Gee, writing this is weird. It's great reliving these times, but I wind up missing it all the more...
Back to the KP, and out to what became one of our favourite places, Seaside. The margaritas were excellent (apart from one lychee margarita - a bit too sweet & sour for our taste and came with sugar on the rim instead of salt), the food was fine and the views of the world going past were fascinating.
The beach front road there is always lined with motorbikes on both sides, meaning a constant parade of interesting characters of all sizes and nationalities. One of my favourite moments - an aussie guy with an indonesian lady got on a bike in front of us, she was holding a Pomeranian dog in her arms. As they rode off, we saw she had a second identical dog peeping out of her shoulder bag.
Directly over the road from Seaside is a spot where the beach goers all seem to dump their rubbish. We watched the pile get bigger and bigger each day. The young daughter of one of the sellers was often there searching for anything she could use or play with. One day a truck rolled up with three men & two baskets. One man stood in the back of the truck. The others picked the rubbish up by hand and placed it in the baskets then handed the baskets to the guy in the truck, who emptied them into the corner of the tray then handed the baskets back. They were halfway through the job when it hit 4 o'clock and they knocked off. Next afternoon they came back to finish the job. Not a shovel to be seen...
The deep-fried eggplant at Seaside is wonderful. I don't like usually like eggplant but this was very different. The hot tomato and basil soup with blue cheese is not to be missed, I'm hooked. The best dish we tried was a watermelon gaspacho with red wine vinegar, fresh mint, chopped seedless grapes, chopped red onion, cucumber and fetta cheese. It does sound rather strange, but if you try it I'm sure you'll go back for more as we did over and over. It got to the point where the staff had the margaritas mixing and the soup being prepared before we even sat down!
Another food favourite was Yut'z Place. Forget about high prices for Aussie beef, their local fillet steak (at about half the price) is prime and tender, and served with bacon-wrapped asparagus, pesto tomato, peppercorn sauce & with a side dish of mashed potato it is a treat, and one we have at least once every trip (twice this time). The chef cooks a steak perfectly whether rare or medium-rare. The complimentary frozen margarita on arrival is a nice little appetiser. Yut'z frozen margaritas are not the strongest drink in town, but at 27,000rp they are good value.
Cool wanted to show me The Panterei, a greek restaurant she had loved on a previous trip which also had a great band, so we went there on a thursday, not intending to eat but just for a drink & a look, planning to go back on the weekend when the band was playing. Just as we got out of the taxi, it started to rain and by the time we had gone into the restaurant proper it had become a non-stop deluge. We found ourselves forced to stay and try their margaritas, and after waiting a while longer for the rain to ease, the moussaka. Both were excellent. The room has a couple of garden/water features which are actually open to the sky. What a great sensation to be sitting dry and cosy with a drink and a meal while it rained heavily right next to us! Eventually we just had to hop out through the rain which had eased only slightly, into a taxi which one of the staff had hailed for us by going out in the downpour.
We foolishly didn't make a reservation for the weekend, and when we rolled up on Saturday night we were very lucky to get a table among the forest of 'reserved' signs. The room is beautifully designed, with lots of subtle features and all indirect lighting. The food again was excellent (always a good sign when the place is full) and the house red was good too. A solo guitarist played a mixture of Greek songs and other pop music and doing a top job. Halfway through the evening he was joined by a singer who also played guitar. He was a classic mediterranean-style singer, not brilliant but with great style & very emotional. He wandered through the audience singing to all the ladies (most of whom he seemed to know already) and was very entertaining. The two musicians are also the owners of the restaurant. It turned out we had wandered in on a Greek party night, we were almost the only non-Greek people in the place. If you ever wondered how many Greek ex-pats live in Bali, there are at least enough to fill a restaurant!
The Friday night was just as wet as the Thursday, we wound up ducking into Green Garden for shelter and drinks. As we weren't eating we sat in the little front section by the road watching the shopkeepers across the street trying to sell umbrellas to passers-by. We got our first drink and the roof above us started to leak. We moved to a dry table but a new leak started there three or four minutes later so we moved again. By this time the first table was awash. There was only a slight leak over our third table but we bravely waited for the next margaritas to arrive. We smiled to ourselves as we watched the Satay chef holding umbrellas over his grill as he cooked. We noticed that the ceiling fans were still running soaking wet and occasionally sparking, then watched in horror as one of the waiters grabbed the switch which was also getting rained on to turn the fans off! No problem, thank goodness, but Worksafe would have had fits if they had seen it.
