Day 3

Another warm humid day with no rain. We took a taxi to Kuta town area as there were a few items we wanted. Namely shirts and shoes. Last time we were in Bali we found the department store called Matahari. The selection is large and there are prices on the items. This saves the trouble of trying to haggle prices with street sellers. We easily spent 1.5 hrs in airconditioned comfort with only the respectful attention of the shop assistants. The street sellers outside are a direct contrast. They have all sorts of methods to extract your money. This years major attraction is timeshare resorts. The seller approaches you with a free "scratchy" card then once you have it in your hand it's all on. One guy would not leave me alone walking with me for over 100 metres. I cannot count how many times I told him that I wasn't interested. Then what really annoyed me is that he attempted to guilt me into the sale ( oops....it's not a sale cos it's free!). He said that if I don't attend that he won't get paid. That comment got me mad. He left....

Most other sellers block the footpaths enticing us into their shops. The Australian presence there is high so we are presumed as Aussies. I turned down a massage and the woman countered back at me saying "c'mon maate " in such a well rehearsed Aussie accent. I started laughing. It was such a good impression but coming from the mouth of a petite Balinese woman was so funny.We did finally buy some items from a street seller. We didn't get a bargain but was also ok with that as the lady got a sale to feed her family and we got what we wanted.

Julie has had a problem with access to a soy latte. Yes, spot the Melbourne girl. If there was soy milk it was sweetened which is just not right. My lack of compassion probably didn't help overly. Julie is looking forward to her morning coffee on Wednesday morning when we return.So after a few hours we grabbed a taxi and headed back to the safety of our sanitised resort. Taxis are cheap but get the metered ones from a reputable company. We chose the light blue taxis with a picture of a bird on the door. And I tracked him on GPS as he drove us home.

Back out to the beach for a swim, drink, and book read amongst the all the Russian guests.The afternoon heat really slows us down from discovering places as is our usual routine when traveling. Dinner was out of the resort to the local shops for authentic Indonesian food. I tried the local spirit called Arak. It tasted a bit like a fragrant kerosine. Maybe it was! The look on Julie's face when she tried it said it all. I missed a pic of that. Upon reading more about this liquor I discovered that a lot of tourists have died drinking this stuff. The locals tend to add methanol to make more money. I'm still alive but I do smell a bit like a Boeing 737!Read more