Well, some people asked me to give an account of my time overseas. I'm absolutely horrendous when it comes to keeping journals and things - the most complete entry in my primary school attempt was "Dear Diary, today was the worst day ever. First, Chrissy" - but I'm worried about getting back into my "do nothing on the internet for 14 hours a day" rut. I think having a rapt audience clamoring to hear about my latest adventure will help me get out and actually have some.
So, here we go. You asked for it, so it's your own fault.
Photo Albums (always being updated and added to)
Spoiler
Entry 1: Bali Arrival
SpoilerFirstly, on the way in to Bali, we flew over an absolutely gorgeous island. Covered in forest with incredibly high, dead-straight cliffs plunging down into bright blue seas. Haven't quite established which island it was, but I definitely want to see it. My cousin tells me there's boat tours around it, so that could be something to do later.
I did not have a terribly auspicious start. In my decision-making processes, I failed to take into account the time zone difference, which was much greater than I expected. So, instead of a 3 hour flight, it was 6 hours... and me with no food or drink :/ Buuuut, I coped with that fine.
Then I got to Bali, and realised I stupidly hadn't taken enough cash, and the money I'd transferred from my internet-only account to my useful account hadn't actually gone through 9 hours later, leaving me without enough money to pay for my visa to enter the damn place.
Fortunately, an employee took pity on me wandering around all helpless-like, paid for the visa and went with me outside to get paid back by my cousin who was picking me up - no extra fee or nothin'.
So, then my cuz took us back to his place. Here's what I noticed along the way:
1. Motorbikes and mopeds. Frickin' everywhere. Seriously. There's scores of them lined up in parking lots, dozens scooting around between the cars. It's awesome.
2. Traffic laws. There don't really appear to be any. But, oddly, it seems to work...
3. There's lots of gorgeous little shrines and temples all over the place. Once I knew what to look for, I also started seeing little offering dishes, made of woven (upon closer inspection: stapled) palm fronds, all over the place.
4. Shops are... different. Sorta like oversized stalls or something, for the most part.
5. Stone and wood carving stores all over the place. Some really massive and really beautiful artworks.
6. Signs of poverty, sadlyThe ol' Western Guilt is kicking in well solid...
Getting back to his place didn't exactly help alleviate that last bitThe place is amazing. It has a little courtyard, bordered by barbed wire-topped walls. The main part is two stories: kitchen, lounge room and my cousin's bedroom on the bottom floor, his housemate's up the stairs. I'm staying in the room they rent out. It's sort of part of the same building, but there's no direct access between the two sections, and it has its own (kinda odd, but cool) bathroom. Oh, and the doors open out onto the perfect little swimming pool.
Spoiler
Also, my cousin has a monkey. I have to help him catch her so he can give her to the people who adopted his other monkey. I think I can help him - I haven't attempted to capture her yet, so she'll sit on me (briefly) if I bribe her with rambhutan fruit. Also she's been checking out my room, and I'm pretty sure we can corner her up the shade umbrella.
After a little swim, my cousin's housekeeper turned up, and we had the longest, slowest, awkwardest conversation ever. She knows only a few words of Bahassa Ingriss, and I'm terrible at Bahassa Indonesia, so there was much referring to my phrase book. Also she started out by asking if I'm having a baby :/ And also I'm so incredibly awkward about Having Staff... Buuut, she seems really nice, and we at least managed to have a conversation. Even if I do feel weird about her cleaning my toilet and doing my laundry (Sam, you have your own washing machine. What are you doing having your laundry done? Tsk).
Next up was meeting the housemate and his girlfriend. They took me to a cafe - me clinging to the back of his motorbike. No helmet!It was frickin' awesome.
So here I am, drinking a macoa and eating minestrone and a raw chocolate mud pie, sitting on the free wireless 'net telling you all about it.
(don't worry, I had Authentic Balinese Cuisine on the drive home from the airport)
edit: Forgot the other terribly exciting thing I saw here - flying chickens! :O
Interlude: Insecurities
SpoilerI'm feeling awfully fat and ugly/plain, here. Almost feels like I'm the only overweight person on the island, and most of the Indonesian women in particular are beautiful. But eh, that's okay. I'm here to have fun, not hook up, and the relatively healthy food and activity and stuff may well help slim me down a bit.
