Day 8, Wed 23rd 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 Julie and I were both up before the kids... I guess the day with the elephants really wiped them out! Ass usual, Julie trotted off to the gym, I made a coffee, and the kids eventually woke up and watched the ‘Spongebob Squarepants' movie (again!). It was playing up... freezing and so on. First Bali DVD we had watched that didn't work properly (It was later replaced with no questions asked).
After our usual brekky routine, we got ready and all hit the pool for a (relatively) early swim. Then we threw the kids in the kids club (they were the only ones there today... the girls there said that in the days when they were busy, there could be up to 40 or 50 kids in there... don't know about that, but SOME extra kids would have been nice for them to play with!) and headed for the Kuta shuttle, which left at 10:00 am. We had no kids with us, and some serious shopping to do!
Spent a couple of hours at Matahari shopping centre and the Kuta art markets (I think that's where we were... although most of the stalls here looked like all the other stalls we had seen in Poppies lane II and so on...) Bought lots of ‘work' clothes at Matahari's. The store was very empty, and we had lots of salespeople just waiting to help us. Lots of things which were cheap already also had a 40% or 50% sale on as well. Example; casual work pants (for a schoolteacher) were 119,000 rp ($17AUS) but had a 50% discount; so got them for 59,500 rp ($8 AUS).
Julie bought up as well, between us we probably spent close to 2 million rups. That works out to about $270 AUS. (doesn't sound as impressive that way, though!) We also shopped at the markets, and got T-shirts, kids clothes, a few more sunnies; the usual stuff.
Oh, by the way, someone mentioned that we'd paid way too much for Oakleys at about 30,000rp a pair. To me, if I bought fake Oakleys at the market here in Melbourne, I'd be looking at about $10 - $15, and most people are quite happy to pay that. In Bali, if I am paying $4 a pair, and getting a BAD deal, then so be it. These poor souls need my $2 or $3 way more than I do, and I figure I'm getting a good deal anyway. I don't need to bleed them dry. As they love to say, 'good for you, good for me.'
Anyway, I also needed to change some cash, and wasn't near my usual money changer. I took my chances with the little ‘window' in the DVD shop outside of Mataharis. Changed $100 AUS @ 7350 rate, and was given 730,000 rp. Oops! Another mistake! ‘No problems, mate' (love it when they try to do our accent!)
Now, am I being two faced by quibbling over this 5,000 rupiah? I don't think so, since I have no problem supporting those working hard to earn a buck, but don't mind pointing out the ‘mistakes' that seem to happen oh so regularly. It's just a case of honesty, that's all.
Headed back to the Dynasty. While we didn't have the kids, I felt it was a good time to go back to the Kodak money changer near the Dynasty, with ALL of the traveller's cheques with Julie's signature on them, and get rid of them in one hit. We took her passport along, and did everything they asked of us. After she signed them all, they noticed that on some of her signatures she had underlined half of it, (that little squiggle you sometimes add at the end). After the last little episode with them, Julie was in no mood for this. She argues that couldn't she just add a damn line underneath? After much heavy consultation with the bosses, they eventually decided that this would be OK. Whew! Got our cash and got out of there; strangely feeling that we'd got away with something... (why? This was our money, after all!)
When we got to Kids club, they were having fun and didn't want to leave (YAY!) So Julie and I took the opportunity for some ‘us' time. Headed down to Gracie Kellys for a pint and a game of pool. (Pint of Bintang at Gracie Kelly's cost 36,000 rp, about $5 AUS for those who are interested). Went back and eventually got the kids, and played in the pool with them until we decided we needed to do some more shopping; this time with them.
Walked up to Discovery centre, (a familiar walk for us by now) and bought some more groceries, DVD's and PS2 games. Walked back home, dropped off our stuff (5:00 pm... happy hour! No time for a drink ???? AAAHHHHH!!!) and walked straight back up the street to Bubba Gumps. (For those not familiar with the area, Bubba Gumps is directly across the road from the Discovery centre !!! hehehe).
Had a lovely but very expensive meal here. The place was almost deserted (it was fairly early though), so we had the full attention of the staff. While we ordered, one of the girls played table tennis with Tara on their mini Table tennis table; Jamie enjoyed watching a bit of the movie (it runs continuously on the screens there; sound turned down but subtitles on) and Ky just played his gameboy. For those interested, here is what we paid:
1 water 8,000
1 blue Hawaiian 57,000 (cocktail)
1 bayou surprise 55,000 (cocktail)
2 lemon up softdrinks 150,000 (included souvenir cups)
1 fried chicken 58,000
1 fried rice 48,000
1 side fries 16,000
2 kids fish and chips 58,000 (29,000 each for us non- mathematicians)
1 kids chicken strips 29,000
subtotal 479,000
service 5% 23,950 (is this an automatic tip?)
tax 50,295 (we pay tax on our automatic tip!!!)
GRAND TOTAL: 553,245 rp ($75 AUS)
This was easily the most expensive meal we had in Bali, (even counting the snack we had at the airport on the way out, which cost a small fortune!) but again, we considered it worth it. Unlike Pantai and Febris, it was not somewhere we would go twice in a holiday, but once for the experience was great. As you can see, we are not huge seafood fans, but what we ordered was delicious. We also spent more at the souvenir shop (singlets, workout shorts, etc) so the evening cost us close to $100 AUS.
Walked home and had the usual raging night of kids to bed, (8:30 pm) outside with the mozzies, back inside watching senseless rubbish on TV and DVD's
till we collapsed at about 11pm.
Tomorrow: we hire a driver and go to Ubud... monkey forest, Barong dance, Ubud market.
Thanks for reading!