Daaaad. Will you come on the Slingshot with me???-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Sure! why not...... { what is a slingshot?????}
As the taxi draws up to the kerb, my 17 year old son begins a dark ,sinister chuckle..." you're gunna luv this Dad."
As I cast a gaze up at the brightly lit gantry tower, hands on hip, craning my neck at the height of this thing, my son grins at me...
"OOOOOH Yeah!" [ Must be an observation tower of some sort ] We saunter up to the ticket booth. "Two tickets, my good man." You wouldn't read about it...another one of Ketut's mates [ you know, the bus driver from Bali cycle tours ] grins at me.
Ketut's two cheery buddies invite sonny-Jim and I to sit in the rather cramped viewing cradle. Blimey, they are crash hot on safety in Bali these days. No sooner are we seated than they buckle us in with seat belts. On top of this they lower a padded bar = must be stop people from moving about when we get up to the top. Funny. As all this is happening quite a big mob of folk have gathered around us all cheerily pointing and waving. Boy oh boy they must all wish that they could be coming along on the lookout ride!
All Ketut's buddies cleared away except one funny little chap that had a box with a little red button on it. " What's that for, matey?,"
I politely enquire. " It's for the camera in front of you , Boss."
That's very thoughtful, methinks, a souvenir photo!! We sat there, and sat there for what seemed like an eternity.....WWWWHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
I don't know what came over me. I must have had one Arak too many. I must have fallen asleep or passed out. One minute I'm chatting away to my son about whether we will see anything interesting. The next, my head is spinning and my eyeballs are bulging in & out. Blackness, lights, blackness, lights......over and over. I must have had a very bad reaction to that Arak stuff.
Anyway, when I woke up, Ketut's grinning buddies, were unbuckling me out of the chair. I HAD MISSED THE WHOLE SCENIC VIEW...SLEPT THROUGH THE WHOLE THING. Very unnerving as I looked about. Bloomin' everyone was grinning at me.