Day 2 - Tuesday / Melb Cup day
The buffet breakfast at the Novotel is huge. I can't really imagine much more they could offer. We eat as much as is decent, change into bathers and spend some time by the pool. At 12.00 the Melbourne Cup is being shown on the big screen in the Bar so we head in there to watch with a group of about 30 Aussies who are here for a wedding. Drinks are 2 for one so we enjoy a couple of strawberry Mojitos and watch the race. There is nothing stranger than watching sport broadcast live from Melbourne whilst you are wearing bathers and have just finished breakfast. It feels very weird.
Back to the pool for a swim and a nap and a nice lunch of pasta and risotto. Very yum. Only in Bali do we charge every expense to our hotel bill - its never a nasty surprise when you get the total bill as its such good value.
Sadly the beach in front of the Novotel has been badly eroded recently, and although the nice clean sand is still under the beach chairs, there is a sudden drop off where the sand becomes dirty and rough, filled with broken coral before you can get to the water. It hurts to walk on and is very ugly to look at.
R books a massage with the Novotel Spa, which they do in the open Cabana's by the pool and beach. They are great, but at $36 I know I can get a cheaper massage which I will enjoy. This trip I'm going for Quantity over Quality so I opt out this time. Somehow I enjoy the massage more when I don't feel like I'm paying too much.
At 6pm we meet Kadek in the lobby to drive to Ketut's for dinner. He has just moved into a newly built home in Jimbaran (not the bay area), but how you would find it I have no idea. Its off the main road along a maze of unmade laneways, in the dark. He used to live above his DVD store in Seminyak, so I think this is the first real house he has owned. Its much nicer than I imagined, and although not luxury by western standards, its clean, comfy and spacious with an outdoor living / eating area.
We catch up with his 3 kids, handover gifts and chat with his wife Ayu. Dinner is served around a low table sitting on the floor (which is not what I planned for when I wore a relatively short skirt) , with multiple dishes of rice, satay, soup, steak and vegies. Both R and I are confused by the satay and steak, knowing our hosts are vegetarians. Ayu says the chicken is cooked with Soy and the beef with Mushrooms. We assume they have made these just for we carnivores, but when they start eating them we are absolutely horrified. They've sacrificed their own beliefs just for us!! I enjoy 4 of the very tasty chicken satays and one of the beef pieces, watching out for any mushroom pieces which I can't stomach. Only later does it occur to us that these dishes were actually 'faux chicken' and 'fake steak' made from Mushrooms and soy, not cooked with them! They were so realistic I cannot believe they weren't meat. They have the texture, taste and appearance of real meat.
We had a great time, lots of laughs and it was so nice to be invited to eat in their home. On the way out, they showed us the villa built next door to their house, which they said cost about $35,000 AUD. Its tiny and not the kind that is rented out to tourists, but its clean, secure and has a pool. Brain starts ticking away..... I could afford that...... hmmm.