I wake up after 7.00 again today, in our nice dark room. Someone has put a lot of thought into the design of the rooms at the Semara. I've now noticed that the reason the room stays so dark in the mornings is not just because of the sun-block curtains, but the ceiling panel has been designed with a recess in front of the big sliding doors so that the curtain track is concealed & keeps out the light at the top. Very clever idea and I wish our bedroom at home had the same feature!
I'd messaged our driver Jaya the afternoon before, asking if he could take us to Denpasar today or tomorrow so we can get the last of the shopping out the way and finalise the details with Nusa Trans Cargo. We'd met Jaya only last year, through friends of a friend who he drives every day when they're in Bali, and as I know they've arrived on Boxing Day I'm not sure if he'll be available. I tell him to ask W if we can 'borrow' him just for the morning. We could use someone else but would prefer not to. Jaya has been a huge help throughout the buying process, translating for us (his spoken & written English is excellent) and double-checking Invoice details for us. He has really been a great find for us, after so many trips to Bali & using numerous drivers we finally have one we all just 'click' with.
Anyhoo, I'd not had a reply and thought maybe W & M wanted to keep Jaya the gem all to themselves. I messaged him through Facebook in case he hadn't received my text & he replied saying he'd messaged me the night before & was on his way to the hotel. Cr*p! Hubby and the BP are still sound asleep so I quickly wake them & get ready to go to breakfast and for the trip to Denpasar. I gather all the Invoices for the stuff we've bought so far, work out how much money we still owe and grab the samples of the granite paving we'd selected back in Perth.
Breakfast for me this morning is an egg white omelette with avocado on wholegrain toast, with breakfast salsa (tomato, chilli, onion & coriander - no different than a lunch or dinner salsa LOL). Hubby has the big breakfast (and it certainly is big) and the BP has toast with a side of chicken sausage (and half the avocado off my toast). When I ask for another side of avocado I'm told 'sorry Madam, the avocado is finished already'. Too bad for anyone else who orders the eggwhite omelette, or the avocado & tomato dish I'd ordered the day before! It's typical Bali but you'd think a restaurant in a 5 star hotel would be better organised.
Today we manage to go over our RP 250,000 limit by only RP 25,000. Maybe we'll get the hang of sticking to the limit by the time we go home LOL.
We finish breakfast & Jaya has arrived so we head off down Jl Petitinget, stopping off at the laundry along the track next to Sarong to pick up & drop off clothes, then to the money changer just past the Vila Lumbung. Hubby changes some money while I make a couple of withdrawals from the ATM in the Mini Mart next door. We'll need quite a bit of cash today if we find what we're looking for.
On to Super Marmar (marble) in Denpasar, recommended by Trish for granite paving. Jaya knows of this place so we find it easily. There are huge sheets of travertine, marble & granite out the front on big wooden racks & samples of marble, granite & travertine tiles and pavers inside and at the rear.
We see lots we like but unfortunately they don't have pavers in a thickness suitable to use on the driveway (they need to be at least 40mm thick to be trafficable). Bit of a bugger as this is the biggest area we need to pave & would've provided the most savings. All is not lost though, we pull out our sample driveway paver & find some beautiful contrasting pavers which we'll be able to use on the footpath along the front of the house and for a paved seating area in front of our bedroom. They are available in either a polished or acid-wash finish so we choose the non-slippery acid-wash. The shop staff take some samples outside for us, throw water over them so we can walk on them to test the slipperiness factor :-)
The prices are unbelievable, I can't believe how cheap they are actually. Even with the shipping cost factored in they will be half the cost per m2 of what we'd pay in Perth (worked out to be about AU $33 per m2 instead of the $63 at home). It will be a saving of about $2000 just for the smaller area we purchased them for. Will help off-set the cost of the driveway pavers we'll have to purchase back in Oz. We buy about a 3rd more than what we actually need, just in case of breakage etc. If all goes well with this purchase, we'll be back in Bali to buy more pavers when we re-pave our big patio area in the backyard.
We pay the deposit and then head to Nusa Trans on the way back to give them the Invoices and pay the balance of payments. Turns out we don't need all the cash as I can just use my 28 Degrees Mastercard. So glad I got one & pre-loaded it with cash before we left home!
We're shown around the warehouse at Nusa Trans, and the packing and shipping processed is explained in full. It's well organised and I finally stop feeling so nervous about it all.
When we return from our warehouse tour, we find the BP installed in the office at the rear of reception happily punching numbers into a calculator, with a pen in the other hand scrawling on a piece of paper. When hubby asks her what she's doing she replies 'I work here' LOL. The staff are quite enamoured of her, so much so that Dewi the office manager asks if she can take a photo of her sitting in the office & then asks us all to stand in front of a container being packed to take photos for their company brochure. We all have a good laugh at that one - maybe next time we visit we might be featured in their advertising LOL.
Business finished, we head back to the hotel & say goodbye to Jaya and hit the pool for a swim and lunch.
The BP goes up to the kids club after lunch & at 4pm I go to the spa for my Debussy Thermodermie 'skin rejuvenation' treatment. It uses Debussy Aloe Vera skin products, massaged into the skin with a thermal massage instrument & my skin feels like velvet afterwards. Hubby says that I'm glowing when I return to the room and I'm feeling very relaxed.
It's time to shower & change for the dinner which we've booked for hubby's birthday at Nirvana. Tonight's entertainment is the Fire Dancers and the BP is really looking forward to it. Just as we've crossed the street & about to get into a taxi we hear a voice calling hubby. It's a family from Perth who we've sat next to at breakfast for the past 2 mornings. It's their first visit to Bali & J is asking hubby where is good to go for dinner. We invite them to join us, so all 6 of us cram into the taxi and drive to Jl Laksmana.
Luckily there's no problem changing our reservation for 3 to one for 6 and we're just in time for the last 10 mins of happy hour.
We had a great night, the food was great as was the entertainment. The 2 little girls are entranced by the fire dancers & we end up staying all night and seeing the 3 different performances. I've had a quiet word with the hostess, the lovely Lisa, and after dinner 2 of the waitresses perform a singing & dancing parade to the sound of Stevie Wonder blaring from the sound system. Happy birthday to ya, happy birthday to ya, happy biiiiiirthday. Nothing like a bit of Stevie when you least expect it. The look on hubby's face was priceless and the complimentary dessert with 'his' name written in chocolate sauce on the plate was hilarious - I don't know who 'Jake' is but I think he's missing his birthday tiramisu :-)