Day 5, Sat 20th Nov
For those unfamiliar with my family, we are:
Me/Dad/Pete (42)
Mum/Wife/Julie (36)
Jamie (9...boy)
Ky (5...boy)
Tara (5...girl) yes, twins.
This was our first real trip to Bali.
My photos are now uploaded; you can view them at:
http://community.web shots.com/user/bigpete3941
just remove the gap between ‘web' and ‘shots'.
Today I was up before the kids (6 am), so I sat and had a peaceful coffee on the balcony until the gang got up at 6:30am. (Does everyone have these early starts in Bali?)
After this, we had our usual start to the day... Julie went to the gym while we mucked around (argued, fought. Kids fight a lot! At least, ours do!) until she came back, and we went down to brekky buffet at 8:00 am.
Spent our 189,000 rp again today, but none of us were over hungry, so it was kind of a light brekky today.
TIP: For toast they have jam, honey, marmalade and even Vegemite, but they didn't have any peanut butter (had trouble even working out what it was!) So if your kids are big peanut butter toast fans, just buy some at the supermarket like we did, take it along each day, and leave it with them at the end of your trip.
Stopped by reception to use the internet, just to check emails (myself and Jamie). Cost 10,000 rp for 10 minutes (a bit rubber with their 10 minutes, though!). Probably could get it cheaper, but for the convenience, it was OK. Also discussed booking our ‘Elephant Park' tour with them while we were there.
Back to our room, got ourselves and the kids ready, and took them over to the kids club. Dropped them off (only 3-4 other kids there) and headed to the main entrance to get the shuttle bus to the Kuta art market. Didn't stop there, but grabbed a bluebird taxi to Poppies II. We had heard it was the place to shop, and wanted to see it for ourselves. Taxi cost us 7,000rp ($1 AUS), and dropped us at the end of the lane. Walked slowly up the street, looking in all the little stalls (how do they survive, when there are SOOOO many of them selling the same things in the same place!!!)
Popped into a DVD shop (could have been Softcomp, or something like that); we were looking for Fawlty Towers DVD's... but wherever we went, no-one had heard of them. While we were there, I bought a copy of Norton Antivirus Professional 2005 for 20,000rp (less than $3 AUS). I have it here at home, but have been too nervous to load it up yet! Worried it will cause more problems than it will fix!
Kept heading up the street until we stopped at a sunglasses hut run by Charlie Brown. (Love their names!) Had some fun with him buying some ‘genuine' Oakley sunglasses. We were buying for friends as well as ourselves, and picked out 13 pairs. His starting price was 1,800,000 rp (yes, one million, eight hundred thousand!!) In Aussie dollars almost $250!
Now, I was well prepared to haggle during my trip, but I must say I was constantly surprised at how high they started! I had expected to cut their opening prices in about ¼, (eg, they say 100,000rp, I say 25,000 and work from there) but everywhere we went, they were starting about ten times (or more) what I would expect to pay.
I mean, really, $250??? Give me a break!
Considering his opening ambit, I put mine at 1,000rp per pair; total 13,000rp. (Well, if he wanted to be silly, so could I! LOL) After much hair pulling, laughing, leaving the shop (I quickly learned you had to do this to get the REAL best price) we settled on 350,000 rp (about $47 AUS) This worked out to (I think!) less than 30,000 rp a pair; more or less what I thought I should get them for when buying in bulk like we were.
Anyway, when we left, he shook my hand and wished me well, so I don't think I screwed him too hard.
Kept going along the lane and bought many other singlets, shorts, etc. But by about 12:00 we had had enough. (Low tolerance level to shopping, perhaps). Once we had decided we were done, we kept our heads down and walked a bit quicker to the end of the lane (beach end) without too many hold ups.
Found a little bar and stopped for a Large Bintang (16,000 rp... good value!) and a diet coke (12,000 rp. May as well drink Bintang!) After our little ‘time out' we walked along the street (many ‘no thank you's...) to Kuta square for some department store shopping. Went into Mataharis and bought some sandal/thong things for me (about 60,000 rp a pair, $8 AUS); Julie also looked but couldn't see anything she wanted.
