The restaurants we ate at were, La Lorraine where the black rice pudding and the gado gado are to die for, The Tropical just outside Nusa Dua gates, and The Tree, all good no problems. If you are up in Kintamani the Mesari is good value and on the way back have a look at Penglipuran, a village with no traffic you can also get a nice feed at Tampak Siring. We took one of the local beauties to The Tree.
Up to Amlapura on Friday to Yasa Kerthi orphanage. The good news is that the road up to Candi Dasa is now complete except for one bridge and a section of duplicated highway, the present bridge copes well with the traffic though. For years going up there was a nightmare, changing from one side of the road to the other and queuing
for ages, we were really going well and making good time UNTIL. Just before we hit the bottom of the first twisty hill the traffic is at a standstill and remains that way for one hour before we get moving. A semi carrying a load of steel re-inforcing rods had dropped the lot on a tight corner and the road was compltely blocked. We got a good time out of that, we were outside a school, the kids looked great in their uniforms and some wanted to practice English, it all went well as the Balineses families were out of their cars, everyone was having a bit of a chat one way or another. Only in Bali.
So good to see everyone at the orphanage, there are four new youngsters, all boys. Little girls that were; are becoming beautiful young ladies and the boys growing into fine young men. So much has changed for the better over the years and there are a lot of Bali Travel Forumites who include the orphanage in their itinery every year so good on you one and all. You would have all seen that the conditions have improved.
After a coffee we always go down to Hardy's and shop, gets up my nose pushing trolleys for an hour and trying to work out how much of the budget we have spent, what with the trolley in one hand and a calculator in the other it was a nightmare. Things have changed for the better, we now get a Hardy's man and lady, the man organises the trolleys, the lady does the calculating and steers us to where there are any specials and for clothing for the four new boys she used her Hardys staff card for a 25% discount on the new uniforms. Hardys now deliver everything, just as well as the hotels SUV would need two trips. Another visit over, I can't look back when we leave, too busy fixing herself up with tissues.
On the way back to the hotel, half the road is open where the steel came off, there's a gang of blokes hand loading the steel back onto the semi and it is pouring with rain.
That's about it, only a couple of small bits. Friday night at the hote there is a traditional dance group down from the east coast. They do three sets of dances, on the fourth and final set I thought my ears were decieving me, the dancers are doing their thing and the music is going with flutes, drums and gamalans. Believe it or not they
are playing Auld lang syne.
At the airport to depart, up to the desk, hand over the passports etc and the Garuda computer system goes down. One hour later they make a bold decision to do the boarding passes by hand, only problem is they had forgotten how to do it, same with the baggage tabs, they are all looking over each others shoulders like kids cribbing an exam to get it right.
Went to TB Primary School on Saturday morning, all the kids were getting their exam results, there are a couple in the village that I take to school on the scooter ( via Circle K of course ) they did very well in the exam, special treats all round. Gotta laugh, we see more peolple that we know at the school and at the traditional market in TB than we know in the neighbouthood here at home.
Ah well only six months of sleeps left before we do it all again.