I started to take detailed notes, but you know how it is. So many other things to do. But I'll try my best to remember the sequence of events.
Flew out Saturday 15 May with Air Paradise. Service okay. Food okay. Drinks okay. Nothing to write home about. Wasn't happy about them herding us all onto the flight, then leaving us sitting there for half an hour with no explanations.
Paid the VOA with Australian dollars. Absolutely no problem. Got Rupiah for change, but their exchange rate didn't seem to be quite right. But who's going to argue with them, right? Got held up by customs for 20 minutes by a guy who decided he needed to rummage through the 100+ pairs of spectacles I'd bought for the John Fawcett Foundation. He must have needed new frames, as he wasn't interested in the lenses. When he found a couple of pairs he liked, he let us go. Thieving prat!
Got to the Puri Raja without too much trouble. Looked fine, until you looked closely. Very old, very tired rooms. Air conditioning worked well. The pool at the front of the property was really nice, but the tiles needed a good scrubbing. There was an area that got very little sun, and the tiles were dangerously slippery due to buildup of algae. The pool at the beach end of the property looked as though someone had thrown a carton of milk into it. Quite cloudy. Only swam in there once, and thought it was a little scary. Should have mentioned it to management, but couldn't be bothered. Leave that to someone else who cares more.
Wandered down to the beach to make sure we could find Sammie & Suzie's for the big get-together arranged for Sunday. Met Smudge and his son and future daughter-in-law, and Amandapanda, who brought her friend Margaret. What a great little set-up S&S have got there. Have a Binnie or 3, watch the sun set, it's perfect! In bed by 9.30, as we're not 25 any more, and we were soooo tired.
Got up early on Sunday and went for a long walk around the block. It's a huge block! Then hung around the pool until it was time to go to S&S for the big gathering. Amandapanda came again, with her friend Margaret and another friend Griya. Gailo and her mum Roma were also there. Marco29 obviously had a pressing engagement, as he didn't turn up. Hope it was worth it Marco (LOL). Had a few Binnies (just for something totally different), and arranged to meet everyone at the Hulu Café (where the boy/girls do their floor show every night) on Wednesday night.
Gailo and Roma joined the 4 of us for dinner at Uncle Norms. The best garlic prawns ever! Also discovered Arak Madu (honey). Arak, lemon juice and honey. What a terrific drink. If you like the occasional arak attack, try the arak madu. It's to die for!
The rest of the time until Wednesday was taken up with the usual stuff. Shopping, swimming, shopping, eating, swimming etc. Met Milton & Kerry at the Indo National, tried to change some money and had to deal with 3 rip-off merchants before I found someone prepared to be honest. It gets so painful dealing with this stuff all the time! It's becoming extremely tiresome. Every trip is the same. If you think I sound all Bali'd out, you're right. At this point, I don't care if I never go back. The constant hassles with drivers offering their services, shop keepers wanting you to 'come look in my shop, give you good price'. They're starting to take their toll!
Bought lots of DVDs and some CDs as well. Everything's 10,000 now, and most places will still give you 'Buy 10, get 1 (or 2, or 3) for free'. Also, if you're planning to be really bored when you get home, you can buy 100 and get 50 for free, or buy 200 and get 100 for free. Where would you put them all?
More to come! Stay tuned.