Entry 2: Monkey-Wrangling
SpoilerFirst thing to do on my second day in Bali was to catch that monkey. Sam gave it a half-hearted try, but Koko was onto him, so he went inside and I sat outside with some fruit, and she came down straight away. I lured her onto my lap with rambhutans, and grabbed her by the tail. Then Sam tied her up a bit, gave her a shower, and put her in a woven cage thing. She was not a fan. I felt like such a traitor
But, it was for her own good. We got in the car and headed off to her new home - grabbing a bit of food from street vendors along the way. At her new place, she was reunited with her mate Abu, and it was just gorgeous.
Sam and I sat around with the family for a while, had kofi () and biscuits (
) and then the father showed us around his village. And it was beautiful. So lovely - like everything else here, really.
Spoiler
Then the father, Sam and I went down to the Monkey Forest where the former works, and we met his father.
This Monkey Forest is full of monkeys and bats, including a bunch of impressively friendly flying foxes of some sort and ridonkulously ballsy monkeys. It's all set around a great big temple, that seemed to be all locked up.
There's a bunch of statues like these around the place.
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Biiiiig boy!
Our sweet potato
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Check out mah fancy hats :3
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Poor snake
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Monkey onna monkey!
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Then we grabbed some food and went down to the beach to watch the sun set. There we grabbed a drink - there's stalls all the way down the beach, which also own various comfy chairs placed in front of them - and met a friend of Sam's (who has a thing for him - bit more on that later).
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Some dude floatin' like it's no big deal.
This friend, aside from being drop-dead gorgeous, offered to take me out that night, and I took her up on her offer. My cousin was worried about me and how I was gonna get home and that I'd be okay and everything. I actually quite like that he's like that - means he's sorta more likely to take things into account and less likely to assume I know how to do everything myself and stuff (except when he doesn't tell me about really important stuff he assumes I should know - more on that later).
Anyway, his friend -Sinta - took me to her friend's salon where we hung out until it was fairly late at night. She and her friend (whose name I unfortunately forget) very kindly did some make-up for me. This was extra-kind as I think his job was make-up, and he did it for free.
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My artistes.
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So, we went out to some nightclub, which I thought at first was pretty small, but it turns out there were actually a good half-dozen different rooms, all with their own DJ. I danced with Sinta a lot, and her friend got reeeeaaaaally into the music. I'm pretty sure she wanted me to throw up or something, cuz she kept on giving me drinks
She took my camera a couple of times and wouldn't give it back, and she insisted on taking pictures of me with whatever eligible young men happened to be handy. But there were silver dudes and a pole-dancer, so that's pretty coo'.
There was also a white guy doing cheesy "magic" tricks - the old "pen floating behind the hand" trick, stuff like that. I hope I see orang magik saya again, a guy hanging out in the middle of a packed Bali nightclub the day before New Years Eve doing silly magic tricks seems like my sort of people.
Spoiler
There were silver dudes in the club. No biggie.
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Sinta bought all of these drinks for us! All of them!
She kept on taking my camera and making me pose with random guys. I'll just post a couple here, cuz it's pretty embarassing.
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Think the guy on the right might be Magic Dude, but I'm not quite sure.
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He was soooooo out of/into it.
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BOOOOOBS!
Smecksy.
Smooches!
At one point, Sinta and I did a tour around all the rooms, and I picked up a hanger-on. Note to guys: grabbing a girl's arse with both hands is not a great way to start a dialogue. At least, not one you'll like. Soon after that we left Sinta's friend there - apparently when he's that into it he's just no good to try to talk to or to get to leave. She left me at the mouth of an alley while she went and got her bike (drunk biking through Bali alleys with no helmet, woooo!), and my hanger-on followed us out. I told him I didn't understand him ("Saya tidak mengerti!"), and that I didn't want him ("Saya tidak mau!") and also I lied and told him I have a boyfriend (I'm single now, btw), and I had my slip of good-words-to-know handy to get help ("Tolong!"), but he finally went away. Thank goodness.
