I will start off nice but you may notice that as I relieve the experience, my writing experience changes...Up early for a morning beach walk before breakfast, walked past the Hyatt - looks like an amazing hotel and will definitely consider staying here - was very impressed with the size of the place, grounds etc. Disliked the fact that we were engulfed by the fogging they were doing whilst we walked past - but at least they are being proactive when it comes to keeping the mozzies away!
Arrived back to the villa just before 7.30 and within minutes the staff were knocking ready to cook our breakfast. Breakfast cooked, they left and we tucked in with gusto. We had already arranged with Wayan that we would go travelling up towards Singaraja to see these beautiful waterfalls (not Git Git). Wayan arrives and picks us up and asks if we mind if Ika and Ketut come - no problem - we have met with them on every trip with Wayan and consider them friends now - they have a great business of exporting all different arty things around the world. We were meeting them at one of their shops at the Sukawati Markets! STOP - need to buy now - had not planned this early into the trip to start buying but given that Ika and Ketut are our friends, felt that I must buy some bits and pieces. Ended up walking away with 6 glass coloured patterned tea light holder thingys, 6 small stone lanterns, 4 glass tea light holders with a Buddha design through the glass, 1 stone frog and 1 stone elephant - all up paid 450,000rp ($50 AUD) - couldn't be happier with the quality or the price - seeing similar around the place in Sanur and Kuta they were all triple the price!! The only thing we didn't see was the glass coloured patterned ones - they are a very new design they are doing, so we felt a bit special with that! Before I could buy anything else I was dragged to the car, purchases were already loaded and it was time to go.
Lucky Wayan had another back row of seats so our trip was going to be cruisy - or so I thought! Off we head. Cruising on and after a while Wayan spots a roadside satay stall to have his breakfast. So we stop. It is satay pork - I don't eat pork so declined the invite to partake and besides I was still full from my continental breakfast. They take their time eating and we head off again. He didn't go the most direct way to the waterfall....instead he went through the local villages, climbing the mountains etc...must say lovely views but at some times we were only doing 5kms an hour to get through the massive pits in the road - potholes be damned - definitely not - you could only call them pits!! Just before noon we hit some place which had a Circle K - purchased a couple of bintangs and off we go back into the villages.
Wayan had initially told us that the trip would only take a couple of hours there and a couple of hours back. WRONG!!!!! Well we had clocked up to 3 hours and still no sign of the waterfalls! I am getting hungry but by now we are so far into rural land and there are definitely no eateries around!!! GRRRR - a hungry happyhols = a grumpy happyhols! Ika and Ketut kept on requesting we stop here and there so they could take photos - I just wanted to get to the damned waterfall!! No less than 4 and a half hours later I am busting for the loo (damn those bintangs!) and tell Wayan I have to go - he pulls up to a local house asks them if I can use their toilet and ushers me around the back to where their squat toilet is! He fills their bucket with water, hands it to me and leaves! I have not had the best experience with squat toilets but I was too far gone to even worry about that now. Duty is done and I am frantically sanitising my hands with the aquim gel I had bought left right and centre! Two minutes later we are pulling into where he must park the car for our trek to the waterfall. After this epic 4.5 hour trip I am muttering to hubby that I am over it and it better be worth it. I am grumpy - hungry and tired from lack of sleep (no sleep the night we left for Bali and minimal sleep last night as it normally takes me a couple of nights to get used to the mattress and pillows)! Hubby is muttering back that he is over it too and frantically slapping away mosquitos - if a mossie is going to land on someone it will always be my hubby - they love him. I hand him the RID and he sprays liberally all over his body except his face! Next minutes he is saying he has been bitten - yep on his face! Wonderful! We pay our fee and off we go. Now I thought white water rafting steps were bad - this was much worse - not only did we have to deal with slippery moss, but we also had the full work out going - up, down, up down. What started as a slick of sweat is more like a shower now, I am drenched from the humidity and the exertion of the walk! After what seems like forever we finally make it to a spot where we can view about 4 of the waterfalls...there are many more but to do this we have to continue on with the view that we will end up at the bottom and see them in their entirety! I am over it, Ika not being particularly fit is over it, hubby is over it and the only ones that seem keen to continue on are Wayan and Ketut - NO WAY! I put forward my case - lets take photos here with them in the background - Wayan 'you don't want to go to the bottom' - Me 'no I don't want to go to the bottom, I am over it!' Ika backs me up in Balinese (at least I think she was) and hubby underlines it and puts an exclamation point there! After dutifully doing the photo thing and admiring the scenery, we start to head back. We come across a little track stall that sells spices and coffee etc. Ika and Ketut decide they want coffee - I just want to keep going, but no we stop so they can have coffee - I am foaming at the mouth starving by now - its 2.30pm and my last feed was at 7.30 which was 2 pieces of toast and coffee! More photos and more waiting for Ika and Ketut and I spy some young boys on their motorbikes finishing up for the day - I tell Wayan that I want a trip up to the car on the back of a bike - he calls one over and the deal is done. Hubby expresses his concern that I would willingly hang off the back of a bike considering how accident prone I am, but one look at my face and he realizes it is a mute argument. Ika decides to finish her coffee at a flying pace so she too can get a ride on the back of a bike (funny where motivation comes from). Off I go at flying speed up the narrow track arms circled around the Balinese boy who is lucky enough to take me up the hill. He laughs and goes faster with my every protestation and scream. In what was minutes but felt like hours he has pulled up at the top and I hop off gave him 20,000 - smiles all around and off he heads back down! Ika follows a few seconds later and we stand around trying to communicate in sign gestures - her English is close to nothing! I am sweating from trying to make myself understood!
