Next installment.
Day three:
Kids have more or less aclimatised and are desperate to get out bargaining on their own. We change some of their spending money over at the Kodak shop, getting around 6,400 Rp. to the dollar. I give them a brief rundown on in's and out's of bargaining and tell them that once they start, they are on their own, but I will watch from the background until I'm sure they're doing ok.
So, off we head to the first shop. We meet the shopkeeper, Dirty Harry, and middle son wants to go first. He chooses out three beaded wooden type necklaces and asks how much for three. Harry says "100,000 Rp. for three"
Middle son looks at me and laughs his head off and replies "In your dreams Dirty Harry, I'll give you 1000 Rp. for 3."
I turn around and try to stifle my laughter and Dirty Harry says "Mum, help me, your son is going to send me bankrupt"
I giggle and walk out of the shop and tell him he's on his own. He ended up buying 8 for 30, 000, which he was very happy with. I left them alone to do most of their bargaining and sometimes they got ripped off, but more often than not they did ok, and loved the whole experience.
I stop off at the ATM to see if I have any luck with my husbands keycard today. I check mine~all good. I try his~still no luck. I'm getting a little panicky as this account has the bulk of our spending money in it.
I try a few more times. No luck.
Then the penny drops.
His account is a credit union and NOT a Cirrus/Maestro card !
Now, you'd think that someone who has been to Bali before and spent a lot of time reading the travel forum(i.e. me) would'nt make this mistake, but I did, and I felt so stupid. Now, I had four options:
1, Call the bank and authorise my sister to withdraw the money and put it into my account.(Too much hassle and they'd probably say no)
2.Make do with what we had for the 6 days until my parents arrived, then smile at them sweetly and ask for money(possibility, seeing as how hubby was being paid in a few days and we could access that through my keycard)
3. Transfer our emergency money from the credit card.(Well, it wasn't quite emergency stage yet)
4. Send the kids busking outside Denpasar airport(Hrmmm? Not bad!)
There was a 5th option, but I wasn't sure if the Hulu Cafe was hiring, or if hubby would mind the work!
Ok...it wasn't quite an emergency, but more of an interference in my grand shopping spree scheme. (As it turned out, we couldn't even manage to spend all the money we had on us, without even using our emergency funds!)
Spent the evening at the GVC bar, and considering budget problem, thought we'd eat at Legian Snacks, as was good, cheap and close-by. Now where else in the world can you get a three course meal for 5 people, including drinks for $15 Au?
And it WAS good, great service and decent food. And right next door to Made's little DVD shop, so the kids would eat, then run next door to play with Made and watch DVD's, while we finished in peace.
Day 5 ~WATERBOM!!
Now, this is what I'm talkin BOUT!
Headed off early on what looked like a miserable day, loaded up with sunscreen and water. It rained for about five minutes and by the time we arrived the sun was out shining with full force. We could have had our pick of cabannas, but thought they were massage shacks or something, so we got sunlounges by the pool and settled in for the day. By the time we realised what the cabannas were for, they were all taken, but we were happy with our spot for the day.(Especially me, as it was right near the poolbar, and WHAT a poolbar it was!)
Thought we'd start off gently and work our way into it, so all headed off to the lazy river for a few rounds. "Ahhhh...this is the life" was all that kept springing to mind!
Walked the kids around the park to show them where everything was and most importantly, where to go if they got lost (poolbar~I was bound to be there at frequent intervals!)
We had fun going on the raft river and maccaroni. I thought I'd head to the poolbar to try out the cocktails and get some sun. Spent the most relaxing two hours of my holiday sampling all of the yummy balimoon cocktails and making friends with the bartender, then floating off around the "pleasure pool" in my happy floaty cocktail haze!
By the time the kids and hubby came back to get me, I was ready for anything, including the Racetracks and the Smashdown rides.(spent the rest of the day trying to pull my cossies out of my bum, bit it was FUN and my kids were proud of me for going on it. They got a really good laugh at my expense!)
We went for lunch, which was quite reasonably priced ( Hamburger, chips, drink and icecream~ 38,500 Rp ~about $6.00 each) then lazed about for the rest of the day while the kids finished up on the rides and had a go on the EuroBungy ride(30,000 Rp. each)
We purchased our tickets for another day on our way out at quite a reduced price.
What a great day! Spent lots and lots of Rp. but so very well worth it. Lots of good memories of a wonderful family day spent together.
And kids went to bed early, while we Bintanged and danced the night away!
Thanks for reading, people, more to come in a few days.
~Shell