I have gone to the Dolphin Lodge off Serangan a number of times and so a phonecall and the fact there was just one person meant I got in quite easily.The trainers asked where my pics from last year were - forgot to bring any, but nice to see I'm still on the pinboard from years ago.
I quite understand that penned animals are not everyone's ideal and that's each person choice to make, each time I have gone I have felt that given the nature of the place the dolphins are well cared for. I find the interaction to be quite an amazing experience.
One day I picked up some people whom I know from Adelaide at their hotel in Kuta and took them to Geneva for gifts to take home shopping. It is an easy way to shop for bits and pieces and homewares. I also like Biarritz and Unagi.On the way I stopped at the shell museum (Sunset Road) heard about via Don Ron's Bali Guide (an excellent resource if you haven't seen it yet. The shell museum was quite something, thousands of shells from all round the world and to me the most interesting were the enormous, fossilized nautilus shells. It is an extremely well set up place if shells are of interest to you. Cost was less than $10 pp and they had a buy one entry get one free on the day I was there.
After Geneva my driver went from Seminyak back to Kuta to drop off the friends while I went to Biku for high tea. It had been on my list for a long time and when a group of people at my hotel mentioned they were going I jumped at the chance. Situated in a lovely building there are many choices of meals, Asian or English high tea, books, cards, tea and tarot readings. We had the English version and it was delicious and generous. The girl who choice tea not coffee enjoyed a lovely little tea ceremony. I bought some beautiful cards and lovely carved bamboo book marks - lightweight and interesting gifts and less than $2. I felt for my driver as it took him over 2 hours to do the round trip back to Biku.
For a couple of years I have sponsored the education of a young girl who lives at the rubbish dump. The two class school was built by and supported by volunteers and donations (Bali Care charity. I love to visit her family but it is quite emotional for me. The dump often stinks, the living conditions are in close proximity and not great, there are pig pens adjacent to the home. I take rice, clothes and so on for the group of five families that live near each other, I think they might be related but I know spoiling one family with gifts can cause jealousy so this seems to work. It was wonderful to see them and we sort of manage the language issue. I have been learning Indonesian on and off for a number of years and currently at Adelaide's WEA. As I make more and more friends without much English it encourages me to learn a bit more. I also notice each year that the friends have an increasing vocabulary of English and there is always the little dictionary for the really awkward moments. It took a while to work out that the Grandpa had died only days earlier and that the younger brother was about to start school. I thought the number of piglets might be an indication of increasing income and visiting a week later they had gone - maybe to Kuningan celebrations.Those pigs were definitely a source of pride.
The school I teach at has done fundraising for the dump school and we have supplied many resources, my students love to see the pics of how things are going in Bali and as well as school organized fund raisers they sometimes do things themselves such as getting sponsors for a fun run. Last year they gave me over 80 pencil cases to take to a school in Munti Gunung, and money to buy books, balls and so on. The interesting thing was that when I asked if I could take the big bags to reuse it wasn't possible.....there wasn't a shelf or cupboard in sight to store anything and the teachers took the gear home on their scooters to bring each day as required. The tarp strung between trees as a roof should have alerted me to the big picture.
Snorkeling,the bike ride and a few more bits for the last JBR to come.
Cheers Jan