Day 159 (Saturday 22nd) - To Bali!
I awoke late, again, checked out and headed to the Chinese Heritage Museum, as I got a free ticket on Sentosa yesterday. It was pretty interesting, although (yet again) I wouldn't have thought so had I paid full price. As I left the sky turned an ominous shade of brown, and I managed to make it to within 10 minutes of the hostel when it began pissing down incredibly hard. I met a friendly Aussie med student, studying across the bridge in Johor Bahru, with whom I chatted about the music and bar scene in Melbourne while we waited (in vain) for the rain to let off. I ran back, and still got drenched, then got the subway to the airport - I wasn't paying attention, and ended up going a couple of stops in the wrong direction, adding 25 minutes or so and 2 changes onto my already risky journey - I had left it a bit late, foolishly. In the end there was no queue for check-in so I was able to spend my last few dollars on a Burger King Rendang burger - this was an odd interpretation of my favourite indonesian dish, but pretty delicious nonetheless. The movie on the plane was Juno, which was pretty cute, and had a cool soundtrack (which I am still whistling as I write this, three days later). For some reason I was given a vegetarian meal a good half hour before everyone else on the flight - chickpea masala, if I recall. At Denpasar airport I shared a taxi to Kuta with two friendly Swedes - Marcus and Philip. I went with them to the L.A. Inn, where they asked for a triple room, after no consultation with me, so I ended up on a mattress on the floor, for a bargain price. At first I was surprised, but that was swiftly replaced by gratitude, as they seem like really sound blokes. Soon after checking in a cockroach ran across the floor (causing Marcus to freak out), so we went out to Jl Legian for a few drinks - it was 1 am, but the bars and clubs were all packed, especially Bounty. This is an enormous club which has a huge two storey Pirate ship as part of the decor, with two dancefloors in it. It was packed full of sweaty shirtless men and gorgeous women - tourists, Balinese and the ubiquitous prostitutes alike. Exhausted, we headed back after a long and bizarre conversation with a drunken Irishman, to find that our neighbours were making quite a racket - I was far enough from the wall for it not to bother me, but Philip postulated that "maybe it is a Bordello next door? they are showering and laughing all the time".
Day 160 (Sunday 23rd) - Kuta's Crap, & Happy Easter!
Rather a low key day today, for a few reasons - firstly, the weather is rubbish, really grey with sporadic annoying rain. The beach is filthy, the dirtiest beach I have ever seen - the only attempts at cleaning up have been to scrape the rubbish into big piles which are then left on the beach, and merely serve to emphasise the amount of debris. Secondly, Philip is quite ill, and seems to be coming down with flu of some sort. Marcus and I explored Kuta today, wandering aimlessly around checking the place out. We stopped for a massage on Kuta Square, which turned out to be an awesome idea - it was cheap (about £3 for an hour) and really good - there was a bowl of scented water with Frangipani flowers places under our faces on the massage table, the girls were really good (although mine had the thinnest, sharpest fingers I've ever felt) and the place was spotless and fairly luxurious. After dinner Marcus and I went out for another wander, and ended up finding cider in a bar showing Happy Gilmore - we were both so overjoyed to find cider that we stayed until the end of the film when they made us leave. We headed back to Bounty and played some pool, and were so terribly bad that the girls on the sofa next to us were openly laughing at us after a while. Yet again we stayed there longer than we intended, and drank more as well - we eventually rolled in at 4 am, meaning that Monday was a bit of a write-off as well.
Day 161 (Monday 24th) - I am rubbish
I have failed at everything today. Firstly I would like to point out that I lost my (real!) Ray-Ban Aviators in Singapore, and neglected to buy a new pair I found there, so I only have my crappy (although awesome looking) fake Wayfarers to protect my over-sensitive eyes. That hasn't been a problem so far though, as today was yet another rainy and cloudy day. Restless was how Marcus described it/himself, and I think he's about spot on. I bought a copy of Friday's Times from a street seller, and dithered about reading that for far too long before realising that it was 4 pm and the Qantas office closed at 5, and was in another part of Denpasar. I jumped in a cab and told him to hurry, and swiftly ran into a massive traffic jam. We had a perfunctory chat, he was friendly enough, although he asked me some really odd questions about whether I liked beer, and discotheques, and sexy girls - I think he may have been leading up to some kind of proposal, but he was cut short as we arrived at the Grand Bali Beach Hotel at 1655. As I paid him 70,000 Rupiah, including a tip, he pulled a nasty trick on me - seeing I was in a hurry, he somehow made a crafty switch of the 50,000 note for a 1,000, then claimed I had only given him 21,000. As I was in a massive hurry I had no choice but to capitulate and give the scamming bastard an extra 50,000, before I ran into the hotel. And I tipped him too, the crafty bugger. I arrived at the office as they turned off the lights and closed up, meaning that I'd just wasted 120,000 on a pointless journey - more than that actually, as I'll have to pay to get back to Kuta as well. I sat on the beach (also fairly grim) and pondered this for a while, as I now don't have another chance to adjust my ticket until I return from the Gili Islands - this might not be a problem, but it does mean that I have this sense of trepidation hanging over me until I can get back and sort it out. I wandered around the beach and saw some sort of ceremony taking place - about 50 traditionally dressed Balinese people sitting facing out to sea, doing some sort of praying motion. They swayed back and forth while various chants were chanted and songs were sung, before they all walked purposefully to the sea, and dumped the contents of a few bamboo baskets into the surf - these contents were then pounced upon by laughing children, who carried some of them back to shore. I have no idea what was happening or what was thrown in the sea, but after this they all disbanded and headed away, so I did too. On my walk to find a cab I found myself being waved and called at by most of the people I had seen on the beach - 40 or so of them in the back of a lorry, laughing and waving, shouting greetings in Indonesian. My cabbie this time was far more reasonable, his name was (probably still is) Madi, and he spent most of the journey tutoring me in elementary Bahasa Indonesia - almost all of which I have now forgotten, as I am truly awful at languages.
I got back to Kuta around half 7, and went for another massage, this time at the one with the laughing girls outside who we have been saying "later, later" to for the past two days. I went in to find that Marcus had had the same idea, as he was in the booth next to me. This one was a bit disappointing, as the girl seemed to spend most of the time seeing how much pain she could cause me just by rubbing the hairs on my legs in the wrong direction. I went on a massive mission to exchange some books, and ended up parting with Palin, Heinlein and 20,000 Rupiah in exchange for a Bill Bryson book on Australia, the only readable book I could find in all four shops I found. Another problem has presented itself - I took out 500,000 earlier to partially fund the Gili trip, as there are no ATMs on any of the Islands. I then tried to do it again, and was informed that my card was restricted - the same was said at each of the 5 ATMs I subsequently tried. As my English phone has stopped working, I'm a bit screwed - if they have put a block on it because I'm using it more than usual (as my debit card is in transit from Somerset to Sydney!) and I'm in an unexpected country, then they would have tried to inform me by phone, and left a message I now can't get. So, in summary, I've lost my Ray-Bans, I have no way of getting to Sydney at the moment, and no way of getting any money beyond the £30 or so I have in my wallet. Even in a country this cheap, that is a woefully inadequate amount for a week or so on a paradise island. What to do? I could try to sort out a Western Union transfer, either to here or Lombok. An extra day would really sort me out, I could do the flight and get some money, but I really want to get out of here ASAP. Hmm... I'm knackered so I'll sleep on it, although I have to be up and ready for 6 am tomorrow, the only time the 10 hour journey to Gili Trewangan begins.
No comments:
Post a Comment