So, then we biked back to her place, where I was to stay that night. I had a big glass of water from the tap, then got her one when she asked. After taking a drink, she asked me where I got it from, and I told her, which sent her gagging and hacking into the sink. There was something about that which indicated to me that drinking from the tap is not a good idea.
I'm sure it's something I probably should've already known, but it just didn't occur to me that tap water = not for drinking, and Sam didn't even thing to tell me. Fun bit: next morning Sinta was throwing up and/or gagging all morning from her hangover, while I was totally fine. Got a bit woozy during the day, but that could also have been because of food or just in my head.
Sinta and I both slept in her bed that night, and she told me about this thing-which-is-not between her and my cousin. Apparently she really likes him, but "he's boring" - and, indeed, he's not a fan of the going out she likes. Also something about getting fed up with guys who don't stay in Bali with her. Honestly, as much as I like both her and my cousin, I can't see them being a good couple - she needs a guy who'll go out with her all night, and always come home with her, while he needs a nice hippy.
Interlude: Bahasa Indonesia
SpoilerI think I'm getting/remembering enough Bahasa Indonesia to get by, just barely. I've gotten a few compliments on it, but I think mostly they just like that I'm going to the effort to try, y'know? I've been using a sort of pidgin Bahasa Indonesia, where saya chuck in a Bahasa Indonesia word ini dan itu. Here's what I've got so far, anyway, with what I can remember offhand (remember: offhand; I'm almost certainly wrong with some bits, and no doubt I've spelled stuff wrong, but it should be enough to get my point across):
{table=head]Bahasa Indonesia|Bahasa Ingriss
Halo|Hello
Apa kabar?|How are you?
Bagus, terimah kasih|Good, thank you.
Bagus sekali|Very good.
Nama saya Serpentine|My name is Serpentine
Di mana Anda/kamu?|Where are you?
Dis ini|Here
Dis itu|There
Ini dan itu|This and that
Berenang dengan kawan|Swimming with friends
Saya ganggu|I am annoyed (you'll probably work out why I know that one later...)
Saya tahu|I know
Saya tidak suka|I don't like
Saya mengerti|I understand
Der|Them/they
Kami|We
Naga|Dragon
Apa ini?|What is this?
Mau ke mana?|Where do you want to go?
Anda mau musik?|You want music?
Taksi!|Taxi!
Boleh?|May I (do)?
Minta?|May I (have)?
Ma'af, saya bodoh!|Sorry, I'm stupid!
Permisi|Excuse me
Ini sepupu saya|This is my cousin
Tolong!|Help!
Hari-hari anak-anak!|Careful, children![/table]
Entry 3: New Year's
SpoilerNew Year's Eve was pretty quiet. Just hung out, went out for food, that sorta thing. Although I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting something notable... Oh well, I'll put it in later if I think of it.
Fireworks were everywhere. You could just buy them in the street. One of them, I saw, was a tube that would fire out a good half-dozen rockets one after another. So fireworks were going off from a good couple of days before New Year, and as the sun was setting on the last day of 2011, Bali was like a warzone under constant bombardment. We wished, several times, that we could be up somewhere high to watch them all, literally all over Denpasar.
Anyway, after bumming around all day, we went out. We started at some friends of Sam's and his housemate's, at some sort of motel. A really lovely place, with a big courtyard and a beautiful temple and shrine. Some Balinese people turned up and shared their dinner with us - rice and spicy vegetables and sort of a mixed-bird stew. I thought the latter was delicious, but it was like they just chopped up the whole bird, so it was jam-packed with bones. I didn't mind, I like chewing on bones (apparently that makes me "like the Indos", according to housemate).
Anyway, after ages of waiting for the friends to get ready to go, we all just left for a bar on the beach, where housemate's girlfriend and I drank and danced a bunch. The New Year was counted down, and Sam "acquired" a dragon-horn for us, and we watched the fireworks on the beach as the bar played "Can You Feel It?" Oh boy could I.
Sadly the night went a bit downhill after that. We danced some more - even Sam did! - but then Sam ran off somewhere, I presumed to get a drink. Not long afterwards, housemate and girlfriend said they wanted to head home. We hung around for a bit longer waiting for Sam to come back, but he didn't, and eventually they left me there. I ended up just getting a taxi home.
