Recently I spent ten days in Legian and of course being a strong Sammy fan went to their stall most nights for an ale or two mainly with the noteable Smudge. ( Sammy calls him Smud, the g&e left off)It occurred to me that various people drop in to see this lovely couple and I wondered how many Forumites and others visit them. I go back fouteen years with them, back in the days when they were directly in front of the Legian hotel. It would be interesting to know how many people agree with my observations of this man. And that is; Sammy is one of the most gentlest person you could ever meet, his smile is never ending and probably has the biggest set of fangs on the Isle, extremely courteous and well mannered for a peasant type person, has the coldest beer on the beach, the only Balinese that tells you he looks like a monkey, stays the longest on the beach, quite often up to eight at night especially if 'RooTed' is in town.
His health is still not the best and now needs his blood thinning on a daily basis as well as not being able to lift heavy weights.In my opinion there are many lovely Balinese people but this man is something very special and rare. I will finish with this true story about Sammy which occurred some twelve years ago. One lunch time I was having a drink at his stall in front of the Legian when an German lady came out from the hotel and asked him how much for a small pineapple (some will remember they used to sell fruit in those days). Sammy said 1000Rp, but she said she would only pay 700Rp. Bear in mind the dollar was about 1800Rp and to charge 1000Rp for a peeled, bagged, cut in four, cold pineapple was a steal, yet this lady had taken one of the hotel knives and was prepared to peel it herself and save the princely sum of 300Rp( about 16 cents). Sammy said no, so she stormed off and after fifteen or so paces he said yes, much to my horror because I said I would pay the 1000Rp so she could not have it.Sammy told me to keep quiet and sold the pineapple to her for 700Rp. After she was out of earshot he told me the pineapple was rotten on the underside and he could not have sold it anyway. The point of the story is that he summed up the situation and turned 'grass into lawn'. Very clever I thought, and from that day on I have never doubted his acumen