We are awake early on our first full day in Bali. Our hire car is being delivered at 12 noon. We decide to go for a walk and find somewhere for breakfast. We end up at Indonational, breakfast is good. Kerry & Milton come in while we are there and the first thing they do is ask if we are happy with our breakfast. I need a couple of things from the Apotik so we walk up to Bintang Supermarket. We change money at the moneychanger over the road at 7100 Rupiah to the dollar. We then walk back to Kumala Pantai to pay one night's deposit for when we return from Amed.
Last night we had just got back inside the apartment after eating at Blue Ocean when the skies opened up. This time the same thing happens, we sit out on the balcony and watch the downpour. Twice we have been lucky. We stow Joe & Flo and our purchases and head down to the lobby. Again we are lucky, we are a bit early and the man from Trisna is here to deliver the car, he has just been told by reception that they have no one by our name staying there. If you are in a private apartment at Jayakarta and expecting anyone it would be a good idea to give them your name at reception. We check the car over, take photos of any damage and we are told where the spare tyre is. We pay 175,000 Rupiah a day with full insurance for an Xenia, the car is in pretty good condition. Again we are told where the spare tyre is, this would make sense to us in the not too distant future.
Okay here we go, look out all you motorbike riders here I come. I've done my homework, I know about the one way streets and which street I need to take to get to Jl Legian. I know where the closest petrol station is. I have mapped my route to Carrefour, I have a map to Tamu Sesh in Canggu, what can go wrong? Don't these motorbike riders realise how dangerous it is to pass on the left-hand side. why do they have to cut straight in front of you when they overtake. Don't they bloody know I don't have eyes in the back and sides of my head but only in the front just like everyone else. How can I watch them overtaking on both sides at once, hey is everyone who rides a motorbike in bali on a suicide mission. Heading towards Bali Deli to go to the petrol station on the corner. The road is very narrow, two trucks are coming towards me. I look in the rear vision mirror and move as far left as I can. From who knows where a tourist on a motorbike comes up the inside of me, he finishes up riding on the footpath just avoiding running into the side of me. Great we've been driving for all of ten minutes. Pull into the petrol station, Bali Travel Forum told me to get out and make sure the pump reads '0' $'s before they start pumping, he knew what I was doing, he pointed to the gauge to show me it was '0'.
Back on to Sunset Blvd heading to Carrefour, ok this is easier more than one lane, just stay left because the right hand lane has a right turn arrow painted on the road, no one turns, everybody just keeps going straight ahead. Okay I'll keep that in mind for next time, wrong I try it and get stuck behind a dozen turning vehicles and a million motorbikes scream past me in the left lane. Next thing I see a sign that tells me to turn left to Carrefour, H & I have a hurried discussion. We didn't turn left last time when we came with a driver did we, don't think so, sure it was straight ahead. Ohh you had better turn left it may have moved. We turn left and find Carrefour just down the road. In we go, something's wrong here, this isn't where we came to last time. Where are all the other shops, where is that great bakery department, where are all the tourists, there aren't any. We get most of what we want including a great umbrella and we leave still feeling baffled. As we drive to Sanur a week later we see 'our' Carrefour, we should have kept going straight ahead.
My next trick is to find Tamu Seseh in Canggu. This should be easy as I printed off a map. I tell H if we get to Tanah Lot we have gone too far. First part was easy, we found our way to the road to Tanah Lot, I then started to count the roads going off to the left. We turn left at the third road as my map shows and we drive towards the sea. We come to a T intersection, the T is blocked with ladies in traditional dress laying offerings in a huge mound in the center of the road, I think we need to go straight ahead. The ladies move the offerings slightly giving me just enough room to get around. Up over a crest & sh... we run out of road and hit sand, am I going to get out of here, with a bit of scary sliding I make it and we head back the way we came. The ladies give me very strange looks as we pull up to the pile of offerings again, we ask for directions and a young man appears from a ditch & tells us to turn left. We carefully negotiate the offerings again and soon find ourselves in a Village. The road finishes again in another T intersection, I tell H I've had enough let's head back to the main Road and try again. It's then that I see the small sign that is Tamu Seseh. Yeah we made it, not quite yet we still have to navigate a small narrow laneway and a steep rising, narrow driveway.
I stop the car & give a huge sigh, I go to get out of the car only to be greeted by Retro the resident growling, barking, snarling dog, I flew back into the car. Retro became our friend he would arrive in our living Bale at dinnertime each day wanting to be friends, how could we resist him.
Next our stay in Canggu