And so we continue.....
Day 3 had me itching to shop. We (OK, I) decided to go into the nearby village of Bualu to have a look at the Tragia Dept Store that I had read about in Lonely Plant. Well, if they changed the last letter in the name to 'c' it would be a lot more apt description of the store. I believe their buyer died in the early 80's and no-one noticed. There were some sarongs but they were not that flash and at AU$12 each, to rich for my blood. They also had the same sandals we had bought at Geneeewaaah for Rp7,700 selling for a bargain price of Rp27,900. This particular day was the hottest we encountered and as there were no other shops of interest in sight we decided to leave the twilight zone and head to Nusa Dua Galleria, which unfortunately was just as disasterous as it's pretty much closed down, and then on to Bali Galleria Matahari's.
First stop, food. We had a look around the empty food court and decided on the place where the girl behind the counter had an enormous smile (always a good indication of food quality, I believe). If you're there, this place is near the kids' play room. Directly left of the playroom is the drink stand, then another food stand and then this one. We ordered nasi goreng, chicken schnitzel (what is this called in Indonesia?), 2 steamed rice. One of the best meals we've had. We ended up ordering 2 more chicken schnitzelsand the kids demolished them. The total came to about AU$11.
Then off to the childrens' dept of Matahari's. We got a dozen newborn t-shirts for the clinic in Ubud for 6,900 each (recommend this if you're visitng Ibu Robin's Clinic -they were a hit); 3 baby wraps for the clinic for just 45,900; and several items for our girls, some of which were up to 75% off the original prices. Then #2 daughter decided to fall asleep on Daddy's shoulders, quickly putting an end to our shopping trip. Headed downstairs and encountered a Baskin Robin's badly in need of our trade. Two single cones and a chocolate blast thickshake came to Rp42,000 - less than you'd pay in the states, I believe.
Back to the hotel for an afternoon of swimming and lounging around before we have to leave for Legian. Not really wanting to leave the luxury of the Conrad but happy to going closer to the action. Great difficulty packing as we'd by this stage done a bit of shopping and still hadn't off-loaded any of the stuff we'd brought over for the orphanage, clinic, school & Adopta. OK, I decided, I'd head straight to the Adopta shop in Poppies 2 & give them the suitcase full of fabric and the smaller bag of toys and kids clothes. Unfortunately when we got there they were closed. Fortunately, though, I'd brought the address for their 'head office' and as it's back towards Denpasar we were able to stop at Makro and pick up 50kg of rice for them, too. When we got there we innitially thought there was no-one there, but a lady quickly appeared from what appears to be a lodging at the rear of the building. She spoke no English whatsoever and as our taxi driver that day didn't either, there wasn't much conversation but we dropped the bage full of stuff and the rice in the office. The lady handed us a piece of paper & we think she wanted us to write down our names, which we did. The hugs, though, spoke louder than any words could have. And the smiles of the children who poked their heads shyly around the corner of the building made us wish we had brought more. I felt the first of many pangs of guilt that people were so grateful when we were doing so little to help them.
Back to our shamefully decadant, American-owned accommodation, now happier to leave it behind for a Balinese-owned local hotel.
When the next round of hunger pains rolled around we decided to eat at a Warung we'd seen next to the faux Casa Luna up the street - Warung Nyoman. We asked concierge to see if they'd pick us up as the main road to Benoa is not easily walked in daylight, and downright dangerous at night. Sure, they said and 10 mins later we were picked up and taken to a restaurant we'd never seen before, on the opposite side of the road to where we thought we were going, also called Warung Nyoman. We were trying not to laugh as we exited the van, a little confused and glad for the giggle. We had a very good meal that was probably made better by the complimentary drinks brought to us when we sat down. As hubby doesn't drink, I was forced to drink both of our arak-laden cocktails myself (the sacrifices we make!). By half way through the meal I was embarrassingly loud having a ball. We had 5 large fresh juices, 1 coke, 1 steamed rice, 1 avocado vinaigrette (one of the best I've ever had, delicious!), 1 very dry spaghetti bol, the mini rijstaffel for 2 and 2 ice creams. The total was Rp274,000 inc tax and service. It was OK value, I'd go back for the slushworthy drinks & the avocado.
Last sleep at the Conrad & then off to Legian in the morning.......