After brekky Wayan picks us up and we head over to Kuta. Wayan drops us off at the corner of jalans Melasti and Legian and we arrange for him to meet us at the Kuta Art Market. It is a truly glorious Bali morning and we take a leisurely stroll along Jalan Legian all the way to Bemo Corner then down to the Kuta Art Markets. It is so very quiet compared to what it used to be and you can almost count the tourists. It pains us to see the looks of despair upon the faces of the traders that once beamed with their world famous smiles. They are cracking hardy but they are hurting and really doing it tough. Again I curse the fanatical offal who caused this despair. We enter the Art Markets and this area that is normally bustling and crowded with shoppers from the four corners of the world is totally bereft of visible tourists. There are so few that I can actually count them. Including us, obvious tourists totalled nine. Never, in twenty five years, have we ever seen this square so empty. It exemplifies the commercial pain and suffering that Bali is experiencing. One would need to be made of stone not to be moved and to wonder just how on earth are they surviving. How are they managing to feed and clothe their families? My curse upon those who caused this calamity now includes expletives I am sure that as yet have not been invented. From the Art Markets we went to Centro, a favourite of the cheese and kisses. Just love Bread Talk and finished up with heaps of goodies for us and Wayan and family. That evening we headed down the beach path about 200 metres to the Bonsai Café for dinner. Top tucker and dingin Bintang here. A must do when in Bali. Wayan picked us up next day after brekky and we headed into Ramayana (clothes for the grandkids) and then across to Rimo (computer looksee for me). From there we headed into Jalan Hasinudin to visit the gold shops as Pat wanted a light gold chain necklace for each of the three granddaughters. After a good look around she settled on a purchase from Melasti at 130,000rph per gram (about $21AUS a gram). Very inexpensive compared to Australia. That done we slip round to Jalan Gaja Mada in search of some musical, squeaky shoes for our youngest grandson. After a fair bit of shuffling back and forth we find some in the very first shop that we had passed but not entered, right alongside were our car was parked. Thats Bali.
That evening we were to meet David Bolton (David UK) at the Cat and Fiddle Restaurant in Jalan Tamlingan, Sanur. We were there and he was there but sadly we missed each other. The Cat and Fiddle is excellent value and the tucker is tops. Try the Guinness Beef Steak Pie with real mashed potatoes. Yummy yum yum! Next day was Nyepi eve and we arranged to meet Bali Grandson Putu at Mcdonalds corner in Sanur to watch the Ogah Ogah parade. We arrived at about six pm and after a tree designed for people considerably shorter than me to walk under collided with my noggin, giving me instant brain damage, we took up a position, along with a couple of thousand of others, on the corner and waited the arrival of the parade. At about eight pm the police came along and announced that the parade would not now begin until about nine pm. We didn't think we could handle another hour of inactivity just standing and waiting so we called it quits there but had this not so brilliant idea that if we hurried back to Madeleos we could catch the parade at that end of Sanur as it passed by the restaurant. We made it there just in time to see absolutely nothing for the parade had already finished. We were not too disappointed as we had seen quite a few parades before. Still we were glad that we didn't have any of the grandchildren with us for they surely would have been disappointed. After the bemo ride back to the Gazebo it became patently obvious to me that my riding in the back of bemos was now at an end for while getting in was just a tad of a struggle, getting out was a task almost akin to the cleaning of the Aegean Stables. My bones are just not as forgiving as they once were so it is an upfront ride for me from now on. The annoying thing is that Pat, who is the same age, has no trouble at all and she takes great delight in letting me know it at every opportunity.