The main reason for my not appearing on here very often nowadays is the time taken up by my study of Basa Bali Madia, 'Middle Balinese" which does not upset either those of higher or lower caste. My studies are now concentrated on composing a daily diary of the trip, which lasted 14 days. The following is the transalation.
On Dec'27th, Marie and I returned to Bali via Garuda. The flight was not relaxing because it was late already so that the cabin Crew were rather unpleasant, as they ran around unwilling to give service to their guests. Usually the Cabin Crew of Garuda are attentive and very pleasant.
Upon arrival at Ngurah Rai, because of ailing knees, I am usually given Wheelchair Service. Usually this is not a problem, however on this occasion the flight could not be hooked up to the Airport so that we were obliged to descend stairs and get to the terminal by bus; not very comfortable! Garuda staff announced that, "because there were flights from around the world hooked up, there was no room for us". This was a lie, as the terminal was almost empty, there were no other flights at the terminal! Apparently Garuda had parked between the Domestic and International terminals because the plane was continuing to Jakarta. Inside the terminal all was normal as we were given the usual sweet service of the Balinese people there.
Used a Taxi to Sri Ratu, (where our soul lives while in Bali) where the staff were all smiling and saying 'welcome, Marie & Peter'. The hotel was pretty full with over-seas and also domestic guests. Room 101 was ready, A/C already full on so that it was already cool, plus there was a lovely bunch of flowers with a note saying 'welcome Sunshine' for Marie who was literally gob-smacked and very happy ( the Balinese for surprised is 'an-gob', very appropriate in this case!). Half an hour to empty our cases and then we were ready for sleep because we had been awake 20 hours since very early in Australia
Dec 28th
There's heavy rain and flooding around the hotel so that it was hard to go out to Kuta; except for me who took a taxi to Harry's to catch up on correspondence. Most of the day was spent sleeping and resting since we were still weary from the flight which was rough, so that our bones were still aching; maybe because we are not young anymore!
Around the hotel there was an excavation project where a dozen coolies were digging industriously in order to position pipes for waste matter from the hotel. Certainly this project was going on all around the district so that the waste matter doesn't enter the sea anymore; in future it will be piped to a factory where it will turned into fertilizer.
Dec 29th.Because the bones were still sore, 'Komang' was called to give me a massage. A very good massage because Komang is still studying hard ever day. After graduating from High School, she was given a scholarship from the Gov't to study massage as a career. She is just 19.
As per our routine, I went to the Cyber-café whilst Marie started on her shopping We got together for lunch at the Cyber-café, Chez Harry, because Marie is addicted to the Laksa there. Then for a rest.
That evening we went to ‘Gateway to India' along with a new friend from the Hotel, Mr David from Malaysia. Since June this restaurant has been renovated and the chef changed so that the dishes were not a tasty as previously.
More anon.
-(...))