Day 2 ...

21/10/09

After waking up at OMG o’clock (aka 7am) we went down for our included breakfast at about 8am to find a vast array of food and drink that would probably feed most of Bali. Having had lap band surgery, I don’t usually eat breakfast, so I contented myself with a glass of fresh mango juice while the boys tried numerous things before finding something they all agreed tasted ‘normal’. Most things taste different, eggs/bacon/milk/bread, but they finally settled on fruit, specifically watermelon, and one of the 8 or so different kinds of bread, one of which is green! We resolved to bring our tube of Vegemite down to breakfast the next day so that if they couldn’t find anything else to eat, at least they could have toast with Vegemite! Then it was back up to the room to get changed into their bathers so we could go down to the pool to wait for Elle and the boys.

By the time we got down to the pool, they were already there waiting for us and it was funny to see all the boys to pick up where they had left off the last time they saw each other. They all ran off to check out the pool while Elle and I sat and caught up over a drink or two. She kept freaking out about the prices of everything in the hotel and I just freaked out about the fact that a soft drink cost 20,000. This currency takes a bit to get used to as everything is in thousands or millions. Typical me, I spent most of the time trying to convert it all back to AUD$ which, given how much the exchange rate had changed since I bought rupiahs, was probably a completely useless exercise.

Several hours later, we decided to head out to a place called The Stadium for lunch, as my guys weren’t feeling very adventurous food-wise and it served all sorts of food, but mostly western style things like hot dogs and burgers. They got to sit at the bar and have their lunches as it is perfectly acceptable for them to do that here. Elle was saying that the locals find it very difficult to pick ages, especially of 'white' teenage boys, so if the boys had asked for alcohol, they probably would have gotten it no worries. Luckily, they still think like kids who've been brought up with all sorts of laws about kids and alcohol and thought themselves extremely lucky to have 'gotten away with it'!

Elle and I had a lovely chicken Caesar salad each, ‘dressing on the side’ (name that movie!) while the kids went and spent some money at one of the games/DVD shops next door. I think that's going to be a whole new learning curve for them when they get home .. caveat emptor! The good thing about having Elle's boys there was that they tend to know which shops sell games/DVD's that actually work.

It was quite interesting watching some of the other tourists’ faces as they walked past the guy playing with a taser at the stalls across the road. I’m sure some of them thought he was going to rob them in broad daylight .. not that it’s unheard of but highly unlikely with several security guards standing right there watching him. Turns out he was actually selling them, along with knives and machetes!

After lunch we headed to Elle’s house, driven by Elle’s driver Pa Putu. (Pa is Indo for Mr and Ibu or Bu is Mrs). Even being driven, it was rather scary watching the other drivers just pushing in and overtaking on the wrong side. Several times there were oncoming vehicles on our side of the road until right before we would have hit them, and then all of a sudden they would miraculously manage to find a space to fit back into the traffic on their side of the road. It seemed amazing that there were no accidents, but as Elle pointed out, they do this all their lives and hardly ever go above 50 kmph so maybe it’s not so surprising after all. Even so, it doesn't help your blood pressure or stress level to see an oncoming truck on your side of the road!

Once we got to her place, the boys hit the pool while we sat back in the poolside bale (said ba-lay which is a cabana) with a cool alcoholic beverage each. When the boys started turning into prunes, we decided to have dinner which had already been cooked by her maid/housekeeper. The boys still weren’t too keen on trying Indo food so Elle sent Ryan and Andrew literally next door to the local pizza place for a couple of pizzas. Their version of a Hawaiian involved ham, pineapple, capsicum, mozzarella, parmesan, anchofish (anchovies) and chili sauce. Very different indeed! Probably goes without saying that we had a special order without some of the more unusual things but I tried the Indo food and found it very good. Of course, Elle had asked for it to be made very mild so it didn’t burn! I also tried the Indo version of a Tim Tam .. not good at all! At the risk of TMI, it was the only thing that made a re-appearance once we got back to the hotel.

After dinner they boys all got to playing Yu-Gi-Oh but I had developed a headache so we got into a taxi and went back to the hotel. We all had showers and then the boys read for a little bit while I went straight to sleep with a couple of Panadeine. Probably just lack of sleep because it couldn’t have been dehydration as I’m sure I kept the water company and Coca-Cola in business single-handedly!