Bali - day 47

I took ages to go to sleep, but eventually slept quite well. Woke up at 9am and had a light breakfast at the hotel before we went out exploring. We found a sim card for Jody, and a few other interesting shops. I wasn’t expecting the leather shops – lovely soft leather bags. I have ordered a leather cover for my red-light mat which should be ready on Friday, that will remind me of this trip. We also found a really nice jewellery shop and I will have to get a decent jewellery box when I get home to ensure that I start wearing some. I bought a light dress and top for here as it is pretty hot, around 29 degrees. Around midday we went back to the hotel, changed into our togs and headed for the beach which is maybe 500m away. Jody has been to Bali a few times and has a particular part of the beach that she goes to. I didn’t quite understand why but do now. Annie and Sammie have charge of a small section and remembered Jody and her other friends who have been here. We got some lounge chairs close to the beach, and they brought us drinks, Nasi Goering for lunch and we both had a foot massage and our toenails painted. Oh, and the water was lovely and warm for a swim as well. The chairs were under an umbrella, so it was a perfect place to read books and people watch for the afternoon. It cost $5 for the chair, $2.50 for my watermelon juice, $2.50 for the food, $5 for the foot massage and $5 for the nail painting. So, $20 was very cheap for all of that! Also had clean water at the foot of the chair to wash our hands and feet after being in the sea.

The sun has been setting really late for us over the last few weeks, so a 6pm sunset was a bit of a surprise. It was very pretty watching it though. Then we went back to the hotel, showered, changed and went out to a Mexican place for dinner. On the way I saw a lady with a python. She said it was friendly, so I stroked it, and ended up having it draped around me. It was a cool experience and its skin was really soft. The lady said the snake had shed its skin only a couple of hours before. I did give her 50 cents as a donation which was well worth it – something I never thought I would have done. Our dinner was nice, and we both had a cocktail.

First impressions of Bali – hot, lots of people, seems pretty busy with lots of people trying to sell things, but everything is really cheap. Just as well our bags are full full full! The beach is lovely, I am not one to sit on a beach doing nothing but reading a book under an umbrella with an occasional swim is a different experience, and something we will be doing on more days. Tomorrow we have hired a driver for the day for $45, and he will take us around some of the sights. Should be a fun day!

Nice to have got up to date with this blog. We both have sim cards now for Bali – just as well as the wifi at this hotel is pretty crappy, you think we would have got used to that by now.Read more