One more bit to come.
Part 6
The Safari Park. Yes we went, yes it was great. We rang and enquired about the shuttle, but were told that they only pick up from Discovery Plaza, so we hired Nyoman, a driver from the front of the KP. He turned out to be a nice guy, spoke good english & had a new vehicle with excellent aircon. His quoted rate was the standard 400,000rp per day including petrol. He had no trouble finding the Safari Park. He offered us plenty of standard tourist things on the way (fire dance, volcano tour, silver shops etc) but once he knew we had done them on previous trips he didn't try to talk us into them.
The cost for the park is US$25 per person, the driver was admitted free. Obviously this is a good commercial decision by the park, they also have an air conditionedplace where drivers who have been before (or don't want to hang around with their tourists?!?) can sit and wait. Drivers also get a free snack and bottle of water. You get one photo-opportunity of your choice free (baby orang-utan, lion cub, elephant or white tiger), any others cost 20,000rp each. When you use your choice, they mark it on the wristband they give you to wear. Nyoman hadn't been before, so we all headed in together. After some fish tanks and birds, we came to the baby orang-utan. I was hooked, had to have a hold. We got some excellent shots of the little fellow with his handler, then he went to sit with a young lady. They played nicely until the little chap peed on her dress. I took this as a sign that I would be safe, so I stepped up next. He was a little darling, all smiles & hand-holding and playing games. Many photos were taken, the last one as he playfully turned & lay face down across my lap - then he crapped on me! Fortunately his diet was such that it just brushed off without a mark, none of the fruit-driven loose movements one might have expected. We parted still the best of friends, and in that last photo taken, you can actually see the beginnings of the emerging deposit. Probably won't put that one on my screen-saver!!
I realised about now that the sun was unusually fierce & I didn't have a hat. I headed back to the gift shop and was pleasantly surprised to find a Taman Safari cap for 23,000rp - much cheaper than I expected in a tourist venue.
We watched the lion cub for a few minutes but weren't tempted, checked out the young elephants and bought a small bunch of carrots for 10,000rp to feed them. They were either starving or just greedy, and I thought I might lose an arm once or twice.
White tigers next - they are truly magnificent. One was asleep against the glass enclosure and we got some great close-up pix where you can't even see the glass, no grubby fingerprints on it that early... Cool went up to meet the white tiger & I took the photos. It was not a huge tiger that day, only about two metres long nose to backside, plus the tail! He(?) looked asleep stretched out on a log, but the eyes opened and the tail twitched each time he was patted, and he half-rolled over at one stage then rolled back onto his tummy. Was he sedated? It's hard to say. He was very very quiet, although the other tigers in the main enclosure were just as lethargic as he was, so maybe not. We could see that Nyoman was fascinated by the tiger and we tried to persuade him to have his pic taken (our treat) but he wouldn't be tempted. Cool did get a great shot of him standing next to the tiger behind the glass (which you couldn't see) on his own mobile phone camera, so he had something special to show his two little boys.
Next the actual safari. We had to wait a few minutes for the next bus but not long. You need to get a window seat to get the best photos here. Even though the bus was not crowded on our trip, it would have been a drag if we didn't have window seats. You can keep the windows down for most of the trip, meaning top pix of rhino, bears, zebras crocodiles etc. A camera with more than 3x zoom will help as well. They make you shut the windows when you pass the lions/lionesses but you can still get good images if you are close to the glass. We found some of the animals were one side of the bus, others the other side, but the enclosures were both sides of the road, so it's just the luck of the draw if they are on your side.
The accommodation wasn't open when we were there (late January) but the location looks spectacular! The restaurant is quite expensive but again there are great views and pictures if you can get a window seat.
We saw some gorgeous little girls dancing in brilliantly coloured outfits on the way out as well. We didn't go to the swimming pool area.
All in all it was an excellent day and good value for the money.
Back at the KP, we walked to Seaside (a 3 minute stroll) for margaritas, eggplant and soup. We loved seeing the Jiffy Van (for Perth people) on the back of a motorcycle. It wasn't only the beachgoers and sellers who went over for snacks, but the staff of Seaside ran out for some food as well!
One more bit to come.