Getting close to Panic Tanning

12/4/2013

A day to practice our Karma ( fat chance ) as we once again attempt to fire up the shiny thing. It has behaved itself since we threatened to leave it in the internet café amongst it’s betters! The threat seems to have done the trick as it found a connection within 30 minutes and didn’t throw us off once.
 Karma went well as there isn’t too much anguish lying on a sunbed beside the swimming pool all day. It only goes pear shaped when you can’t raise a waiter to fetch a couple of beers. Life’s a bloody struggle!

13/4/2013

We are not yet in panic tanning mode as we have over a week left to laze around but if the weather continues it’s trend of the last few days we may well panic. It’s hot and humid every day with not much sunshine though they do say you can tan just as easily on cloudy days.
Paid a second visit to the Retro Warung where the food is excellent then looked up Jane’s new best friend in the Aussie Sports Bar we use regularly. Jane has just realized that Anita ( her friend ) has two professions, one as a waitress and the second in the oldest  profession. Hey Ho!

14/4/2013

There is no doubt that Aussie bars are for drinking and Indonesian bars are for eating. Aussie bars obviously employ Indonesian cooks but Ausralians in general don’t like spicy food so the food in their bars is toned down. Tonight we made the mistake of ordering a Balinese meal in an Aussie bar and it was crap. We learn something every day. There again savage cocktails are cheaper and much more powerful in Australian bars, it’s just a matter of choice!

 15/04/2013
 Indy called round with his young son (about 9) and we have made arrangements to drive out to the less touristy east coast on Wednesday. That will probably be our last excursion on the island and we can say we have seen quite a lot of it. We had a bit of a fool around in the pool with Dika, Indys  boy, we suspect he doesn’t often get a chance to swim in a pool, though he does have the Indian ocean on his doorstep. Still, it was good to see the boy having fun.
More struggles with the shiny thing. We manage to get things done eventually, but it takes forever.

 16/04/2013
 A tan topping day spent on the beach where the onshore breeze helps to keep the temperature down a little. No change in the amount of litter lying around, it really is disconcerting having to pick your way through heaps of rubbish along the tide line to get into the sea. It wouldn’t take much for a tractor towing a drag to run along the  shore line every morning and dispose of the rubbish. There again a few dustbins wouldn’t go amiss but then you have to educate the locals how to use them.

 17/04/2013
  An interesting day out with Indy to east Bali where our first stop was the market town of Sukawati. The huge produce market is tucked away down  dirty, dingy alleyways, as well as out in the market square. It really is a grubby place with tons of rubbish everywhere. Some of the fruit on sale here we have never seen before but were a bit reluctant to buy any for fear of catching some unknown ailment. Indy always leaves us to our own devices which is good as we have to haggle and bargain without help. We haggled over some shoulder bags and Indy said later we got a good price. Away from the produce market the place is equally dirty , only the smell is different. This is not a tourist area so we were quite a novelty, but one or two hawkers sussed us out . We had a problem fending off a group of women trying to sell us knitted shawls that resembled string bags. We were also plagued by a few guys flogging “made in china” sunglasses and had to read the riot act, a phrase of two words….the second being ‘off.’
  From Sukawati we went to look at a pretty spectacular waterfall, a drop of 40m, one of Bali’s highest. Through Redang , an attractive village, for lunch at Mahagiri , a restaurant with a panoramic view over rice terraces (and the volcano when it’s not covered in cloud).  Over lunch we heard , in the distance a Hindu Priest calling to his village to attend prayers and the thanksgiving festival at the local temple. Today was a good day for a festival as we saw several more going on as we drove around the countryside. People get dressed in their best clothes and take offerings to the temple where they pray then sit around eating, drinking and chatting (gambling sometimes!), seems like an OK religion to me.
 Another white knuckle ride through teeming traffic got us back to our hotel just at the end of Happy Hour, by that time we were in need of a cold one.