Day 5 already....
Up early and ready to go today, our faithful driver Gede is picking us up for a trip out to Nusa Dua for a bit of a look around and maybe a trip to Turtle Island, which after reading about on here I'm a bit hesitant on going to. It seems I've inherited the front seat of our transport for the duration of the trip somehow, but I'm not arguing at all as I love to watch all the goings on, it amazes me that there is a distinct lack of road rage in Bali and everyone just seems to go with the flow, it's great to watch.
We got to Nusa Dua and got on the glass bottomed boat for a spot of fish feeding then after some intense peer pressure headed over to Turtle Island, the following is my opinion and my opinion only and I stand by it, Turtle Island was extremely ordinary and the poor old animals seemed to be very sad indeed, the bloke was telling us about how they breed the Turtles and release them back into the ocean by the time they're 3 years old but couldn't explain why they had many older ones there living in very little water in concrete cubicles, we couldn't get out of there fast enough for my liking.
After this traumatic experience for me we headed toward home via the surf factory outlets and nabbed some bloody good bargains, got most of our birthday and Christmas shopping done for the kiddies at home for the rest of the year. So back to the Town House for a nice relaxing dinner and more Slushies, how cool is this they even bring them to your room...
Next day T and I are up and at it again for the walking and shopping adventure but not until after the Town House breakfast, which is getting better the more I delve into it. So off we go down toward the Bintang Supermarket, we ended up walking all the way down and back and still beat most people on bikes and in cars stuck in traffic on Legian. Had a visit from a couple of friends who live near Uluwatu in the arvo and shared a few ice cold Binnys with them then onto the Spit Roast Buffet, Friday Night special at the townhouse and bloody great value, while we watched the footy.
Up early again for the four day move to the Champlung Mas, funny I can mention this place a million times but not the place we loved the most and spent most of our time at. Our driver Gede turned up as arranged to move us down there and sure enough on arrival there we are met by the biggest, dumbest looking arrogant person I've so far met on my travels to Bali and unfortunately he's behind the counter booking us in. He goes ahead to totally stuff up our booking telling us the rooms he assured us we would be getting only days before were now occupied and we couldn't have them, after much discussion we settled for putting our stuff all together in the one room and sorting it out when we got back, I for one had to walk away as this goose was starting to get to me with his arrogance, just to make it worse the heavens then opened up and we had to bolt for Gede's car to try not to get drenched. Gede and the girls took old mate and I down to the Ybar and dropped us off there and we spent the rest of the arvo having a few bets and Binnys and a great time in general, this place is sensational if you want to go somewhere for a couple of bets on the horses from home and they even have their own bookie plus free wifi along with excellent table service with free bowls of nuts for all, can't recommend it enough. We ended up walking back to the Champlung via a couple of quick ones at Billys then back to the Champlung to continue the hostilities with the Richard Craniums in charge, seriously for anyone thinking of going to this place, think again...
Went to Uncle Norms for dinner and it was also crap so we went home and hit the sack in hope the next day would improve our lot. Next morning T and I got up early and walked down to the Town Houses to enquire about the possibility of getting our room back there and not have to endure another night in the Champlung, as luck would have it our room we left just the day before was available, but we couldn't have it back until tomorrow, so we booked and paid for it and raced back to break the good news to W and old mate.
T and I hit the shops again and got some good quality shopping done, we then went back and collected old mate and headed down to Sheppys to watch the Mighty Sharks demolish the previously unbeaten Melbourne Storm grubs, in the real footy.
Unfortunately W had taken quite ill and just wanted to sleep so T, old mate and I ended up going, begrudgingly, on the pre arranged Bali Hai Cruise without her. The general consensus on this trip was the food was good but the entertainment quite ordinary, except for the body builders who T took quite a liking to, all of the singing was mimed and the dancing was just ok but all in all a great night was had, but it did lack the presence of W.
When we got home from the cruise T and I caught up with some old friends who work at the Champlung and the stories they told us of life there behind the scenes made our eyes spin around. We gave them some stuff not needed by us at home any longer for their family and the appreciation in their eyes made it very heartening indeed.
Up early today as things are going to be getting pretty exciting I think, first job was to pack up and head back to the Town House which in itself felt good, then after successfully doing that, albeit with a minor altercation with the staff behind the reception desk, at the Champlung, making up stories of consumed stuff from the mini bar when the mini bar was unpacked and stocked with our own stuff on arrival, we begrudgingly paid there bull crap price just to be rid of them forever, or at least we thought so, as we were travelling away from there T realised she'd left all of our money and passports in the room safe so it was a mad rush trip back through the traffic to try and retrieve these items, which we were able to do without further drama. We were welcomed back to the Town House like long lost friends and wondered why we ever left, once we had the still quite ill W and old mate settled back into familiar surroundings T and I went with our trusty driver Gede to our most anticipated next adventure, he took us out into the hills to an orphanage called The Hope Children's Home and it was a truly inspiring experience for us both, we got there just as the kids were finishing their lunch and they sang us their welcome song and a couple of other catchy tunes then gave us personalised tours of their lives in this place, it was very eye opening for us knowing how our kids live at home and seeing how their world operated really amazed us. The only thing I did have a little problem with was when it came to the time to hand over the goods we'd brought from home, which was a huge suitcase full of clothes, books, pencils, textras and various other stuff that our kids no longer needed, the nice lady who ran the place asked us for the money donation, which we intended to do anyway but were surprised to find out the expected amount was 500,000 rupee, we'd planned to give 100,000 so were a bit taken aback by this and were a little embarrassed when we only had the 100,000 for her, never the less we still had an amazing visit with the kids and I for one will never forget them.
On our way home from the orphanage we stopped into the Kumbasari markets on a recommendation from the forum, the person on here said it was a fabulous experience with all of the shopping they have in Kuta in the one place without the hassle, we must've come on a bad day, from the second we got out of our car the hawkers hit us and didn't let up until we got up the stairs to the market, then the smell hit us and then this woman appeared out of nowhere and started the hassling, what are you looking for she asked and we said nothing in particular but she stuck to us like glue as we did a very quick circuit of the place, whilst mentally cursing this forumite who recommended we go there to hell, so in a nutshell avoid this place like the plague unless you like the intense hassle and rotten food smells the place delivers. After finally escaping this horrible place we got back into the safety of Gede's car and headed home to the Town House were on arrival we headed straight to the Corner Cafe for some salvation and good food. But wait there is still more to come, part 3 is just around the corner, please stay tuned...