18 Feb
We woke up to the grumbling of thunder and the sound of rain. I personally like this kind of weather, not for days on end but every now and again it's hugely refreshing. I enjoyed a beautiful relaxing early morning on the daybed. It was so soothing just to look out of the window at the rain, all of the plants and the beach seemed to be touched with a glistening layer of heavenly love. The day had a nice snug feel about it.
We cautiously made our way to breakfast, avoiding any big puddles or slippery sections. Once our eating escapade concluded for the morning we decided it was an opportune time for a facial and headed over to Ayuning. Before we went inside we thought we'd change some money and the guy offering to facilitate this ‘seemed' okay. Well, he turned out to be a cheeky little bugger! We've been to Bali a few times and always change with reputable money changers, however, this seemed convenient and come on, we'd never get diddled. We got diddled! I counted my money and thought it was correct. Soon to be hubby counted his, noticed it wasn't correct and encouraged me to count mine again. Lucky I did, it was about 200,000 short. We told the money changer this and he seemed to give us more money. I swear I watched him like a hawk. Again we counted our money and again it was incorrect. Third time lucky? Mm, not so much. After the third time I again thought mine was okay but soon to be hubby made me check again when we went around the corner. Yep, it was incorrect again. I was a little annoyed at this stage. It seemed he had given soon to be hubby the correct money and thought he could still get away with ripping me off. Well I wasn't having that. I went back to see him and in the end he gave me my Aussie money back and didn't want to play anymore. I guess he thought he couldn't make anything off us because he had already handed over one correct lot of money. Honestly, you think it's never going to happen to you but it will one day. No problem though, it was a learning experience - I wasn't as clever as I'd thought and I wasn't going to try and change my money with him again. When we went inside Ayuning you could see him trying it on with some others and I think he perhaps uses one of his long nails to flick some of the notes into a drawer when you're watching him very closely - i.e. you're focussed on the money, not what the other hand is doing. Anyway, no harm done. The girls at the spa laughed about it. I guess he's well known to do this kind of thing. I did joke with them that perhaps he was their brother but they said no. It was all light-hearted banter.
We had our facial and also both had the ear candles done - it's amazing, you think your ears are clean and ........ After our exciting outing we headed back for a dip in the pool, the rain had disappeared but there was still a lot of cloud around. We snagged great chairs by the pool, ones we had admired previously as being absolutely perfect but had never managed to get there first. Trust it to be that the one day we do get them there is limited sun and so we couldn't enjoy their full potential. No worries, it was still nice to sit by the pool, even if I was thinking we didn't have that much longer to go to tan up.
Wanting to continue with our lounge lizard status we enjoyed a couple of drinks whilst reclining on our personal sunbeds back at the cabana. We noticed there was a bit of hustle and bustle near us on the beach and to the side and wondered what all the commotion was about. It was another wedding! Now, in all my trips to Bali I haven't seen that many weddings, could probably count them on one hand - this week we'd already seen two and were set to have ours the day after tomorrow, it must have been wedding month! We knew we were going out to dinner but I wanted to hang around and see a little of the ceremony. I know, I'm a stickybeak! I never encroached on their space though, don't worry, they wouldn't have even known I was there :o) Seriously, we could see a lot just from our sunbeds.
La Lorraine was the choice for dinner and what a choice it was, we really enjoyed this one. I can't remember what we ate for mains but I do know upon arrival we get got a free welcome drink, free garlic bread and free spring rolls. The food we did order was yummy, I know that, and the prices were good too. Definitely will be heading back to this one. It's a short walk from NB, left out of the main side and past Ayuning. We sat in the outside area and there were a few drops of rain. So cute, the staff wanted to move us inside but we said we'd stay outside and if it got worse then we'd move. The odd drops were refreshing and just added to the light happy feel we had going on at the time. As it turned out the rain didn't get worse and we didn't have to move. I love that they were concerned about us though. I guess some people would be rushing inside. We're not ‘some people' :o)
On the way back from dinner we both had a half hour back massage at Ayuning for 60,000 ($6) total!! Oh wow, I felt so indulgent. We'd never had massages after dinner before and it just felt so spoilt to be walking back from dinner, decide we'd like a massage and get one. I loved it so much that this time when we go back I'm going to make an effort to enjoy more on the way home massages - I can't wait!
To end our relaxing day we read for a little before heading off to the land of nod. I am a huge bookworm and this was bliss for me, even better to be enjoying it with my not so much of a bookworm partner. Hard to explain but it all just felt so right :o)