I found out later that he'd simply gone. Off to see "a friend". Later that night, he and "a friend" came home, and... uh, stuff. I'm pretty sure it was Sinta, but apparently he tends to "have a couple going", as housemate's girlfriend put it <.<
I was pretty miffed and whinged about it a bunch - people on chat can attest to that - but I eventually got over it. Like I said here, the guy's giving me a place to stay and letting me tag along around Bali and is organising everything for me. The least I can do is forgive him for a moment of thoughtlessness. In any case, the next morning he came and apologised and I told him I don't mind if he leaves me just as long as he tells me whether he's coming back, so I know what I have to do, and we're all good.
In any case, New Year's Day was a total wash-out. It rained all day. But the boys wanted to go surfing anyway, so we all went down to the beach. I woke up pretty queasy, to the point where I was seriously considering sticking my fingers down my throat to make sure I didn't throw up later at a less convenient point. But the fresh air on the bike made me feel better, and after getting fully tumbled in the surf later but still feeling pretty okay, I figured I wasn't gonna throw up. I was still a bit fragile - think I still am, a day later - but I'm okay, and it wasn't that bad. If that's the worst I get while I'm here, I'll have gotten off lightly.
So far I think Australian beaches are still the best, but the water is soooo warm, and the sand where we were was a gorgeous pitch black - volcanic sand. There wasn't much of a current, so you don't spend half your time just trying not to get pushed a hundred metres away from your stuff.
We had food there, then we went home and watched some movies, and then we went out and grabbed some more food, and that was New Year's Day.
Oh, had a good chat with my cousin, too. This is already by far the most time I've ever spent with him, so it's good we can converse.
Some not very good New Year's photos:
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Sam's housemates looking seedy.
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Interlude: Miscellania
SpoilerForgot to say, first or second day I bought myself a dress. I think it looks pretty nice on me - a gorgeous blue, reasonably flattering cut, Sinta called it "Balinese style" - but as my first attempt at haggling it was a disaster (Sinta tells me I could've gotten 3 of them for that price), and it's still not what I want. I really need a super-cool, cotton summer dress for when it's really, really humid and hot, and this one's made out of... I think something synthetic, and it's too tight around the chest to be really cool. Ah well. It's still nice.
Here, every house or shop has a little shrine or a temple attached to it, sometimes quite large and elaborate. It sorta feels to me... like some ancient people built a huge temple city, and now centuries later other people have just moved in, but are still kinda respecting its original religious purpose.
I have no idea how old anything here is (I should probably look it up or something). Little shrines and things look really old, but I've seen freshly-made ones that look exactly the same.
Everything seems to be falling apart, but at the same time is being built up and repaired.
My cousin and his housemate are going to move soon after I leave Indonesia. The new house looks amazing. They were talking speculatively about turning the new place into a sort of arty villa, and we got talking about art, so I'm thinking about scoping out what sort of art Sam likes and buying him something for the new place.
Riding on the back of a motorcycle through the hectic streets, with or without a helmet, bumping around with the wind in my face, watching the street-vendors and templey architecture go by, is just the best thing ever. The best. Until my bum starts getting sore, there's nowhere else in the world I'd rather be.
Entry 4: An Australian, an Indonesian and a Belgian Walk Into a Bar...
SpoilerNot much to report for the last few days. Hung out, went to the beach, ate some pretty tasty food... Don't think I even really have any photos to show.
Probably the most interesting was the source of the entry title. While hanging out on the beach with Sinta, a buff man by the name of (iirc) Yan, from Belgian, came and sat down with us. Apparently he's a personal trainer and does ju jitsu and knows the coach of the Australian women's hokey team. He chatted, he tried to ask Sinta out and got a bunch of non-answers... Eventually we went to dinner with my cousin and Yan came with. After a while, it was decided that we'd go out that night, all meet at that same nightclub (Skygarden). So... We did that.
Now's as good enough a point as any to mention that Sinta was apparently pissed off at Sam for some reason. Not sure why, and she won't tell me - she just says "it was a misunderstanding". So yeah. She was going out in a bad mood, and got rather inebriated.
