Note: For anyone reading one of my jbr's for the first time I would like to explain that I write about my time spent in Bali as a story. The first 2 JBR's are now in the archives in January 2006, and JBR 3 is on the current forum - [Roll up for the mystery tour], should you wish to read them, in order to gain a better understanding of where this story began and where it is leading
New Years Eve....
It was going to be a non-event as I was recovering from the previous evening. I lay in bed until early afternoon but it was desperately hard to leave that bed and I don't think life came to the villa until around 3.00pm. I had told Katak that I didn't intend going out New Years Eve and for him to celebrate with his friends at the banjar or do whatever he pleased as I needed to rest. The party hard club was taking its toll on me.
But do you believe for a minute that I didn't go out on New Years Eve ???
I get an sms from Linda [Aminkila] who is now in Ubud. Her son is looking for some action on NYE. It seems Ubud is unbelievably dead. See, I am as weak a half shot of bourbon and diet coke : -) I offer them a bed at the villa for the night if they can get down to Legian and say I will go out....
Around 8.30pm Linda and Ty arrive at the villa better late than never. All the roads into Kuta and Legian had been blocked off by the polisi and their driver had to make several attempts via different access routes to get them into Legian...Meantime Katak had called me to see if I was ok. He was surprised when I said well actually I am going out with Linda and Ty. He insists on taking us up to Indo, our first port of call. I can't be bothered arguing the point and so when he arrives we have a couple of rounds of drinks before heading off. We deck ourselves out in flashing leis and flashing jewellery and take these hideously noisy balloons with us. The streets are incredibly quiet. There don't seem to be many people around at all and even Indo is relatively quiet until we arrive to raise a little hell for a couple of hours along with some other friends.
Across the road I spy the green tree frog [Kermy]. She has finally arrived back from the Gilis, the flight having been delayed 4 times returning from Lombok. She has checked in at Suri Wathi hotel.
Around 10.30pm a few of us wander down to Billy's as I have promised to drop in for a few drinks. Once there I call Mic to find out what she is up to and tell her to get her sorry ass down to Billy's for a belated xmas and new year drink...she says she will think about it... hmmmn... Much to my surprise she appears about 30 minutes later and we seem to be back on the road to perdition...Kermy rolls in quite literally not long after.
New years came and went and to be honest we only knew it was midnight because Legends across the road did a countdown 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! We continued to drink after the obligatory hugs and kisses to see in 2006.
I think it was around 2.30am when our party broke up at Billy's. I was handed my bill which came to slightly over 1,000,000 rupiah..not a bad effort really. Kermy was escorted back to Suri Wathi by Ty as we didn't think she would make it on her own...Billy gave us a ride back to the villa and came in for a few drinks....Linda and I cracked another bottle of champagne for good measure and around 4.30am we all crashed into our beds.....The hangovers suffered by all the next day were priceless. Kermy is still insisting it was something she ate...LOL Linda's hangover got worse as the day wore on and I felt like I had been hit by a Mack truck....
2 days later....
Today Katak and I drive up to Ubud to meet up with Linda and Ty for lunch. We go to Tut Maks which is a sensational restaurant just near the soccer field. I also want to check out a shop in the markets where on my last trip I bought a stunning painting. There was another that this stall had that I had been kicking myself for not buying.
Before finishing lunch I get an sms from a friend in Australia asking for help. Her good mate Richard [who I had run into at Indo-national] had returned from the Gilis and was in hospital suffering from Dengue fever. She was extremely worried about him as she herself has had Dengue twice.
I call her immediately and get the details from her then call Richard to see if there is anything he needs and reassure him I will be in to see him in a couple of hours. We cut our stay short in Ubud quickly going to the markets to look for the painting. Unfortunately it had been sold but I selected another one and then dropped Linda and Ty off back at Tegal Sari.
Richard was in the Graha Asih [not sure of the spelling] hospital in Tuban and when I first saw him I was quite shocked. He was in a tiny little shoe box of a room which had a single fan mounted to the wall, and it sounded like it was about to explode. He was sharing the room with a young boy who was also sick with Dengue. The room was so hot and when Richard sat up his pillow was swimming in sweat. I wanted to get him moved to an air-conditioned room and had Katak enquire about the price. He came back and said 250,000rp which I queried as Richard had said he was paying 350,000 for the one he was in. Katak checked again and was very annoyed when he was told oh no, 250,000 for Indonesian for Western is 500,000. I offered to have Richard moved but he said no he would wait until the next day. Instead Katak had a friend go to his house and collect my pedestal fan. We set this up in the room and it was like instant relief to Richard who was covered in sweat. I reluctantly left him there that night and told him to sms or call me if he was having any problems.
I have 3 days left in Bali now. For most of my trip it has rained each day and frankly I am looking forward to returning to some dry heat and clear blue skies. Of course there are 3 bottles of bourbon left and 4 champagne so what's a girl to do except organize one last night in with Katak and his friends. I tell you these guys just have me rolling on the floor. They decide to play cards and it is not a game I am familiar with and I decide it isn't one I want to play either. Katak has grabbed the texta I have and I soon learn that the loser from each round gets a mark put on their face by the other players. By the end of the night their faces are covered in blue texta. They kind of look like Maoris with tattooed faces. It is priceless and the funniest part was them trying to wash it off....I will leave it up to your imagination...
3rd January...
Linda and Ty return from Ubud and are staying at the Dyana villas in Seminyak. She has invited us for dinner that night. The villa is stunning, beautifully decorated, aesthetically pleasing. We had a fantastic dinner delivered in from Poco Loco, sat back and relaxed. This is the life....
4th January...
Today I have some running around to do. I have decided to upgrade my ticket to business class with Garuda and so before heading to the hospital to take supplies to Richard we go to the Paradiso hotel where the Garuda office is situated so I can organize the upgrade and do the City check-in.
I also have to collect my paintings from Syah on Jalan Laksmana in Seminyak and also want to have the 2 others I have all bundled together. We get there and the shop is sweltering. It is cooler outside than in so I leave Katak to sort out the details. While in there I notice a series of new Buddah paintings and decide I must have2 of them. Unfortunately the one I really like which is sold, so I settle on the other. There is also a huge painting of the same face but I can't justify buying it. We leave all the paintings there to be wrapped. Katak will pick them up later in the afternoon.
Off to the Garuda office next to upgrade my ticket. The cost is $350.00 AUD and at the same time they give me my seat allocation. As we get there late in the afternoon they ask if I can return in the morning to collect my boarding pass.
As we are driving to the hospital I receive an sms from Richard asking if he can borrow some dvds' s to watch [he has a portable player] so we hit the brakes and run into a dvd store to grab some. I walk out with 30 ...haha!! Only 8 are for Richard the rest for me.
At the hospital Richard is looking much better and his private air-conditioned room is also a vast improvement. He is however still very ill and he may not be getting out for another few days.
After all that running around it is nearing 5.00pm and I want to go back to the villa to shower before heading out to meet with Bob, Chrissy, Jeff and some others. For a change it isn't a really late night and around 11pm Katak picks me up with a freshly baked pizza from Pizza Hut [oh the shame..]. We go back to the villa, eat the pizza, relax and watch dvd's. I fall asleep in the arm chair again. ... It is almost time to go home....
TBC...The last post...The Last Stand