the market. I bartered for and bought a couple  of obligatory Bintang Beer T shirts for the equivalent of $7 or £4. Excellent quality, not made in China
 We travelled south of Kuta to a fish restaurant for a late lunch, one of those restaurants where you choose your fish swimming about in a tank. Between us we had Red snapper, mussels and prawns after a fish soup starter. All the mains being cooked immediately after being despatched , except the mussels of course, tho who would know, they don’t exactly jump about when alive.  I tried a local firewater, Arak, tasted a bit like nasty vodka, it was O K but nowhere near as good as Ouzo or Raki. We had a table on the beach under a huge umbrella and even though the place wasn’t busy, we were still entertained by a group of wandering musicians.  A band of 3 guitars, a tom tom and a double bass. They could play better than they could sing! A tip of 5 buck sent them on their way after 3 songs, really, really nice.
 Bali is not the cleanest or most hygienic of places, it is third world and run down, but we think we will come back. There are lots of places to explore but you definitely need 2 good legs or in our case 4. We are doing our best with the wheels, but believe me the Leg iron will not be doing  a wheelchair marathon, not with me pushing it!

 11/02/2012
  We decided on an Indy free couple of days, today and tomorrow. He is very accommodating, but nevertheless we feel we don’t want to take advantage. It’s the British way don’t you know! So, we spent most of the  day in the shade by the pool. It has been hot today, though not as hot as we are used to, and less humidity. Around the pool throughout the day it seemed to be like part of the United Nations.  We have French, German, Danes, Australians, and others we haven’t been able to put a tag on, so many different nationalities here in Bali.
 After an exhausting day with our books, having to stop reading occasionally for a swim or to attend to the very nice young Balinese ladies requests to serve us with food and drinks, we decided to go for a wheelchair shovathon around Sanur. It’s the first time I have been on a pub crawl in charge of a leg iron, but it worked out not too badly. The pavement being what they are (rubbish) caused a few squeals from time to time, especially when we came to a jarring halt in some pothole or other! She said the pain eased with every pub we visited.
 Our perambulation took us to the unlikely places such as the Ducks Nutz and Grill, The Piccadilly, followed by the Wicked Parrot Irish Bar and eventually to an authentic Balinese restaurant selling steak.  Stumpy aka Leg iron reckons she read somewhere that the Hindus ( the predominant religion here) are a bit reluctant to kill anything for food.  Not sure about this but it would explain my steak, the beast had to have died from old age! Hindus don’t eat beef anyway. Lovely pepper sauce.
 Negotiating the chair back to Bumi Ayu Bungalows though the back streets in the dark proved to be no problem. Amazing how one loses all sense of feeling after 6 or 8 or maybe a dozen Bintangs!