First 2 days in Bali

08/02/2012

 First thing this morning we could see no future in this short stay in Bali. Indy was due at 9am and didn’t show which left us thinking he had abandoned the job because of Janes incapacity. No driver, no transport meant we would be stuck in this hotel for a week.
 We had brekky in our room then sat waiting for Indy for an hour at reception…….. Lost for a plan we claimed a couple of sunbeds by the pool and had a re-think. Three hours later, and no further forward, Indy turned up with a bag full of ideas of what to do for the rest of the week. There had obviously been some misunderstanding over our plans for today, he thought it was just a day to sort out an itinerary, we thought he was taking us out for the day. Anyway problem solved.
 I went with Indy to the Doctors and hired a wheelchair for a few days then to a supermarket to buy an adaptor so we can plug in the shiny thing.
 We discovered the pool bar is open for happy hour 3-30 - 5 o’clock and we can get a half decent wi fi signal at the same location, no signal in our room though.
 Things are beginning to look a bit more rosy


 09/02/2012
  After yesterdays little hiccough we have had a full day with Indy, starting at 8 30 and arriving back at 6 25pm. Our first stop after negotiating the morning rush hour traffic, was to watch a Balinese theatre group doing an almost incomprehensible play cum pantomime in an open air theatre. We were given a written resume of the play which helped us to follow the plot after a fashion. The costumes were fantastic but the scenery consisted of just one tree and some lovely scented joss sticks. Good job there was no blood as there seemed to be a lot of killing and noses being bitten off! We would have been ankle deep in the red stuff! The whole performance took an hour and was very entertaining, especially the band who played drums, gamelans (type of xylophone) and a flute.
 More dicing with suicide bikers followed as we made our way to a batik makers where we watched  young women with very young eyes doing intricate wax and dye work on cotton and silk.  There was a girl on an old fashioned loom weaving cotton. Jane managed to stumble around the shop to buy a couple of sarongs. Up towards the mountains we called at the gold and silver quarter and watched what could have been the same girls as at the batik factory doing more fine work with silver. They managed to relieve us of 200,000 Rupiah for a pair of very nice earings.
 We travelled continually uphill along some very poor roads full of holes and dodging very poor drivers and bikers, the R T A’s must be terrific.
 Eventually we stopped way up in the mountains at a restaurant overlooking a deep valley and across to the Gunung Batur volcano, still active. The restaurant attracts many tourists and whilst we were there Jane became the centre of attraction (not because of her broken leg), some Javanese ladies wanted their photos taken with her. Indy thought it may have been because of her fair complexion and her with a tan as well, or it may have been the hair colour. They didn’t have a word of English. The meal, a buffet, proved to be very nice with a couple of unusual bits. The deep fried crispy spinach could be a meal on it’s own and the black rice pudding was unusual but very tasty.
 Starting back down the mountain we pulled into a roadside stall selling mainly mandarins, but also mangosteens and a fruit we think is called sala, never tasted anything quite like them, crunchy, sweet but with a tang and took the enamel off your teeth. We bought half a kilo of each for the equivalent of $2 . The mangosteens alone are over $3 each back in Oz. Sala are grown only on Bali and would cost a fortune if it were feasible to export them.
  Our next incredible experience was when we paid a visit to a village family temple, Bali being predominantly Hindu. Typical Balinese architecture and there was also a small coffee shop where they sold  not just any old coffee, but your extremely expensive Kopi Luwak coffee. They showed us coffee beans on the tree and even had a Luwak or Civet there so we could see what it looked like.  They are nocturnal and eat ripe coffee beans which pass though their digestive system. These are harvested and cleaned and ground into the coffee. You may remember we came across this coffee when we were in the hills above Townsville, back in October. The café there was selling it at $50 a cup, here it was $5 ! It was wonderfully smooth. Had it black with no sugar. Don’t think we can buy any to bring back. Oz customs are very funny about any foodstuffs being brought in.
 We have had a fantastic day though shoving Stumpy around in a wheelchair can be a bit tedious, especially having to pack it away into the car, then get it out, then put it away several times a day. I have also realised that your average tourists isn’t wheelchair friendly, the Balinese are, but most tourists just ignore you!