Day 2 we decided to have breakfast at La Luciola...it was one of the highlights of our trip and will make it a must for every trip in the future, the food is to die for.
Brother Chris and his wife Gary decided to join us girls. We never saw Brother Gary until the afternoons he was more of a night owl.....or should I say night prowl.
I had a fruit bowl with yogurt & honey, corn fritters & Bacon and a café latte 85,000. Chris ordered a large coffee in one of those plunger thingys but it didn't come with milk so I decided to ask the waiter for a large milk. I know milk in Balinese is 'Susu' and big is 'Bazaar' so I asked for a 'Suzu Bazaar' the look on the waiters face was priceless.....I had asked for 'BIG TITS'
While we were waiting for our breaky I toddled off to the loo, when I came back, Coral, (with smoke in hand) and Gary were walking down the beach. (Now don't forget we were warned by Mummy bear not to tell Margaret that Chris and Gary were gay) Any way I said to Chris 'where are they off to?'...Chris replied 'Ohh Coral wanted a fag!' with that we both burst out laughing, I was still laughing with tears pouring down my face when Coral came back. Mmmm Mummy bear was not happy. Margaret was sitting with a puzzle look on her face still trying to work out what the joke was.
After breaky the boys headed back to the Hotel on the motor bike they had hired. The girls headed over to Nusa Dua. We hired a driver for 400,000 for the day to take us around and do a bit of sight seeing to Nusa Dua, Sanur, Illawattu and were ever we ended up. We started off at the markets on the beach at Nusa Dua.
We were the only white faces there and they were all desperate for us to buy. We felt very guilty we couldn't buy from all of them, it horrible to see all the sad faces watching us.
Mum brought about 5 pairs of shoes to take home for friends. She always comes over with a couple of lists full of things she has to buy for people, I use to do the same thing but I found I spent most of my time running around getting different things for different people then I would stress at whether I had brought the right thing for them, and would they like what I had brought, not to mention how much room and weight it takes up in your suit case. It has taken me 20 years of traveling to Bali to get up the courage up to say no.
I brought a lovely pair of gold thongs for 25,000 they were not the flat style thongs they have about 3cm of rubber sole. I never saw a pair the same any where we went, I wish I had of brought more of them. Coral and I ended up buying a hat each to keep the sun off our faces. We both looked like complete dorks but no one knew us and it saved us from sunburn.
The girls were not too good at working the money out...... including my friend Coral, which I always thought she was the smart one out of the two of us, I was very surprised I thought she would have clicked on very quickly. (not as smart as I thought!!! hee hee... she will be reading this) So that meant my name was being called all over the markets to help barter and sort the money out. I went to help Mum... she would make me barter for something and then when I would be bartering she would pipe up and say 'Ohh for god sake Pauline your arguing over 50c just give it to them!' Then she gave me her purse to pay. For someone who made out she couldn't work the money out she was a pretty good judge on how much 50c was. She has been going to Bali for 20 years, and used to be able to work the money out........ Mind you, when she saw that Margaret was slowly catching on she miraculously was able to pay for a few things on her own...... with out my help! I just had to keep an eye out that they didn't give out the wrong notes. The new 100,000rp and 10,000rp notes were a bit tricky. I told the girls, always put your finger over the last three 000 and the amount left is how much the note is worth but remember it is in thousands. I did find that the Balinese were very honest with Mum and Margaret and did help them and not try to rip them off. Then again... maybe the Balinese had a sixth sense and knew the consequences of Mummy bears wrath! They do have great respect for the elderly.
Mum and Margaret were still arguing over different things all through the markets! I quickly learnt not to take sides or stress out.....They reminded me of the movie Grump old Men except in this case is was Grumpy Old Women! They didn't seem to take it personally, in fact, they seemed like they rather enjoyed it, I think they may have just missed their husbands.....I could just imagine my Father sitting at home saying 'Yes that's why I don't go, your Mother is constantly hen pecking me... I can sit at home and throw my dirty clothes on the floor, leave the dishes in the sink, I don't even have to shave until the day before she comes home!'
We had finish shopping and were heading back to the car when Mum decided that was enough lets go home!...........the rest of us wanted to go and look around Sanur.........but SHE who has to be obeyed won! so it was back to Kuta.
We got in the car and Mum and Marg had to have an argument over who was going to sit in the front. I was tempted to just bang their heads together! Like my brothers and I coped when we were younger. Coral and I were the opposite we giggled like little girls over every thing. When the two M's weren't looking we did little pantomimes of them, ordering each other about and arguing.
