Day 4 - Sunday 16th October
Awoke early again today, 6.15 am. So much for sleeping in while on holidays. Noticed it had rained overnight. Once again headed to the hotel restaurant for breakfast at about 7 am. Mark had his usual two fried eggs with bacon, toast, orange juice and coffee while I had an omelette with ham, cheese, tomato and mushroom, toast and orange juice.
After breakfast we went back to our room and prepared for our day out. We had organised to do Bali buggies followed by white water rafting on the Ayung River. We were picked up at about 9.30 am (he was running a little late as he had gone to the Bali Rani accidentally to pick us up) by Made from Bali Discovery Tours. Had a 1 ½ hour drive out past Ubud to reach the starting point for the buggy tour.
Once we arrived we had a short wait for another couple from Holland to arrive. After signing the customary insurance forms, a quick lesson to Mark and the gentleman from Holland on operating the buggies and a short test drive for them both we were set to go. Our two guides for the morning were Gede and Budaya, who said we could just call him banana if we forgot his name. This tour was fantastic. We travelled through a couple of villages, past rice fields etc. Had a great time, especially while going through the villages where the children came out yelling hello, waving and some even high 5ing us as we went past. We passed out lollypops, clip on koalas, little cars and bubble blowers to them but had not bought enough so very quickly ran out. Will remember to take a lot more next time. Got some great photos on our travels.
We finished the buggy tour at about 1.30 pm and then headed onto lunch. Lunch was under a pergola type set up in the middle of nowhere. Must say was getting a bit concerned when the van was parked in the middle of a paddock and we were lead off into what seemed like nowhere. Also a bit worried we could be in for a dose of Bali Belly but this did not eventuate thank goodness. Lunch was actually very nice however a bit rushed as we still had to go on to do white water rafting. We were served up with a small buffet of vegetarian soup, vegetarian noodles, steamed rice, beef curry, chicken curry, tomato and cucumber with a nice cold bottle of coke to drink. This was then followed by a platter of fresh fruit which consisted of watermelon and pineapple and also some Topz chocolate bars.
After lunch we were quickly ushered back into the van where we then headed off to do white water rafting on the Ayung River with Sobek tours. We had to climb down 509 stairs on the way down to the river (the guide made sure to tell me how many). By the time I reached my legs were shaking. Had only ever had trembling knees like that before during one activity which I will not go into here. Our guide for the afternoon was Pino who was very good. He lived in a village along the river so was very knowledgeable about the surroundings like bamboo, fruits, birds and trees etc.
The rafting was class 2 along an 11 km stretch which consisted of 25 sets of rapids to raft through. We only had one hairy situation where we came down one set of rapids landing on a raft in front of us. I was swiftly pulled to the left hand side of the raft by Pino. He was very apologetic afterwards but said that the last time that had happened the raft had flipped and someone was stuck under it. I didn't mind, I would rather this than to end up in the water under a raft.
At one stage along the river we had two young Balinese boys who had been swimming in the river jump aboard for a bit of a ride downstream.
Pino was a very cheeky guide and was splashing people in other rafts on the way downstream so of course they were splashing back and we all ended up drenched. It was great fun though.
Once at the end of our rafting journey it was amazing to watch a local Balinese lady deflate the raft, fold it all up and then perch it on top of her head (weighs 60 kilos) to carry back up to street level.
After a short rest to regain our breath we headed back up to street level. Pino once again kindly informed me of the 235 stairs we would need to climb while also encountering locals trying to sell there wares to us. Once back up to the top we were shown two photos they had taken of us while rafting. They were only 35 000 Rp (AUS $4.67) each to purchase so we bought both of them so as to have another great reminder of our day and to also show our two girls.
After a quick change of clothes and freshen up at 4.45 pm we headed off back to Tuban to our hotel. We arrived at the hotel at about 6 pm. We returned to our room to unload our bags and then got a blue cab to Discovery Mall to pick up our photo etched pendants from Face to Face Engraving that we had ordered yesterday. Cab ride was only 4 750 Rp (AUS $0.63) but we just rounded it up and gave him 5 000 Rp (AUS $0.67). Not a huge tip we know.
The pendants were fantastic. When it came time to pay however we were informed that we had not been charged enough and actually needed to pay a further 120 000 Rp (AUS $16.00) as we had two faces etched on each one and we had not been charged for this. After a few minutes of telling him I would only pay what was on our invoice and that the error was theirs not mine he finally decided to forgo the extra amount so we only paid the 270 000 Rp (AUS $36.00) balance owing on our invoice. When we walked away Mark said I was a bit rough for doing this and maybe I was but it was a matter of principal. I would not pay it here in Australia even. I feel if you have an invoice for a certain amount for which you have also paid a deposit, regardless of if there is an error then that is all you pay.
From here we walked down to Fuji Image Plaza opposite the supermarket section in the bottom of Matahari in Kuta Square to drop in our disposable waterproof camera for developing. It was to take an hour to print them so we opted to go and have some dinner and then come back. We ended up heading to Poppies Restaurant in Poppies I. It is a very romantic atmosphere here and great food. Our only complaint was both had our feet and ankles eaten alive by mozzies. Mark had calamari 41 000 Rp (AUS $5.47) followed by a chocolate icecream sundae 18 000 Rp (AUS $2.40) while I had mie goreng 25 000 Rp (AUS $3.33) followed by banana pancakes 15 000 Rp (AUS $2.00). We had 3 cokes between us which were 5 000 Rp (AUS $0.67) each. The total bill including service charge 5 700 Rp (AUS $0.76) and tax 11 970 Rp (AUS $1.60) came to 131 670 Rp (AUS $17.56). We paid 150 000 Rp (AUS $20.00) however later decided we would no longer tip restaurants who applied a service charge as we felt they had already been paid for service.
We walked back to Matahari to collect the photos from Fuji Image Plaza. For 24 prints it was 41 000 Rp (AUS $5.47) and also included a complimentary cardboard cover photo album. Decided we would try and have all our photos developed prior to going home as this meant we could not only save money but also have our photos to show our girls when we got home.
We walked back along Jalan Kartika Plaza and stopped in at the Stadium bar for a drink. Mark had a small bintang 15 000 Rp (AUS $2.00) while I had a coke 12 000 Rp (AUS $1.60). Although this was not overly expensive decided we would only have the one drink here. Once again we were charged a service fee 1 485 Rp (AUS $0.20) and tax 2 849 Rp (AUS $0.38) which bought the total bill to 31 334 Rp (AUS $4.18). As they had charged us a service fee we opted to only pay the amount owing and not leave a tip.
Continued on down Jalan Kartika Plaza toward our hotel. We stopped in at Dianne's shop which is opposite the Green Garden Hotel where I bought a billabong t-shirt, a mini wrap skirt and a pair of wrap pants for myself which cost 90 000 Rp (AUS $12.00). From here we choose to grab a blue cab back to our hotel as it had been raining a little since we left Poppies. Cab ride was only 4 250 Rp (AUS $0.57) but we gave him 5 000 Rp (AUS $0.67)
Cheers
Balibabe