Sorry I haven't written for a while but the real life has caught up with me.
Monday 30th
After such a hectic day at Waterbom Park today is a free day and everyone has their own agenda.
My miss10 (who is now 11) has been pestering me about going to Ramayana Shopping centre because before we left she posted on the forum where to buy Smurfs and someone wrote back they saw them there. So mum F1 her miss11 and the two of us headed there. There were so many bargains to be had we didn't know where to start. Mum F1 has a smaller foot than my giant one and so she hit the shoe dept. with a giant bang. My miss10 also found some beautiful slip on sandals for only 25,ooorp. If only I had baby feet...
We found the Smurfs at a small glass cabinet display in the food court. They also had many figures from video games, and Japanese animated characters can't remember who they were but miss11 knew them all as her 20yr brother plays the games and watches the animated movies. After getting there, looking all over for them, finally seeing them my miss10 only buys one!!!! I told her it's not on and she needs to spend more of her money. I didn't come all this way for one 25,000rp Smurf, so she bought three. Arrhhhh!!!!
I was busting for a wee and when we got to the toilets it was a not very clean looking squat. I took the plunge and had to go. It was a task and a half though. With Mum F1 taking my handbag, shopping, hat and glasses. I went in there and tried not to breathe as it stank. It must have looked like a comedy routine as I took off my shorts and knickers had them over my shoulder trying not to drop them on the very wet floor. My balance was terrible as I was trying not to breathe swayed all over the place but I finally got the job done after a bout of stage fright. F1 Mum thought I'd fallen in I took so long but thankfully that did not happen. In all the years I've gone to Bali I have avoided the squat but now I can cross it off my bucket list.
From there we hopped into a taxi and went to Ungari warehouse. It's very similar to Geneva, musty stacked to the rafters with stuff and brilliant... I love it... It's like Geneva years ago with a staff member following you with a basket for your shopping. It's a good thing because their pricing system makes no sense and your forever asking the price of things. They actually have different things to Geneva so it's well worth a look. We got the taxi driver to wait for us as it's a little out of the way and you could see the relief on his face when we came out an hour and a half later. But part of the Ungari complex was a thong shop so naturally we had to go in there. I could actually hear him sign. I felf like I was shopping with my husband... The thongs were fantastic and to size 43 so they fitted me. YEAH!!!!! I nearly bought one of everything. The basic thong like in the markets were 25,000rp and there were some with beautiful a flower made of leather type material for 45,000rp. There were thousands of thongs in this shop.
When we finally came out I bought everyone a coke including our wonderful, patient taxi driver. It brought a smile to his face. He said he'd keep it for his children (he had two) so I bought him a second one. When we got back to the hotel I also gave him a $50,000rp tip for putting up with us taking so long. He nearly reached over and hugged me he was so excited.
For dinner we went to Kori's in Poppies Lane II. It is such a beautiful resturant and the food is to die for. So are the Jumbo Margarita's. Have the lemon one. I had the twice cooked NZ Lamb Shanks the meat just melted off the bone. One of Bali's best resturants if you ask me.
Tuesday 31st Aug
Today we went to the Bali Zoo. It has changed so much since our last visit 2yrs ago. The front entrance has a mother lion and 3 cubs in an enclosure. There's a pullie (spell) system where for 50,000rp a chicken is attached to it and you pull it across to the lions and they then reach up and grab it. My miss10 did it and said she could really feel the force in which the lion grabbed the chicken. Inside we watched an animal show and saw the tigers that were first born when we were there 3yrs ago. They are now huge. We did have a few problems with our Mr12 who really didn't want to be there. So the day was a challenge. We had lunch at the resturant and the show they put on was a little disappointing. The last time we went it involved a drum display, Balinese traditional singing and a story as to why it's so important to protect the environment and the animals in the wild. Really great for the kids. Then they brought out what seemed like the entire zoo for a close encounter. This time it consisted of a short drum display and three animals for a close encounter. It just lacked something and wasn't very enjoyable. Just not exciting.
Back at the Hotel I went to Mrs Pak at the Rani Hotel with all my broken jellewery and wanted to have it turned into a gold nugget pendant. She was lovely and laughed about how easy it was to make what I wanted. So different to what I was told back home. It cost all of 350,000rp What a bargain. It looks great. Would definately be going there again to have something else made.
We also all went to have some laundry done. We walked across our hotel BGH and in the lane way opposite a stall holder there said he would take us to his sister. So off we walked all the way down that lane way turning left and along the back of Waterbom Pk and finally to a small laundry. Have no idea where we were or what the laundry was called but they had it all done in a couple of hours and a great job was done. I had 33 pieces of clothing done and 22 pairs of socks and it only cost 91,000rp.
Will write the last installment later thanks for reading..