Next day was Nyepi Day so it was a day of completely not do anything nor go anywhere day. We have always respected the traditions and culture of Bali and the Balinese and so the respecting of Nyepi day is not hard or inconvenient to us. As a matter of fact we enjoy being in Bali for Nyepi. Friday the 31st saw us, after brekky at Made Frangipani, just relaxing at the hotel when our long time friend, Tri DiJaya, who was the manager of the Sativa Cottages for many years, rang and invited us to a Dim Sum lunch at the Sanur Plaza. We accepted his invitation with glee and what a wonderful repast it was. It was so good to catch up with Tri again. Over lunch we made arrangements for Tri to pick us up the next day and to go with him to Candi Dasa to lunch with another long time friend of Tri's and guest at the Sativa Cottages, Jean Banning, at the Water Garden Hotel. This a really lovely small hotel with a great fit-out and outlook. But if we thought that Kuta and Sanur were quiet then Candi Dasa and Padang Bai were even more so. Sunday the 2nd April saw us doing some more shopping on the way to Wayan and Nyoman Ranu's accommodation for lunch. At least once every trip these lovely young people insist that we have a meal with them which of course we always do. We would never insult them by refusing their offer but are ever so mindful that they like so many Balinese are doing it tough and that they can really ill afford to be catering to us. So Pat with all her tact and persuasive demeanour some time back hit upon a solution to this conundrum. We have lunch with them as long as she can take Nyoman shopping at Macro. It is truly amazing that for about what we spend at the supermarket in Port Hedland on foodstuffs and household commodities each week, and we are certainly not extravagant, keeps the Ranu's in food stocks and commodities for nearly three months. A 25kg bag of top quality rice is only about $18Aus. During lunch I enquired of Wayan just how much he recovered monetarily for himself after all expenses for a car hire for a day. Believe me it is indeed so minimal that I truly wonder at the ability to survive on so little an amount. I remember so well when Wayan had purchased his own car on credit (the never never), had worked hard and had paid it off for two years and had two years left to run on the loan when the mongrel curs forever shattered Bali's peace and tranquillity by detonating the Kuta cowardly bombings that not only so cruelly destroyed so many innocent lives but heralded the downward spiral of Bali's economy. Tourism declined at an enormous rate. No tourists then no work for the car drivers. No work then no money to pay monetary obligations. No pay monetary obligations then loan foreclosures and vehicle repossessions. That is how Wayan, like so many others, lost his car and all the money thus far paid and furthermore his livelihood too. That vehicle was his only security and his security had been dissolved in the fallout from those horrendous events. The second bombings lubricated the spiral of descent into an economic abyss and despair. I asked how much a vehicle suitable to his needs would cost and was quite honestly surprised to discover it was less than I used to burn up yearly on cigarettes that were destroying my health and well being. I had wasted a huge monetary amount over the years in the pursuit of such a mindless pastime until the April of 2004 when my fuel pump cried enough is enough and threw in the towel. I had a quick peek through the portals of darkness and realised almost too late that the alternative to continued smoking was not an option to be embraced, so it was from that moment on the purveyors of this insidious habit lost a strong supporter. Pat and I just looked knowingly at each other and without a word being spoken understood what the other was thinking. So it was that the cigarette companies loss was Wayans gain, for the savings retrieved from less than one year of not smoking saw Wayan the proud owner of his very own 2001 Mitsibishi Colt wagon. He at least had some security once again returned to him and his family. Just imagine how far assistance could be broadened if all of us Bali supporters gave up smoking for a year and channelled the savings into adopted families or community projects or even that additional holiday on the Island of the Gods. Just a shared utopian thought !!!!!!