Monday 25th
Another early wake up. I spend some time reading my book and soon it is time for breakfast. Youngest who missed dinner last night declares he is starving and wants chicken snitzel for breakfast. Off to breakfast we go and sure enough, he can have chicken snitzel. After breakfast the boys head back to the room while husband and I have our morning coffee. He tried the strong and so do I. Not much different to the medium really. The coffee isn’t as nice as usual. I wonder if the machine is not quite right after yesterday’s problems. It’s still a good cup though.
Youngest and I were to have gone to Waterbom Park today but he has decided he doesn’t want to go. Now that our friends are not going until Wednesday he doesn’t; want to go with just me. He knows I won’t go on any of the rides and, as he said, it’s not as much fun by yourself. I don’t dare tell him I might have decided to be brave enough to try a ride this time. So now our planned day is unplanned.
Hubby and I wander back to the room. The boys negotiate over laptop use and decided they’ll alternate between cable tv ( a real novelty for us) dvd’s, and the laptop. Hubby and I decide to take a walk. I hope to get another shirt and some cinnamon coasters for some friends who were to have come on the trip but couldn’t and he is happy just to wander and perhaps get a watch. We walk and walk and walk. Stop to look in some beach markets we’d been in last year. The sellers were quite pushy last year and at first I don’t want to go in there. But hubby talks me into it and I’m in. We wander around and I find the coasters that I want and negotiate a price. Last year I bought 4 packets of them for 30,000 each. This year I’ve paid 40, 000 for one. Fair enough I guess. I wonder what I should/could have paid but it seems a good price.
We walk on. Crossing back and forth over Jl Tamblingan, looking in the shops.
Maria Fashions is not open, to my disappointment. I would have liked to see if there were more colours in the pants I bought. Hubby looks at some dragon kites and asks how much. I have tried to explain to him before that it is not good to ask unless you are willing to bargain and buy but he wants an idea of cost for youngest who will need to bargain for one himself. Youngest is considering buying one for a friend who likes his kites he bought last year. He does try to explain to the seller that he is only asking for his son who will come later to look but of course the seller wants hubby to buy it now for him. Last year we think he paid around 35,000 or 40,000 at the Sinduh Beach Markets for a bird kite,
We walk further on, check out the Casa Luna Menu and admire some carvings.
Hubby finds a place selling belts and we get a belt for eldest and then eventually a watch. We walk on towards the Hyatt section of Tamblingan and eventually get a taksi to take us to Hardys to do some money exchange for our trip tomorrow.
Then it’s back to the G. We are hot and sweaty and in need of refreshments beyond the water we had taken with us. I decide to make a good dent in the scotch I have left and catch up on some reading. Hubby takes the boys to lunch. When the boys return without him I decided to wander down to the coffee shop and order a pizza. They can deliver it to the room so I settle down outside on the verandah and continue to read my book. Hubby returns, has a swim and I keep reading. My pizza arrived. It looks wonderful. Far more than
snack size though.
I continue to read for a while and then decide to head for another foot massage.
Money sorted, I’m not taking extra this time.
Off I go around the corner to Ani’s. When I get there I find she is busy, it will be about 30 mins before she is free. There is another person waiting outside for her friends. We have a good natter and it turns out it’s “Barlee” another BTF poster.
We compare notes on places to go, Taksi fares and the G’s lemon meringue. Both of us feel it is missing it’s lemon bite. J
I have my massage. This time it is not Ani’s but her young assistant. Her name is Komang. Her massage is a little harder than Ani’s A little bonier in the fingers I guess but it is still good. She works a little more on the left side of my left calf muscle than Ani does and really works out some knots and a blockage. It feels much better but I prefer the way Ani massaged my feet. Hmm half and half. Komang is 19 and from a place about 20 kms away. He English is not as good as Ani’s but she is keen to chat. To practise her English. I find out she has 2 older sisters who are both married and have two children each. I ask about what age most people get married and if she understood me correctly she said 20. I comment that perhaps she will be married in one year too. She giggles. Komang tells me she earns 350, 000 a month. I think she also says she works every day but then she says something about Wednesday she is not working. So I’m not sure if that’s every Wednesday or just this one coming. She tells me her poor English is because she did not go to school as her parents did not have the money.
Yesterday we also discovered that the different taksi companies pay different rates to the drivers. The Bluebird drivers get 30% of each fare and one of the other companies, It isn’t Bali taksi but I didn’t catch the name. (It also started with “b” ) pays 50%
My massage is soon over and I go to pay. I’ve brought the wrong money and hurry back for more $. Thank goodness it’s not far. I feel most embarrassed.
Back at the room youngest is hungry for a dinner but the rest of us are not. We decided to sit and keep him company while he eats yet another chicken snitzel. Coffee and chocolate cake seems like a good idea.
We head back to the room for a short while and then it’s time to head out for our shoes and to get a little more money as we’ve forgotten to allow for dinner tomorrow night and departure taxes. If we have Rp left when we head home we can always spend it on the plane or in the dutyfree back in Perth. Shoes are collected, eldest is very pleased with his new shoes and the repair to his old ones. We head into Hardy’s. The security on the door for the first time doesn’t check out bag. They are too busy chatting as we go through the scanner. Youngest and husband go up to the top floor and sort out his watch problem. It has started to play up and needs a new battery.
Eldest and go into Periplus. I want to buy a couple more books. My stomach is rumbling ominously. Oh no! Hopefully it’s just the rich cake I had before we came out.
We complete our purchases and head for the road looking for a taksi. Home to the room. My tummy still rumbling.
I definitely don’t fancy dinner and neither does hubby. We are both full from the cake. Eldest decided to copy my earlier move and orders the snitzel for room delivery.
Eventually my stomach settles down.
Seems it was just the cake but for a while there I thought our Tuesday trip was going to be in jeopardy.More pictures from the Gardenia.
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