On the way back Marg was complaining that she wanted to see more of Bali. Mum was telling her that she should just book at tour and go on her own, that way should could have a day to herself. Ha ha Marg didn't like that idea.
We stopped for lunch at Aromas in Kuta. Coral and I had vegetable Filo pastry parcels and salad. The girls were most impressed with the cold fresh hand flannels that were handed to us upon arrival. Then it was back to the Hotel I think the driver though that was the quickest 400,000rp he had made.
At the entrance to our Hotel Coral and I noticed a beauty palour called 'Flowers Hair Studio' we had a giggle thinking of the secret we had been keeping from Marg, and said we would go and check it out later.
For Dinner we decided to go to De La Mendi in the cultural park, that was recommended on the forum. I was sure when I read the posting it gave the phone number and said they will pick you up. WRONG!
While in Bali last year my brother Gary and I had met up with an Aussie guy, John, that was married to a Balinese lady, Wati. So we had arranged to meet them at the restaurant. I asked reception at our Hotel to ring and arrange for them to pick us up, and we would meet John and Wati there. All was arrange and we got ready and sat in the hotel foyer to wait for the transport.
We waited and waited and waited, but no transport arrived. Gary rang John, who was at the restaurant and asked him to find out where the transport was. John rang back and said they do not do pick ups. We were rather p....ed off. And every one looked at me with accusing eyes. I have no idea what conversation took place between our guy from the hotel and the restaurant or who was to blame. But my lot were not impressed. If John and Wati were not already there we would not have gone as it was getting pretty late. But hey it's Bali! Always expect the unexpected!
We walked down to the main road and the traffic was bumpa to bumpa, which didn't help brother Gary's mood. We made an agreement with one of the local guys for transport for 7 people when the driver went and got his van it ended up only being enough seats for 6 so it was a very slow and squishy ride with sister in law Gary having to sit on the floor.
When we arrived we were stopped at the gate and told we had to pay an entrance fee. Brother Gary was by this time foaming at the mouth and ready to strangle someone..... And I happened to be sitting in front of him! We told the gate keepers that we were going to the restaurant, and they let us in with out having to pay.
The view was beautiful and the food was yummy. I had battered fish and salad 45,000 which I though was very reasonable.
After our meal we left and went onto the Hula Café, to see the drag show. We had missed the first show and had to sit and wait for the second show to begin. Brother Gary and John (being real men!) point blank refused to go in and they left. I conned Chris and Gary into staying but they would not come in and sit down at the table with us they preferred to stand up near the door. They ended up staying for about 10 minutes and came over to tell me they were leaving. Chris told me later that they had stood there and were slowly being surrounded by gays. He said it was like vultures circling their prey. He said they were too feminine for their liking.
The show was great, the 'He She's' were beautiful, and made me feel like I needed an extreme make over! I had been to the show at Xmas and found this time there were a lot more local people mainly gays in audience. There were a few older white guys with young Bali boys, as you know I have a gay brother but the older guy with young boy, I find sickening. Mum (who does not miss any thing) had noticed a white guy with a young boy sitting at the next table.....she swears the white guy was jerking the boy off under the table. I did try to tell her that she has an over active imagination. But then Coral said she thought he was as well....Yuck! I don't want to turn people off going....at Xmas it was a whole different range of people. A couple of girly guys stood in front of our table which took our minds of the sickos on the next table. Coral and I could not take our eyes off them. They were off their faces on some kind of drug and were more feminine than we were! One was so off his face he kept stepping back and nearly falling down the stairs, Coral saved him a couple of times. I was disappointed that the comic act that we saw last time was not on. He was a German guy and really played a good part.
While in Bali I had terrible trouble with mozzies. I found them to be silent with no buzz noise, they just snuck up on me and attacked. I had taken bergamont oil, Avon skin so soft oil but they it didn't keep them away. I had big red dots all over my feet and face. The ones on my face didn't itch they just looked like I had the measles, the ones on my feet were itchy as. I still have spots on my face. They seemed to leave Coral alone, we put it down to the medication she was on. (or maybe I was just sweeter than her) I brought fly spray for the room but that didn't seem to kill them, so one night, we asked for our room to be sprayed God the smell was so strong I think it was DDT..........but there was no mozzies alive, I was a bit worried that we would not survive the night though.
Tomorrow its off to Ubud for 3 days.