After the lovely responses to my previous jbr I thought I'd add a bit more.
Whilst at the Dynasty Lisa had a number of massages. Unfortunately she cannot lay down flat on either stomach or back so she had the leg and feet reflexology massages beside the pool at the Dynasty. At 95000 Rph. a little expensive but they lasted an hour and we had budgeted for things that Lisa could or should experience within her capabilities. Well this seemed to be one of the highlights for Lisa, even falling asleep on 2 of the occasions so relaxing were they for her. The girls did a modified version of the massage as Lisa was unable to understand holding her leg up in the bent position for any length of time. The girls were fantastic. On other occasions they also painted Lisa's nails with the little flowers on. Not the full manicure but the painting of nails, this was quite a difficult task for the girls and give them credit Lisa has the most beautiful set of flower painted nails even today still.
Food was another highlight, in particular the breakfasts and anything in the day that had rice in it! The restaurants we went in were attentive but not overbearing, and nearly everywhere we invited the staff to sit at the end of the meal with us where they would politely ask about Lisa. I think because of the current downturn in tourists this was overlooked by owners and maybe under different circumstances this would not have happened...more the pity.
Lisa had a pair of white leather sandals made up by Big Bear Leather in one of the Poppies Lanes. We took her own black ones and they copied them. Lisa also had trousers made up by Janoko Tailors, again a copy of our own. Other shopping consisted of t-shirts from Diannes and homewares from Geneva Handicrafts and other market stalls. Geneva has an amazing glass fronted lift, not for the faint hearted up 3 storeys. Lisa also purchased gifts for her family down in Bunbury.
Sitting at the swim-up poolbar was another novelty for Lisa (and myself I might add!) I think Lisa was trying to adjust to the fact that both myself and the other carer were actually both there at the same time. The other carer Di usually only sees Lisa when I'm on holidays or days off. For Lisa to have both our attention at the same time was completely NOT right. BUT to be in the water whilst having a drink was another matter altogether. The first night we did this I ordered the special fruit juice for Lisa, only to find out after she was ¾'s through it that it was in fact alcoholic. Now Lisa is of drinking age but with all the medication she is on I went into a complete 'nutso' state wondering whether she would be still with us in the morning and how would I explain this to her mum and my bosses. Of course nothing happened and from then on it was straight watermelon or coke for Lisa and double cocktails for me!
I wonder what our trip would have been like if Bali had been as busy as it was in the June/July when I was last there. Pushing the wheelchair on the road would have been scarier no doubt but still possible, accessing some areas may have been harder due to numbers of people and the amount of space that a chair takes up. Would we have had the same sort of attention? Getting in and out of the Dynasty pool was hard enough for 2 of us and Lisa with an almost empty pool, what it would have been like if numbers were up and more kids around I don't know. One thing I do know the stares and comments we get were non-existent by the Balinese people compared to what we got from people from other countries and what we get here in WA. How is it that one small country can get the highest percentage of friendly, peaceful people?