When we arrived, the host, Morgan, provided us with a scooter. This was my first time on a scooter that I was driving. And it was a foreign country with very few stop lights where they drive on the left side of the often very narrow road. Judy rode on the back as we went slow at first and feared for our lives at every turn. But now, on day 5, I scoot about at will without fear. We are in farm country, so there isn't much to be had without driving there to get it. Although, we didn't know any better and on the first day, walked out in the blazing hot sun in search of nothing that we found. Morgan called us on the cell phone that was waiting for us at the villa when we arrived and talked some sense into us. From the villa we could scoot out to the beach or order food to be delivered. We chose the beach and ate BBQ as we watched the sunset. Quite nice. Although the BBQ was mediocre at best. Never fear though because with trial comes error, and eventual success. On day, 5, today, we ate tandoori chicken from a charcoal pit BBQ with no grate with some fried rice. It was rich in charcoal flavor and quite piquant, more than making up for our first "meh" experience. The meal costed an astonishing 50 cents, or 4500 Rupiyah. The conversion rate is ridiculous...9000 IDR is 1 USD. Anyway, we returned home and slept peacefully among the summertime sounds of crickets in the tall grass and whatever other of God's marvelous creatures therein resided.
On day two we headed out to Kuta beach by way of our hired driver for 40 US a day. Our driver's name is Made, and he knows the score. You need anything, you ask Made, and he calls and sets it up at a reasonable price or takes you to where you buy the "real" version of whatever you want so you don't get fleeced. He's already "made" our trip much better, no pun intended. Thanks Made! Kuta is a tourist trap in every sense of the word. Taxis lurk around every corner, trying to whisk you away at quadruple the normal price with the cry of "you need taxi, yes!", as though if they answer for you, it will somehow change the fact that you have already hired a driver for the day. Tavel agents hound you at every stand, trying to sell you boat rides to adjoining islands. Merchants call at you from every shop to buy their stupid t-shirts and useless knickknacks at grossly inflated prices comparable to the local economy. You forget you are in a foreign country because of the presence of all of the Starbucks and BK's and Wendy's and various other relics of the west which I intentionally left behind but yet refused to stay back. This is also the place where you can buy "bloody fresh mushroom shakes" of the magic variety if you so choose. They are apparently legal but I sincerely doubt the veracity of this claim given Indonesia's draconian penalties for drug offenses. I.e; you get caught in possession of marijuana, you get 5 years in an Indonesian prison that you will not likely get out of alive plus a HUGE fine to boot. And they do bust foreigners and throw them in prison, so don't mess with that stuff here. They are either illegal or the merchants of Kuta beach and other tourist places in Bali get a pass. Anyway, use at your own risk. The thing is, if you need something special, you might have to go to Kuta to get it. Otherwise, stay the hell out. Even the beaches are covered in trash. It's a damn shame. And the Indonesians don't even care. They just sunbathe in an opening in the littered beach. Blech.
Day three, we went to Echo Beach again like we did on the first day. It's a surfer beach and the waves are really powerful. I boogie boarded and took a pounding. The edge of the beach is quite rocky, so it's a bit dangerous in that way, but it was fun. I'm planning to rent a longboard next time and try surfing. I will assuredly take a pounding. At night we went back to the villa and ordered massages which we got in the villa for 20 a piece for and hour each. Not bad.
Day four we went to Ubud. Ubud is worth a visit. We saw traditional Balinese dance in the morning and that was pretty cool, although we couldnt understand a word they were saying and had no clue what was going on. The accompanying music was really exotic. The traditional music here is wild. They have retained quite a bit of their culture here and that's good to see. They haven't been totally McDonald'sed yet. We then went to the monkey forest which is really like a jungle where monkeys walk up to you and jump on you and stuff. They're wild animals and they have big sharp teeth though, so that is kind of scary. One of them bit Judy but I didn't push him cause it would have made it worse. They're pretty cool though, just like humans.
Today, we went to the beach in the south called Geger and just fried in the sun. I got cooked today. The sun is so intense. We then went to a watersports beach and I rode a jetski which was a lot of fun. Now we are at the beetlenut cafe where we are using the wifi to write this. We have wifi at the villa but it works poorly. Tomorrow we will ride bikes down the side of a volcano and drink kopiluwak, the coffee that Jack Nicholson drinks in "The Bucket List". What can I say, it's a hard life.
Fun facts about Bali,
Every family builds a temple. So basically, there is a temple every 20 feet or so.
They are mostly Hindu on Bali although there is also the Balinese traditional religion.
In Greater Indonesia, they are mostly Muslim.
They speak Indonesian, Balinese and sometimes English.
One thing that's really great about here is that the food is really cheap and the fresh juice is fantastic!
Ok that's all for now! Goodnight!
Where's the part 2, Sloppy?
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