Day 4 Sunday
Had breakfast at hotel as Made is picking us up at 9.00 as we are going to a church in Denpasar. We have clothes to donate to them and have made email contact. Made says he knows where to go after I show him a map. We get to this big church and park and someone shows us in and the main man introduces himself to us as 'Father someone' My first inkling we are in the wrong church. We sit down and start talking - there doesn't appear to be a service just children's church. I ask him a few questions and politely say I think we have come to the wrong place. There is much discussion amoungst him and his staff and maps are being looked at. They offer to show us where to go. They were lovely. So we follow a man on a motorbike just around the corner to a small building. We go upstairs and have to sneak in as this service is well under way by now. We enjoy it very much. The pastor speaks in English and then another man interprets in Indonesian. Very entertaining really. After the service we talk to the pastor Wayan and Gail his Australian wife. We give them the clothes and have coffee. They are very interesting to talk to and have lots of stories to tell us. Made then takes us to a department store in Denpasar where we have lunch in the food hall and go to a salon for various beauty treatments. The poor man who had to do my pedicure though was not happy. I think he was about to go home or to lunch when we came in. It was very hard to get a smile out of him and then at the end when I said flower please on my toenails you could see his face drop. To his credit though he did not rush and was very artistic. The girl who was doing my finger nails was worried she had to copy the same design. She tried but wasn't quite as good. We then went to Ketuts in Legian for some shopping. We are getting very tired so Made takes us home. We had a swim and drinks and dinner by the pool tonight. The boys went out on the bike for dinner at a new Italian restaurant they found. Early night for us girls.
Day 5 - breakfast at Café Bali again - can't go past it so lovely. The boys then went to Kuta on their bike. They are getting brave riding in Kuta. We went up to Bintang supermarket hoping to find Mr Honeyman for some prescription glasses. He has gone on holidays for a week apparently. Oh well 'Lian Kali'. Next onto Geneva Handicrafts. Spent an hour or so there - I wanted to try Unagi but our taxi driver had enough trouble finding Geneva and he didn't speak good English so I gave up on Unagi. The girls were quite impressed with Geneva and made a few purchases. Back to pool for a swim for a couple of hours. Girls wanted to keep going to Kuta but I said time out please I need a rest. They call me their team leader and wouldn't go on without me so I got my way this time. Later in the avo we taxi into Kuta the traffic is really busy and its frustrating. We got our dvds (most of them anyway) then we walked along Kartika plaza looking for a cheap restaurant (one of the girls is on a strict budget). We walked through to the beach and realized we were walking through a cemetery. Walked along the beach path and girls were happy to be seeing Kuta beach. We are starving by now, weak and thirsty. I say I know a place in Poppies 1 - Treehouse restaurant. We make it there and call the boys to let them know where we are. They meet us there on their bike. We have an encounter here with the little street boys selling the bracelets. They are happy until hubby offers them some Indonesian coins. They throw them down and after I have bought one from each of them they want us to buy more. Eventually one of them gives us the finger and tells us to f off. The staff move them on. After we have eaten we walk across to Poppies 2 to pick up some of the bracelets with names on that we ordered yesterday from 'Hot Chili' shop. One of the girls won't come in with us as she got ripped there yesterday. We pick up the bracelets and are very happy. 60,000 each. We got our daughters names on them and Cinta for ourselves. Went to top of Poppies 2 and turned left to a dress shop down the road a bit. Nice dresses there and we get a couple more. Taxi home stopping at Gloria Jeans for a take away coffee. Really nice driver - he chatted to us and told us about his family and talked about the bombings and how he helped out that night. We tipped him - not a huge amount but he was so grateful he kissed each of our hands. This is one of the appeals of Bali that the people are so beautiful.
Day 6 - Sue is sick today and stays in bed all day. Nauseous and sore throat and headache. She doesn't get out of bed at all and we are worried about her. The boys got picked up to go white water rafting. Sue was going as well but had to cancel. Doreen and I go out for a massage in eat st at Tarides. Very nice. We want to go back to the beach at Ku De Ta as Doreen has a broken watch she bought there. We ask a couple of guys at a tourist stand if they can take us on their bikes and of course they say yes for a price. Found the watch guy - he wasn't that happy about fixing it - he wanted her to buy another one instead. She insisted and he fixed it. Walked back home to check on Sue. Made her take Panadol and drink some water. We then walked down to Dhyana Pura and found two more bike taxis to take us to Kuta. The traffic is so bad we didn't want to take a car. Much quicker on bikes but you have to hang on and not look sometimes. We were going to Bali Brumy tailor behind Bubba Gumps for some alterations on clothes we had made last October. Putu was great and very obliging. Doreen had another pair of pants made also which he said he will drop of to us when we are in Sanur as he lives there. Went to Centro for some more dvds and looked for Revlon makeup. No bargains there so went to Matahari. Found a little bit of makeup there but not much. Had some spring rolls and a bintang just up from Matahari then found more bike taxis. Well these guys were fast, and weaving in and out!! Also got lost up Seminyak end and I had to navigate which was a bit difficult but eventually I recognized a landmark and said keep going this way. Got home in one piece and chatted to the staff at the bar for a while. One of the managers suggested we buy some 'Pocari sweat' for Sue to drink. We do this and it helps her heaps. Walked down to Benny's in Dhyana Pura for dinner. Live music and food is ok.
Day 7 - last day in Seminyak. Walked along the beach to La Lucciola for breakfast. Sue manages to come with us today - she has eaten nothing yesterday and is quite weak. Saw some horses riding along the beach. Had thought about doing this but as usual in Bali time flies and we just can't do all we wanted. This is why we keep coming back. Loved La Lucciola - waiters looked so nice in their white shirts and sarongs with frangipani behind their ears and their lovely smiles. Everything we had was so tasty and service was exceptional. Back to Seminyak and said our final farewells. Always sad. Promised to come back again. Made picked us up and drove up to Celuk and stopped at Yani Silver where we had been last year. Found this on the internet and it is very reasonably priced with lots to choose from. Lovely earrings and pendants and bracelets. Made a few purchases and paid with credit card as there were no problems with that last time. They showed us around the place, small room out the back where they make the jewellery and the house is absolutely beautiful, very rich looking. Finally arrived at Lumbung Sari in Monkey Forest Road.