Hailed a cab and went to Super Nova. We were absolute novices at this, and there's no way we would have found it ourselves, but the taxi driver had no problems, and got us there for 10,000rp ($1.40 AUS). I had a special reason to go there. I had read that you could buy cheap but reasonable guitars there. I am no virtuoso, but enjoy bashing around on one; and figured it might be useful when I start teaching at primary school next year.
Anyway, armed with my notes from the forum, I headed straight upstairs, and found them in two minutes flat. No salespeople around, but they were all just lined up so you could get to them and give them a go. It was very hot and still in there, so didn't muck around; tested out a couple, decided on one and bought it... 200,000rp ($28 AUS) A ridiculously cheap guitar by Aussie prices. You couldn't even buy a case here for that money. It's not a Gibson or Fender (musicians will know what that means!) but it is good enough for me, has a nice low action, and stays in tune. For those wondering, it is an acoustic full bodied. They also had rounded back models and some electric models, Strat shape with Fender written on the head (I don't think so!) for much the same price, but they looked really clunky to me, and I wasn't after an electric anyway.
Jumped into a taxi back to the Dynasty (14,000 rp... gave him 20,000) went through the now standard bag (and guitar box!) check on the way in. Plonked our stuff down, and Julie had a lie down, not feeling so great. Not the dreaded BB, but maybe a bit too much sun and dehydrated (It could have been that diet coke. Safer to stick to the Bintang!). I left her in peace and headed to the pool bar (hey, while the kids were in kids club, why not make the most of it!) and had a lovely cool beer while sitting on a half-sunk bar stool under the shade.
About this time, a massive tropical downpour hit us. Coming from Melbourne, I was not used to this, and loved it! What a buzz! Not the normal sort of rain we are used to. It was time to go and get the kids from Kids club, but I didn't want to, because of how wet I'd get from the rain! (Yes, I was sitting in the pool at the pool bar!) Waited until it subsided a bit, then ran for it.
Back to our room to pick up Mum (feeling better) and we all went down to check out Gracie Kelly's. We had received a ‘welcome drink' voucher on arrival, and hadn't used it yet. Had a few throws of darts (lots of fun with 5 year olds!), and then had to deal with a full blown temper tantrum from Ky (our 5 year old son).
Dragged him, kicking and screaming back to our room, and spent the next 45 mins sorting him out and playing a couple of games of Uno to settle him down. (The joys of a family holiday!)
After all this, we walked across the road to Febris for dinner. I had checked out the menu a few days ago, and it sounded nice and not too expensive. As it turned out, it was a fantastic meal. The food was brilliant, and the kids behaved like the kids you see in movies (the good ones). LOL
Another tropical downpour went through while we ate; more fun! Staff quickly put giant shutters down to keep most of it out. They had obviously done this before.
All up, our meal (including drinks and deserts) came to 271,000 rp. (about $37 AUS). We must have spent over some magical figure, cause the guy presented us with a free T-shirt as well.
Now, I expect some of these meal prices may seem a bit high for Bali regulars, but keep in mind we are a family of 5, and at home are quite big eaters (although here we tended to eat a little less... don't really know why). Usually if we go out in Melbourne for dinner, we would be lucky to get away under $60, and nowhere near the drinks and deserts we had in Bali. So for us, it was pretty reasonable. And we had budgeted for it, so it was no problem.
Headed back to our room, got the kids showered and in bed by 7:30pm, Jamie by 8:15 pm. Once the kids were asleep, we came back inside (sick of sitting on the balcony and being the mosquitoes ‘all you can eat' buffet...!) and watched a DVD; '50 first dates'. Not bad for a chick flick (here comes another whack if Julie reads this). Fell asleep about 11:15 pm, getting back to regular habits.
Tomorrow: hassles with the money changers and beach sellers (no Bali holiday would be complete without it!) and the kids star in a surprise fashion show!
Cheers!