Thursday was spent walking double six and Legian Street,as well as trolling silver shops for L. Bintang silver near the KP loved this girl. With two teenage daughters to buy for, she had a field day. Another silver shop near Dolphin had much better quality silver and also demanded our attention, twice, in fact. L went home with a huge bag full of jewelery in an assortment of colours and a wide variety of styles. Lucky girls. The arvo was spent in our leather shops and tailors organising adjustments where needed. Dinner was at the KP. and it was great, with you guessed it creme brule for L.
Now let me explain something about malaria tablets. We take them whenever we travel in Asia, even Bali. We NEVER get sick as they also act as an antibiotic. I am a real no drugs all natural girl and it is the one concession I make. BUT...the side affect that we all suffer from is short term memory loss. Now consider that all three of us are in our mid to late forties and, I admit it, early fifties, in the middle of, or hurtling towards menopause, which also contributes to short term memory loss, and you have a problem. We constantly lost thingies, I would forget to take my rice milk for breakfast or worse, leave it on the table, and the room key became the ticket because I could never remember what it was called. Why am I telling you this? Read on.
Friday morning came the stark realization that we were horribly overweight and would not be going home unless we took some drastic measures. Off to the bintang post office armed with a box of beaded baskets stuffed with pashminas(spell check)for L, a 10kg wooden elephant, 2 nearly 1 metre square metal fishies and a beaded t shirt(heavy) for P, and a box of 2 wooden gargoyles for M. We looked like a three ringed circus. It took over an hour to post all of these items. Mine were going in three different directions and all had additional packaging applied by the gentleman at the p.o. That was a totally hillarious experience. This man danced around each box and spoke to them in Indonesian, sometimes even swearing at them. You can tell swear words in any language. He flung the packaging, threw scissors and knives around, and belted each parcel until it was the shape he wanted. When this hot sweaty process was finished he absoutely slammed the rubber stamp, which was on the end of a hammer, with intense gusto, onto the paperwork. OLE'.. Three cheers!! The end..
Postage cost are about $ 170 per 20kg. Less than excess luggage, and the parcels were delivered on Monday,before we had left Bali, all in perfect condition except for M's. We will glue them together soon.
We all needed a loo by this stage and so we tried the one at the Bintang. L would definitely need her disinfectant for this baby! This time I waited, armed with my trusty camera and scored the greatest shot of L emerging with that priceless look on her face again.
The only cure was to shop in Seminyak in those very expensive boutiques. Mostly looked but then...shoes. Shop 1 I purchased what can only be described as dominaitrix delight (not that old yet!) and in shop 2 a great pair of really tacky beautiful shoes with giant coloured stones on them. L purchased 3 pairs and M 2. Our weight shot up again. Taxi back to KP. Lunch - room service and a creme brule!!
We laughingly pointed out to L that we had made it to number 5 at this point but those malaria tabs had kicked in and she could only remember 2. When we corrected her she merely pointed out that we would have breakfast 12 times and nobody was making an issue out of that! Female logic at it best!
Into Legian to pick up leather.I really wanted some knockoff crocs so I stopped near the Legian markets. L bought some shirts in the same place and also gave a gold coin to a small boy outside with strict instructions NOT to tell his friends. Well that was like a red rag to a bull. I hung back as we left the shop and slipped this little guy 5000 rp to get his mates. A few minutes later L was surrounded by a gaggle of noisy kids wanting the rest of her booty. M and I retreated to the other side of the road and watched in fits of laughter as L made her escape. No camera again but the "look" is etched into my brain.
Dinner again at Zanzibars....yumm
Saturday was uneventful and just very pleasant. Lunch by the pool. The old pool was swimmable again. Picked up the rest of our leather, all good. Dinner was at a GREAT Indian resaurant near Mades Warung in Seminyak. Queen something I think. Damn those malaria tabs. An early night for all.
Sunday began with breakfast at the KP and L deciding that another parcel should fly home. We always bring some collapsable cardboard boxes from Australia post with us and these came in very handy indeed. After breakfast we headed off to the Post office again. As we approached the foyer M asked L how heavy she thought the next box was. It was at this point we realized that no one had a box. Damn those pills. So we said goodbye to another 9 kg.
We wandered slowly back to the hotel, a little sad. Last day and all, and got ready for a swim. We were all chatting away and M and I headed off. Luckily for us there were seats in the shade up near the pool block. M jumped in and I took off my skirt only to find that I had forgotten to put on my togs. Damn those pills! There I stood with M in the pool drowning, trying to get dressed again and praying that my knickers had no holes. I bid a hasty retreat back to our room, passing L on the way, unable to speak because I was giggling too much. Ask M, I said, L looked bewildered.
Back to the pool. Neither of the girls could even look at me...rotten thingies.
After spending the arvo composing ourselves we dined at La Luciolas for the very best Bali has to offer. Of course you need to dress up a little for this place. L did so in stlye. Her shorts were at a stage that they could stand on their own and she swapped the top to one that had no toothpaste stains. Yes we girls are all class.
Did we eventually get on the plane. Only Just. 76kg under the plane and god only knows how much on board. Great for the Balinese economy yet again. L had her baggage searched twice before we eventually got on the plane. We had to tell her to stop grinning at the security guards.. They don't like it. Spent time in the airport lounge. Best 11 bucks ever. Flew home via Singapore. LOVE This airport. Did the free 2 hour bus trip, Had the biggest Lindt hot chocolates in history and settled in for the night. Waved through customs even with declarable items and were for the first time ever early.
Might I say I had a great time as always. L was a great first timer and M was her usual easy best. Thanks guys