Finally the 3 guys troop up - hubby is drenched in sweat, determined not to look p*ssed off but not doing a good job of it! He mutters to me that he wants to go home - I mutter back I do too. Off we head! We drive via Singaraja which is the quickest???? way home. Wayan had organized a whole duck and a whole chicken to be cooked for us in all the Balinese spices by his uncle and we were all to feast on it back at the villa. On the way back Ika and Ketut were banging on about Durian fruit? How much they love it etc. I still haven't eaten and I would probably just about eat anything including pork satay even though I don't eat pork. My eclipse mints had finished - I had begun to ration them to 1 every 30 minutes when I realized we weren't stopping for lunch! So on the way back from Singaraja - Wayan by now realizing that I am more than a little p*ssed off has decided to become Michael Schumaker of Bali, and is flooring it to get back to Denpasar! STOP!!! Ika and Ketut spot some Durian (not sure of the spelling) so Wayan with an apologetic glance in the rear view mirror pulls over so they can partake in a feast of Durian. Did I want to try some? After looking at hubby's expression after tasting it, I politely declined. Watching them gorge on the durian was a little too much for me - it is white and looks more than a little like something I won't mention in this report, it was smeared over their faces, dripping over their hands etc. I feel sick! My hunger vanishes and I feel more than a little queasy. After feasting on 1 each, they clean themselves up and we head back to the car. Now the entire trip I have been the one stuck in the cargo hold (read back seat) right at the back. My knees have been wedged against the back of Ika and Ketuts seat and I am just wanting to get home. What happened to 2 hours Wayan I kept muttering....I am well over it - Wayan knows it, hubby definitely knows it, the only ones who appear to be oblivious to my mounting rage is Ika and Ketut who want to keep stopping!! WTF???
Wayan drives like a bat out of hell, lights flashing, horn a tooting all the way back to Denpasar. It is past 6pm - we had been on the road since 9am!! We pull up at his house and his Uncle is ready with the duck and chicken, no time for pleasantries - we head back to Sanur! Of course it takes around 45 minutes to get back to the villas due to the volume of traffic in Denpasar and it is by now 7pm! We dismount, I stumble from my legs being cramped together for so long! After a quick consult with the Security guard Wayan locates the quickest place to obtain some rice for our meal and heads off. I stomp off ahead of hubby, Ika and Ketut, slam the doors left right and centre, sit on the toilet and silently weep! I wash my face and hands, head back outside to the kitchen/dining area, receive a hug from hubby, tell him I am not even hungry now. Wayan arrives back with the rice, we get all the plates etc out and they unwrap the goodies. I did not expect to see the face (beak and all) nor the webbed feet of the duck staring listlessly at me...nor did I expect to see the face and the feet of the chicken. My stomach churns - but I spoon a couple of spoons of rice on my plate, hand my plate to hubby and ask for a sliver of chicken breast and head for a double vodka bitter lemon! I barely eat but I do polish off a couple of double vodka bitter lemons. Wayan gets into hubbys Scotch whisky - and 3 decent shots later, Wayan apologises continuously for the trip from hell (which has become my nickname for it) and with a smile I relax and say its okay Wayan, next time when you say 2 hours, I will just add another 3 onto it. He apologises again. He asks why I am not eating and hubby tries to explain that I am past the hunger stage.
Ika and Ketut wrap up all the leftovers (they are eating machines) and with a goodbye to all, off they head. Poor Wayan has to take them back towards Sukawati before he heads back home to Denpasar. Another drink for hubby and I and we call it a night and retire to the bedroom to watch some tv. Thank God the day is over.