We met up with Yan okay, danced, that sorta thing. I was enjoying watching Yan make the moves on Sinta, and Sinta gradually warming up to him. Annnnnd then... Well, long story short, she threw her drink on him.
I found out later that the reasons were this: 1. she was pissed off at "all men", 2. A guy had pushed her, and he hadn't defended her against him, and 3. After he'd told her he liked her and had kissed her, he was looking at and/or talking to other girls.
So yeah. Sinta's kinda mental. Poor Yan... I hope I see him again, just so I can tell him what happened.
She came home with me after that, stayed the night. Next day we went shopping, and I bought two new dresses and a bag that zips up (at Sam's suggestion).
At some point in that couple of days, I got a lift home with a friend of Sinta's who works on the beach. He's pretty cute, and has a weirdly ocker (i.e. hyper-'Strayan) accent. Apparently he's been asking after me, and whether he could have my number :3
And that's pretty much where I'm up to... Some plans are being made, though. Sam and I are going to Lombok on the 8th to stay with his sister, and at some point after we get back on the 13th I'll go to Java to see Borobudur.
Interlude: Food
SpoilerI love food. I just... love it. It's so great. Gluttony is one of my two great Deadly Sins (the other one's Sloth. Gee, I wonder why I'm fat...). So one of the main things I've been really looking forward to about going overseas has been trying new foods - whether I like them or not. And that's part of it: I'm not leery of trying new foods just out of fear that I won't like it. That's part of the fun. I don't expect to like everything, and it's okay if I don't.
So. Indonesian food. It's pretty great. Well, mostly...
First thing is probably the fruit. There's a lot of it, and dirt cheap. My absolute favourite is mangosteen. For those who don't know, it's a round fruit with a thick, dark red skin that you have to break open, revealing (ideally) pure white segments, the largest of which contain a hard seed you just spit out. The white flesh is juicy and sweet and oh-so-delicious P: Sadly, they often contain this super-bitter yellow scum stuff
I tried a couple of durians. They're that fruit that everyone says stinks like hell. And they are rather pungent. I wish I liked them - they've got a creamy, dairy-ish sort of taste that could be delicious - but there's just something to the flavour that I simply don't like. Also they really, really hurt to touch.
Oddly, I don't really like the mangoes here. Normally they're my favourite, but the ones here are quite sour. Could be good in cooking, though.
The bananas are really tasty. I usually only like fresh bananas, not banana-flavoured things and the like, but the deep fried bananas they make here are soooooooo goooooood P:
Fresh young coconuts are just the best. The coconut water is possibly the most refreshing thing ever - my cousin reckons one or two medium-to-large coconuts a day and you won't have to drink anything else - and the immature coconut-flesh jelly is delicious. A larger coconut can contain up to about a litre of nummy water P: And you can get them everywhere, often for a measely 10,000rp (~$1aus), or even less. The best thing ever is to lie back on one of the many beach chairs in the sun with a freshly opened coconut...
Finally, as alluded to above, it's all dirt cheap. A particularly expensive stall might sell mangosteens for 40,000rp (~$4aus) a kilo. In Australia, the same fruit can, iirc, be upwards of $25 a kilo. So very good, and so cheap P:
Okay, on to more general things: they have these food shops everywhere. They're called masakan padang, and they're distinguished by having plates of food piled up in windows. You get a plate of rice, and pick out all the things you want, and they give you a bill at the end - I think about 5,000rp (~$0.50aus) has been about usual for me, but it varies a bit. Typical foods available seem to be fried chicken, spicy chicken, a couple of different vegetables, marinated and/or deep-fried eggs, fried fish, tofu, and so on.
I'm not a fan of the deep-fried eggs. They're... just a bit wrong.
Indonesians definitely like their spicy foods. Usually I can handle it fine as long as I don't add any condiments. When I first got here, I bought some of the food and got some liquid from this particular red sauce that's popular on my hand. I wiped it off, and then brushed my face with my hand. The top of my lip was burning for like 10 minutes.
The fried chicken they make here is absolutely divine. It tends to be rather overdone for my tastes, but the spices and everything are just sooooo good - and the chickens, from what I can gather, are all organic and hormone-free and I think free range and all that jazz. I really want a recipe for Bali chicken P:
The rest varies from dish to dish, which varies from place to place. I really like the concept though. You've just gotta make sure you buy from somewhere with pretty good turnover...
