Before I start, this is literally a nothing day as we had nothing planned for Galungan Day, so I am just filling in before I hit Day 7 which was our white water rafting and some good news...
If you cast your mind back I ended my last JBR with ...hopefully for a good nights sleep... how wrong can you get! We were woken at about 3am with some loud banging noises and the distant beep beep beep that one knows is some kind of vehicle reversing. What the hell now? I elbow hubby, 'babe, what's that noise', 'I don't know' he says, 'well find out' I say. He huffs his way out of bed and opens the balcony door and the noise of machinery fills our room....beach works! NO WAY! YOU HAVE GOT TO BE JOKING! They were out in force, building a jetty (as we later found out) a little bit to the right of our room. Hubby crawls back into bed, and attempts to go back to sleep with a pillow over his head, but I am now too wired (= angry) and cannot contemplate going back to sleep. I am up out of bed, flick on the kettle, switch on the tv and huff back into bed with hubby groaning at the fact that he knows he isn't going to go back to sleep either.....if I'm up, then he is up also! I am fuming - literally fuming. We had paid the extra to have the privilege of an ocean front room - saved hard for the privilege after a terrible, terrible year, and this was our treat! How can this be happening? Don't they know what we have been through? I am getting angrier and decide to take out my tongue lashing on the poor unsuspecting night receptionist. The poor guy didn't know what hit him, I am pretty sure he may have even been having a snooze himself. His efforts to interject into the spew of words falling out of my mouth were no match! Whilst taking a breath, he eventually cut in with it would be better if I come back after breakfast to discuss a room change. Room change? What? No way - we had paid for this room and we were damn well going to get our moneys worth come hell or high water! I reported the events back to hubby who merely shrugged and said, 'not much they can do about it babe'.
The sun eventually rose and we decided on a walk to clear the fuzzy feeling we were both experiencing having been awake since 3am. The walk was invigorating and the day was warming up and it was going to be a hot one - make no mistake. We head back to the hotel for our sumptuous breakfast. The breakfast room was literally heaving with asians - of course...the conference.... We negotiated a table right at the back - whereas we are usually at the front overlooking the pond and head off to get some food. I have given up on having big breakfasts - I am a toast and coffee girl and I am going to keep it that way, although I did also have some fruit to cleanse the palate. Hubby likes his omelette, bacon, toast and sausages for breakfast but the queues around the various stations were just too much for the poor love and defeated he heads back to the table with a couple of baby plain croissants and a premade pancake. 'Honey' I say, 'whats going on? No eggs and bacon?' 'Cant be stuffed queuing' he replies morosely before half heartedly attempting to enjoy his breakfast. We should have come later!
The day passed fairly quickly. We got some pool loungers in the shade of the trees on the grass and opposite the beach - a lovely way to relax. We had already established that the majority of Germans and Japanese thrown in for good measure. It was literally a case of spot the Aussie. We got chatting to Lili, Ellie, and Annie (the Beach Sellers) and 006½ (the ice-cream seller). They were so happy to talk to someone that they didn't even care if we bought anything or not. Admittedly they did try with the old sale routine, but we assured them we would buys something from them before our holiday was over and they were happy with that. The Russians don't buy anything they told us and they call us monkeys. How bl**dy rude is that? I couldn't believe it. They reaffirmed how much they want the Australians to come back and I assured them that the return of the Australian holidaymakers to Bali has definitely increased. At around lunchtime we bid our farewell and promised we would see them again and headed back to the room for a quick change and a meander down the street. We changed our money and headed up JL Legian. I spot the surf shops that we had found bargains at before and in we go. I needed a pair of board shorts for white water rafting. Up to the stairs to the sale section and I found a pair of white board shorts for 120,000 rp - fine by me - they are duly purchased. Hubby wants a Quicksilver singlet, finds one he likes and deal done we are on our way again. We ended up walking up to the Kopi Pot - we were headed for Nero's restaurant for some lunch but were happy enough to settle for the Kopi Pot given the heat of the day. A quick glance at the menu and orders were taken - I was having a club sandwich and hubby was having chicken in spices. We sat back with our drinks and waited for our food, enjoying the sensory haven around us. 'Hey babe' hubby says to me.. 'what?' I say, 'whats that on your arms', he says. I glance at my arms and before my very eyes a very nasty red rash is appearing, down my arms, all over my chest and up my legs.... What the hell? I didn't know what was going on, but I hate anything unsightly on my body and so I was getting a little upset by this visual taint that was spreading over me. Sunscreen! 'Crap, I bet it's the sunscreen' I say to hubby. 'I thought I would try that brand they mentioned on Today Tonight with UVA & B', I said to hubby. 'Why didn't you stick to the Coles brand' hubby berates me, 'you know you have had that problem before.' It's funny that when you do notice that you have a rash, you suddenly find it unbearably itchy. So our lunch was filled with 'don't scratch', 'don't scratch', 'leave it alone' etc etc by hubby whilst I was intent on playing join the dots with my fingernails.
We finish lunch and head back to the hotel and back for a swim. By now the pool is a really warm temperature and not very refreshing at all, so we give up and head to our loungers (yes we did leave our towels on the loungers whilst we went for lunch!) and were soon beckoned by our new friends. Hubby was persuaded to buy an ice-cream and we spent the rest of the afternoon in the relatively cool shade of the trees. Hubby fell asleep and was snoring loud and proud before you could count to ten whereas I resumed chatting on and off to the sellers. Every now and then one would leap up sarong in hand waving above their head as they bolted off to someone who had by mistake, made eye contact with them. God love them. Hubby woke up and after I announced he had kept the whole grass area awake with his resounding booming snores we finished our chat and told them yes we would be back but not tomorrow as we were going out. That done we headed to our room. I was buggered and maybe a little snooze was in order. No chance! We discover they are now setting up for a very large dinner on the helipad (which happens to be in front of our room). Judging by the tables and chairs we counted it was to the order of about 280 people. No way! There is a smokey air in our room and we discover it is from the BBQ they have set up directly under us to the side. The poor ground floor room would have copped it hard. It's like being in a nightmare really - a bit like groundhog day with a touch of chevy chase thrown in for good measure.
Its Galungan Day though and I guess this is like a celebration dinner. Anyway I don't ponder the mystery's too much, I am too tired to think. We shower up and decide to eat at the hotels Italian restaurant La Cucina rather than venture out. I opt for tomato & basil soup and hubby opts for fettucine. We enjoy our small meal and head back to the room. Nothing can stop us now, we are falling, falling, falling into a deep sleep. Its lights out and it cant be more than 9pm!
Day 7 - White Water Rafting to come...