Well, there havew been no further adventures. Frankly, after the last lot, I really don't need any more.
We've been leading a relatively quiet life. Went to Candi Kuning and checked out Cracker's Bar & Grill. OMG, those toilets! To die for! Mother-of-pearl inlays in the hand basins, so clean you could literally eat off the floor. Gorgeous! Candi Kuning market is so clean compared to local markets. But I suspect the torrential rain we got on the way home had something to do with that. Washes everything away. Bought some nice art, and cinnamon bowls and balls. Had a really nice lunch at the buffet restaurant (don't know name).
Finally went to Kuta last night and bought all the remaining DVDs except The Da Vinci Code, which is due out this weekend. Also bought an automatic Rolex for 200,000. Starting price was 450,000, but the boys here in Sanur had already offered us 200,000, so that was what we stayed with.
The locals giggle a lot when we say "suk sama" (sp?) instead of "terima kasih". Suk sama is Balinese instead of Indonesian. When in Rome ...
Will have a quiet couple of days around the pool, and on Tuesday we're off for a drive round the countryside with Gusti. He'll show us "his" Bali. Will include Mengwe. Looking forward to that.
Got in a Blue Bird Taxi last night, and discovered the drivers are doing it really tough. Our driver had started his shift at 6am, and this was 8pm. He'd earned 50,000. He only gets 30% of what's on the meter, and from his 30% he has to pay for petrol. Bit rough! Naturally, we slipped him a little extra so he could hopefully go home where his two boys (10 and 4-1/2) were waiting for him. His wife had died in a hit and run in Denpasar 2 years ago, and his parents had died years previously, so the kids were home alone. Extremely sad.
A large party turned up at the hotel 2 days ago, for a wedding. Immediately the whole place became chaotic. There's lots of yelling, drinking, screaming. The kids are skimming the stones from the pool filter across the water, and then just leaving all the stones at the bottom of the pool. I suggested, in my most diplomatic way, that that wasn't a good idea. Some poor bugger just has to climb in and cleean them all out. They're the type of tourists that give Aussies a bad name. If only someone could remind them that we're ALL on holidays, and some consideration would be in order. Nothing to be done but endure it. Hopefully they'll go out a lot.
The exchange rate is picking up a bit. Got 6950 last night.
Enough for now. Feel free to ask questions, if you have any.