There's lots and lots of carts wandering around the place selling different foods. They range from grilled, buttered corn on the cob (nummy) to a bowl of hot noodle soup with chicken balls and vegetables (pretty good, don't really like the balls, though). There's also lots of people wandering around selling snacks - such as the cooked sweet potato the monkey was holding in an earlier photo, or sesame balls. And pretty much anywhere you might find a congregation of people - such as the airport - you'll find a stack of people sitting around selling a huge variety of... stuff.
At the latter, I acquired some sweets at one point. They were pretty good, I think, once I got used to them. Like a sweet gelatinous rice pudding bar, with food colouring.
Speaking of sweets, while in Lombok we went to a grocery store, and I picked up some stuff from the lolly section. They were both biscuity, though. The one I most like was a small (1-1.5in diameter), dense, spiral chocolate biscuit, and the other was a sort of biscuit lump with a drop of icing on the top (if anyone knows them, they're like those koala/panda biscuits from Japan, but without the filling). Pretty tasty.
I'm a little disappointed in my cousin. I'm in a whole new country, a whole new culture, with a whole new range of food, and we keep on going back to the same cafe chain that I would be entirely unsurprised to see in Byron BayIt's called Bali Buddha, and it's clearly been tailor-made specifically for hippy-type, yuppie-ish, health-conscious, laptop-toting tourists. To be fair, the food and everything is really good there, and a lot of the Indonesian food can be kinda samey, but still. It's sorta like... I've never been to any of the cafes and other places in Bali, they're all brand new to me. Yet we keep going to the same one or two... But no more whinging, it is good stuff. And the mushroom pizza at Bali Buddha is great P:
Bintang. Bintang everywhere. That's an Indonesian beer, by the way. And it's everywhere - including on all the towels; it is, as far as I can see, impossible to get a towel that doesn't have the Bintang logo on it
Avocado juice is really quite tasty. It makes a sort of a smoothie. I've only had it with other stuff - mango and honey, specifically - but you can get it plain, or with chocolate. I intend to try an avocado and chocolate sometime soon.
If you get a juice or a smoothie or whatever, there will always be a little pot of "sugar" - I think some sort of sucrose syrup - either with it or already in it. I can't stand it, or no more than a little
Ummmmm... I think I'm out of food-related stuff to talk about. Maybe I'll add something later.
Entry 5: It's Raining Men. ...Yay?
SpoilerHmmm... What have I failed to report recently? I've left it too long, I've forgotten everything...
Mostly more of the same: beach, friends, chillin'. Also: a date :3 Specifically, with the guy I mentioned before. Sinta's cute friend from the beach. His name's Aang (it's actually a lot longer than that...), and he's a beach boy. I'll explain what that means in a sec, and in the meanwhilst here's pretty much everything I know about him (spoilered for the convenience of people who couldn't care less):SpoilerI think he's 25, like me. He started an IT degree, but ditched it in favour of working. 'course, then he ditched that job to be a beach boy.
He's got dark skin which I love, but he keeps complaining about because it shows that he's very poor - it shows that he has to work outside, instead of inside a nice, comfy, sunless office getting lots of money. Thing is, though, he's got his current job by choice - he had another job offer, with a proper salary, but he ultimately decided that he quit a job just like it because he hated it, and he likes being a beach boy.
His family used to be very rich, owning a couple of construction companies, but then one of their business partners was stealing from one of them, and they ended up having a multi-billion-rupiah debt. They lost pretty much literally everything - so he went from a big villa with pool and everything, to a tiny little patched-up room with a shared loo.
It gets worse, though: he had a girlfriend for about 6 years, with intent to marry and all. She died in a car accident, and he had a breakdown for something like a year, culminating in his attempting to poison himself.
This came up because I asked about one of his tattoos (turns out it's her name in Chinese (she was half Chinese, half Javanese).
Speaking of which, he has a bunch of tattoos: the Chinese name I just said, more Chinese and a love-heart on his back which I presume also related to his girlfriend, a tribal-sorta design at the nape of his neck, Spongebob Squarepants shooting crabby cakes at Patrick on his arm (he loves Spongebob, and has "Patrick" as a nickname as a result), and another tribal-sorta design on his leg. Think I'm missing a couple...
