Monday 13 August
We got up early this morning and decided it was time for a little more shopping. I hadn't had a chance to put washing in so I was in need of some new get up for the next couple of days. Braved the lengthy journey to breakfast again and managed to tackle my first breakky without any hassles. After breakfast, armed with aqua, I headed out to Poppies 11 in search of my limosine for the morning. Well for the first time ever there was no taxi to be seen so I decided I would start walking down Jalan Benesari with a few of getting a taxi and ending up at Garlic Lane.
I had walk a reasonable way down Jalan Benesari when I came across a Circle K and decided to duck inside and have them call me a taxi as I still had not seen one. Well the staff here directed me to walk back to Poppies 11 and get one there. I was not overly keen on doing this as it seemed quite warm outside and really didn't want to back track if I could avoid it. As it turned out there was another Aussie girl in the shop about the same age as myself, who offered to take me down to Garlic Lane on the back of her bike.
All agreed we just had to walk a couple of doors down to pick up her bike and we would be away. During this short trip we were talking and next thing I was off organising a scooter for myself. As I had no plans on driving or riding or Bali I didn't have my licence with me or organise an international licence. This is not something I would recommend as if I had an accident I would not have been covered by travel insurance. Although I took out insurance where I got the scooter, this only covers the scooter.
As I had never riden a bike before it was off very slowly to a big, vacant, bitumised block to practice and after a short while I was away. I took it very, very slowly and stuck to the left so others could go around me, which they did. Over the next few days I only rode in Poppies 11, Jalan Benesari, Jalan Melasti and Jalan Legian and between the Barong and Troppozone. It was a great way to get around on my own and not be hassled. I rang home to tell hubby I had hired a scooter. He was in shock and asked why I would pick Kuta to be the first place to ride a bike.
Anyway did make my way down to Garlic Lane to do a little shopping and just generally pottered around Poppies 11 shopping for a while.
I had arranged to attend the Rotary Club of Bali Sanur meeting at 4pm today. It was held at the Bali Beach Hotel in Sanur so I headed off in a taxi at about 3.30 pm. The hotel where they hold their meetings looks very expensive. Not my cup of tea but I know several people who would love this hotel. The meeting was held in the café at the top of the stairs and was only attended by 5 other people. This was a little disappointing as I am used to attending meetings with 20 - 30 people. I had been told by the President previously that ½ of the meeting would be held in English and the other ½ in Indonesian. That was great I thought. Well, the President wasn't able to attend on this night so the entire meeting was held in Indonesian. As I speak very little Indonesian the meeting became very boring only being able to understand one or two words here or there.
The meeting only lasted for 1 ½ so I headed back to the Barong hotel to meet up with Quentin who had just been released from hospital. I arrived at the hotel to find Quentin had just finished checking into his room at the front of the hotel. I stayed with Quentin and we just ordered room service for dinner while Marc and Dylan went for beauty treatments. Yes, that's right, two guys went for a beauty treatment.
When Marc and Dylan returned they informed me they were shouting me on Bali buggies tomorrow and we were being picked up at 9 am from Troppozone. An early night was the order of the evening to prepare for a big day to follow.