Day 8 and we rushed through breakfast. So fast that my 6 year old son dropped an empty dinner plate with a thundering smash and the whole restaurant stopped and gawked. I just laughed and he finally picked up his bottom lip and saw the lighter side of things.
We were met by our driver for the day 'Scooby Doo' AKA Nyoman Suena 0812 4669 166. He is frequently recommended on the forum and I also must endorse him. He was jovial, polite and great with the kids. He is usually based at the front of the Sanur Paradise Plaza Hotel (not the Suites).
Off we trundled to the Mengwi district to visit two schools SD7 Sembung & SD3 Semobagan. Both schools are part of the W.A Rotary student sponsorship programme. This is our first trip to meet our sponsor student of 3 years. The family were all excited to finally see the school boy from the picture in our loungeroom. The kids saw their first rice paddies and played games such as spot the first kid on a scooter. That didn't take long, so it turned into spot the next kid on a red scooter with a helmet etc. etc.
After some confusion we met Agung from Rotary Denpasar and ended up at the wrong school which was SD3 Sembung. Agung was trying to manage 5 lots of Aussies visiting their school sponsor kids on one morning. Finally we found SD7 up a broken road in the countryside. This was the poorest of the schools we saw.
The school kids were hyped up and excited as other Aussie sponsors were also visiting. Someone had brought a large blow up Kangaroo - (Great Idea!) We popped in to see 11 year old Ayu (she is sponsored by my sister). Ayu was predicably shy and a bit over-awed yet gracious. My little blonde daughter was a novelty and a hit, she lapped up the attention. Most kids looked at me in amazement as I'm 199cm tall and could touch the top of doorways with my head.
I'm pretty sure it was starting to hit home with my kids that their schools back home are modern and well equipped. Unfortunately we couldn't stay long as Saturdays are a ½ school day in Bali. My wife was very impressed with a young girl in grade 6 who came up with a big friendly smile and spoke to her and my daughter. Her English was excellent and very clear and my wife was amazed by this, seem as though the school was very poor. We passed on some gifts, bid Ayu farewell and set off to find SD3 Sobangan.
It was closing in on 11am when we arrived at the next school. There we met our sponsor student Ade ARTADI aged 10. Apparently young Ade had grown most concerned that we hadn't shown and allegedly had shed a tear. His teacher told us he had been asking for weeks when we were coming. Ade was genuinely over the moon to meet us and proud as punch amongst his friends. He was a very happy little chappy (...).
I think SD3 has been in the programme for some time. I believe all the students at this school are sponsored and the buildings and grounds were of a better standard than SD7. Needless to say the blackboards were falling apart and the classrooms basic. If anyone is visiting this school soon they could do with some new large classroom style world maps. The only way they get library books is by donation. Our kids found it hard to understand that students cannot take books home. Unfortunately we missed 'TinaG' by minutes but we fleetingly met 'Kim' and friends at SD7.
It turns out Ades mum teaches religion at the school and his father is also a religion teacher at elementary school. We were shown about and Ade and his Mum invited us back to their nearby home.
Ade and his family live in a compound of three dwellings. The dwellings are solid (no tin sheds) yet basic and rustic inside. The compound had a small temple and some type of village viewing bed for the dead. (No bodies on display, I don't know how we would have explained that one to the kids). I would say by local standards they are doing OK. The family had two scooters, chickens, dogs, birds a tiny TV and a well with pump. We were offered bananas and coconuts to drink. The kids made comments as to the differences with our house (no glass splash backs here) & I'm glad they didn't understand some of the louder comments such as 'geez that's dirty'. Ade and his family were delightful and presented us with a hand made photo album with a few pictures. Ade pulled out the pictures we had been sending him. We had contemplated buying him a bike. On inspection of his broken rusty cycle it is on top of our list for next time.
We said our goodbyes to Ade and his family and Scooby Doo whisked us from the hills to Geneva for a browse. Even blokes can find something here.
Something I didn't realise was that all registered tour operators now have to undertake a Police psychology test. I wonder if we did that in Australia how many psychos would be uncovered?
Day 9 and again another ½ day trip with a separate driver. This guys another Nyoman a genuinely nice taksi driver from Sanur. Nyoman SUMERTA drives his silver/blue Taksi No.728 and props in the evenings on the main drag behind the Bonsai Café. His mobile number is 081 239 8420. Nyomans English was great and the kids adored him. He picked us up then drove us down to Dreamland Beach. I was expecting a small road in but was surprised to see a duel lane highway. Nyoman says the area is owned and being developed by Tommy SUHARTO. There is a villa complex, golf course and partly built golf club on the way in. It will be interesting to see the changes here in the years to come. Nyoman was perplexed as to why Tommy SUHARTO got 3 years for a multi-million dollar fraud when he knows a man who got 5 years for nicking a chicken.
Dreamland beach had some impressive surf pounding dumpers on the shore. There were loads of bronzed surfers and sun bakers on the beach. There were also plenty of Japanese ignoring the skull and cross bones flags for swimmers. Bondi Rescue would have plenty of work here. The local surf lifesavers had whistles but I think they were more interested in the blevvy of beauties from the tower rather than any swimmers. The views were spectacular but swimming was not an option.
From Dreamland we stopped into the nearbye Swell Café for a drink. This was a forum recommendation and the place well deserves praise. The frontage is a small deceptive bakery but there is a large bar and restaurant to the side and behind. The place was very clean with TVs and has regular bands. Next time we will return for tea here.
From Swell we moved onto to Uluwatu Temple for the fire dance. The local monkeys were cheeky and shocked the beegeezus out of my daughter when one jumped on her and stole a hair band. The band was retrieved after being poked with a stick by a local lady. Nyoman dutifully slipped her a few rupiah. The golden sunset was magnificent and the Japanese tourists were in awe as it looked a lot like their flag.
The dance mesmerised my daughter. Some stragglers were wandering in late right up to 20 minutes prior to the end of the show. If I was a performer I would find that slightly disrespectful. Some peanut decided to bring his Labrador along and the crowd found much mirth when the dog started barking at the white monkey character. The bit where they kick fire about and singe their toes made my son cack himself.
Nyoman helped us beat the rush out and we ended doing KFC in Nusa Dua on the way back as the kids were shagged. We bought Nyoman his second ever KFC. I reckon he probably took it home for his son.
That's it for today. Coming up .... Kuta and bloody Fairy Shops then on to the Laguna Nusa Dua.
If you want you can check out some pics at our webshots page (see link).
http://community(dot)webshots(dot)com/user/tassiemays