I was still feeling a bit sick, so had to give the delicious buffet brekkie a miss (again!). Mum still went back for her 11 courses We were planning to go to Waterbom park but Kate's ear was too sore... so....
some more SHOPPING was in order
First we decided to drop our garbage ball full of laundrey off somewhere. Mum hated the idea of pouring our underwear onto the floor to be sorted through, but its worth it! The huge, bursting bag full cost 70,000rp. We went to Padma Laundrey off Jln Padma. Its part of a leather shop. We picked it up the next morning and it was all clean, nicely ironed and folded. We were very impressed.
The first "shopping" place we went to was a shoe shop I had found the day before. It was on Jln Padma Utara and is called R2U (Ready 2 Use). It's one of those shops in an actual building. They have a small room with stacks of shoes in plastic everywhere, and its very squashy and hot inside but worth a look. No mens shoes (sorry guys). They have the type of shoes you can buy at the markets but some different designs and all leather, and good quality. Its fixed price. I bought a nice pair of leather thongs for 55,000rp. Kate bought some foam/rubber thongs for 20,000rp > 25,000rp with beaded flowers on them.
Today was stinking hot, even the Balinese were complaining. I couldn't be bothered shopping anymore so I spent the day with the others lying by the pool.
We went to Uncle Norms for lunch (Well, we only had beer, milkshakes and iced coffee - all good) but the staff were soooooo grumpy. I don't know if they were just having a bad day but I have never seen such depressed and grumpy staff anywhere!?
At this point I decided to take it upon myself to take Mum shopping. Surprisingly she's actually okay to shop with if its only me and her. We bought shell necklaces for 5000rp each. You can get those beaded necklaces with the large shell pendant for between 5000rp > 10,000rp. Although, Natasha paid 20,000rp for hers! We bought more Paul Frank bags and tops for presents at the Melasti markets. Then, even more shopping. I bought beaded thongs at a market stall for 25,000rp.
We went into a DVD shop to look at their CDs, as Mum wanted Bob Marley. The CDs were clearly pirated even though the covers were better quality than usual. I asked the guy how much, and he replied "75,000rp". I laughed, and he tried to convince me that they were real. A warning: just because they say they are real doesn't mean they are. I finally got the CD for 10,000rp (they cost this everywhere). If you encounter an annoying man who won't give you the going prices, I advise you to just go elsewhere
By the time we got home it was 8:30pm Kate was asleep already because she had heat stroke and a sore ear. This meant that someone had to stay home with her while the rest of us went for dinner. Dad had bought Kate cup noodles for dinner and apparently they were delicious. We bought some for Mum too.
So here's the tip: Instead of expensive pool lunches for the little ones, why not buy cup noodles for 3000rp at a mini mart. You could add flavour or no flavour, and all cups came with a plastic fork and an extra chilli sachet. Another thing Kate liked were chocolate milk box drinks. Filling and refreshing.
Dad, Natasha and I headed off to La Monde. What a lovely setting, on the airy balcony (we were actually cold). We got there at 8:45 and it was VERY full. Dad said we might have to go somewhere else as he felt bad about leaving Mum at home, so didn't want to have to wait for ages for the food. So he asked how long it would be, only to be told 1hr or more. We explained that we couldn't wait. The waitress then told us that she could hurry things along in the kitchen as long as we didn't order pizzas. Unfortunately we did end up waiting 1hr for the food, and even worse the 1st dish came out 40 minutes before the last! This happened to the table next to us as well. The cashew chicken and chicken curry were both delicious even if they were lukewarm, but everyone had long finished by the time my meal arrived (and it was just satays, I thought they'd be quick!)!
We will certainly be back to La Monde but ONLY if we get there at 6, because the service was terrible!