Days 7,8,9,
One week down still 3 to go!
Day7
We decided to arrange to have our tattoos sorted early in the trip as we all had some art work that needed to be completed or started. My hubby was having the inner part of his upper arms done to finish off his upper body piece. My son wanted to have a ¾ arm ,shoulder and back tribal design matching his other side as well as a lion on his calf and his girlfriend wanted a design from her pelvis up around her hip. My other son was having a full chest piece done as his first tattoo (ouch!). I had a piece added to my right lower tummy (the last for me.) My girlfriend had a large upper back piece and her hubby had his shoulder done. So ,it was crucial to organise the timing right so we weren't stuck in the tattoo shop & didn't lose too much of our Bintang time around the pool!
We have known our tattooist since our first ink experience in Bali 5 yrs ago and we are really happy with his work, hygiene, quality of ink /guns and professionalism. He will not do a tattoo if he feels your not sure or happy with a design and often says 'you make sure you happy because tattoo is for life'. I once told him to not send people away to think about it they might not come back,he replied :'it's ok lenny, maybe tattoo not good for them or maybe they come back next year!' His laid back honesty makes me laugh!
We will always drop into Garris Garris restaurant( Jl kartika plaza, Sth Kuta) after a visit to the tattoo shop .It's next door and the food is awesome,price is not warung cheap but average for a Bali restaurant.
Day8
We also discovered Bali Agung restaurant and bar last year and went back for dinner and drinks there. I think that was in poppies1. I love the cocktails in a little jug thingy that looks like it belongs to a five year old,mmmmm delicious! For 55,000 you get about 3 drinks out of it, so I started on Mai Tai's and then we shared some Jolly Green Frogs well I can tell you I was certainly jolly and feeling a bit green when we got up to leave! We decided to walk back to the Dewi Sri and catch up with friends, as we walked passed T.J's Mexican restaurant my hubby convinced me that we needed Tequila shots because my bottle broke in our luggage on the way over and I had been tequilaless for a whole week. Well, it turned out to be a merry evening with my kids cackling and mimicking me trying to walk straight and enjoying mum not nagging them! They thought I was hilarious singing and dancing my way back to the Dewi.
Day 9
Needless to say the next day was spent around the pool in recovery mode. I have a funny photo of my hubby laying on the pool edge almost in the fetal position snoozing and feeling sorry for himself .I've added it as my screen saver!
Dinner tonight was going to be at the Kumala Pantai,so we walked along the beach to Legian, stopped in to see Frank at Franks bar in front of the Jayakarta hotel and watched the sunset with a coldie in hand and the kids playing soccer with the locals. We had dinner at total cost of 470,000 for all of us. I love the food at this restaurant. On the way back I stopped in at the jayakarta to see if there was any chance of moving from the Barong to there for the next 5 days before we go to Sanur. The fighting yobbos at the Barong were doing my head in! Unfortunately they were fully booked.
We rang our driver and arranged for an 8 am pick up to go to Kupu Kupu ( the butterfly park).My daughter is fond of all creatures great and small and I avoided going last year as I am terrified of bloody moths, so I wasn't keen on having butterflies frolicking around me. But, we could see she had her heart set on it.
Day10
Up early and on the road by 8.15am. Entry fee to the butterfly park was 225,000 ( 3 adults ,3 kids). It was interesting ,we went into an enclosure to see the new ones straight out of their cocoons ,I didn't mind it in there as they weren't flying yet! the kids got to hold them on their finger,Really pretty huge butterflies. We then went over to an area that had bugs , I wasn't keen to touch or hold them but I took some great photos of them all over our friend. They had stick insects and this weird looking preying mantis thing that looked it was made of bark and leaf bugs,big, big leaf bugs! They camouflaged perfectly in a tree the look like a cluster of leaves.
Ok I was over it by now and walked of with my 5 yr old in tow.
My hubby can be a real sh**head!! He came over to me and said look what I've got and proceeded to throw a leaf at me that coincidentally stuck to my top. Well, first I squealed thinking maybe its a stupid leaf and then when I saw it was stuck to me I thought it was a frigging leaf bug, so while I'm frantically waving my arms screaming get it off me,get it off me everyone thought it was hilarious until I burst into tears ( how embarrassing). Hubby felt bad and tried to do the 'it's ok babe it was a joke' which I promptly followed with the death glare ,don't touch me ever again and your cut off for the rest of the trip! No jiggy jig for him. Maybe I should've added and no more bintang but that might've been a bit harsh.
We left the park after a couple of hours,theres not much to do there other than look at bugs. I asked our driver about taking us for a scenic drive and maybe to some hot springs. We stopped at Tabannan somewhere and thought that you could just go and see the springs. Nope, we had to pay to see,when she said 100,000 per adult and 50,000 per child I said definitely not! Too expensive on our budget so we missed out.
Our driver stopped up above the most beautiful view of rice paddies i had ever seen for more photos. After ten minutes or so I turned to see a lady sitting amongst the grass across the road with a basket on her head. i motioned to her if I could take a photo and she nodded, I took the snap and i looked up to see her with her hand out for money which I didn't have a problem with so I rummmage through my bag and I'm being ushered into the car by our driver as he points out that i've got no chance of getting across in this traffic. i felt bad and hop in the car. I was checking out the photo and as I zoomed it in I noticed this poor woman had a huge goita on her neck. Well, that made me feel awful.She probably thought I wanted a photo because of her defformity and then I didnt give her anything. My day wasn't panning out too well:(
From there we went on to see Lake Bedugung. It was nice,lots of tourists and we took some more photos ( as you do,snap,snap ,snap all day long). Time to leave and my 5 yr old wants to go wees. I look around and it all looks pretty civilised,I spot a sign pointing around the corner to a loo. Off we go and as I approach I see two wooden doors barely holding on by the hinges. I try to convince her she doesn't need to go, but she does ,she needs to go now!! I decipher a sign that says something about 1000rp and I see a very old lady squatting beside the toilet door with a bucket. Ok, I need to pay to use the loo. So I give her a 5'er and she then turns around and shoos this chicken off a toilet roll she had behind her and proceeded to unravel some and offered it to me with a big friendly toothless smile.
I politely declined and yep you guessed it ,when we opened the door it was a squat hole! I don't have a strong stomach and the stench was horrible, so I am hovering my daughter over the hole whilst my arms are shaking with her weight and holding my breath and she cant go! I couldn't say anything cause I didn't want to breath so I waited what seemed an eternity of 5 seconds! By now I'm feeling faint nauseated and I need to get out of there fast for oxygen.
I knew I was going to start gagging and I really didn't want to seem rude to this old lady as I scurried past her with a faint blue smile on my face holding it back. She starts waving me over and pointing at this chicken which she had now bound it's feet together and wanted me to buy it off her or something! I don't know what she thought of me but as soon as I opened my mouth to say Tidak Terimakasih I started gagging violently ,tears streaming down my face from the effort.
I get back to the rest of our clan waiting near the car and again I‘m the reason for everyone's happy, joy, joy fits of laughter. My hubby then wanted to remind me of last year when I got locked in a Bali loo at the back of a shop, I held my breath until I couldn't get out and the panic set in and I banged and yelled for help while he sat outside chatting to the shop owner and no one could hear me! By the time I go out I was covered in sweat and bright red cursing him for not coming to see what took so long. His response was I didn't realise you were gone so long and I was chatting and enjoying a cold Bintang, bloody hot isn't it!!! I wanted to slap him.
still to come:
indulgance at the miracle clinic with some botox and micro while hubby watches the footy and a quick list of prices we paid for shopping and waterbom park.