He has an amaaaaazing back. Fun fact: I'm a back person. And I'm pretty sure surfers have the best back. And dark skin is a big bonus P:
He surfs, but he's only new to it. And he's managed to break his board pretty horrendously... Twice.
He's Muslim, and from Yogjakarta - I have to find out which Yogja school was my school's sister school, cuz it'd be a pretty awesome coincidence if he went to it.
Ummm... What else? Usual stuff: he's funny and sweet and I reckon he's pretty cute. His English isn't great, but it's a hell of a lot better than my Indonesian. And he says he's never had a bad customer (well, maybe that one who thought he was a jiggalo...), so that's interesting I think. And he's really paranoid about money, always apologising for his lack of it. Oh, and he has friends all over the world - he seems to make friends with every customer that comes by.
All in all, he's a pretty cool dude and I really hope we stay in touch after I leave
Photos added much later, after stuff. Whatever I think of him now (and I'm still not sure what that is), the guy still has a seriously sexy back.
Oh, the date pretty much consisted of dinner and exploring Denpasar on the motorbike he borrowed. Was pretty nice.
So, soon after that Sam and I went to Lombok. His sister, Jade, lives there, at the moment in a set of units she's built with her Lombok...inese husband.
It's a pretty nice set of units...
ADVERTISING INTERLUDE
Her plan is to buy a different house, where she will live with her family. The plan for the units is to rent them out, to locals and to visitors. So, if anyone fancies a holiday in "real, authentic", non-touristy village Indonesia, let me know and I'll give you her details. It'll likely be cheap accommodation, and she's looking at setting up tours, food delivery and things like that.
[/advertising interlude]
Lombok is a very pretty island. Beautiful beaches, lovely mountains... Sadly, I didn't get to see most of it cuz it was raining most of the time
So, ultimately, most of my time was spent in the... uh... I can't remember what it's called. But it's sort of like a very small gazebo, with a raised floor that everyone sits on. Various members of Jade's husband, Apang's family, and family friends, hang around it, sleeping in it and helping finish building the units. They're all, so I'm told, unmarried and unemployed young (and one or two not so young...) men, who hang around and labor and act as security basically for free.
I don't feel like going over my issues with one of these young men, even though it's what the title alludes to. If you're interested, you can read basically all about it here, here, here and here.
Photos of and around my cousin's place:
Spoiler
There's more than that, though, on this general topic. I think on the whole I'm pretty plain - a 6 on a good day, maybe, maybe a 7 if I were a healthy weight and spruced up. Hanging out with Sinta, I've been thinking "wow... I'm really glad I'm not hot". Because the attention she gets... I'd be really uncomfortable with that. It'd be flattering for a while, but then it'd just get annoying, and even a bit threatening.
Buuuuut, in Indonesia... I certainly get a lot more of that sort of attention than usual. I'm still in the "flattering for a while" stage, but that's starting to fade, and when every guy asks you if you have a boyfriend... Especially after the Andi Episode (above)... It's starting to feel a bit icky, is all. It's sorta the first time I've really felt the "sex object" thing. Which is, in itself, a pretty interesting experience...
Anyway, Lombok. Real village out there, fairly few tourists, at least where I spent most of my time. I got a couple of henna tattoos - a phoenix on my right shoulderblade, and a gecko on my ankle. Sadly it started to rain and they didn't have a chance to dry properly, so they got a bit smudged
Sam surfed, Jade talked about her new life there (I think there's some communication issues there... Either she's not telling her husband what she wants, or he's not listening), I showed the guys my music. I got swarmed by kids. Oh, crap, I forgot to get that elastic for them... Dang. Oh well. We tried to go see a waterfall in the mountains, but it got too late and too wet so we couldn't get there
Henna, beach & etc. photos:
Lombok's mostly Muslim, and there's mosques absolutely everywhere - I could literally see 3 or 4 from Jade's place. The music and call to prayer is eerie. Beautiful buildings, though. At one point, we went wandering through the village and were taken to the Balinese Hindu temple there. It's a beautiful little thing, built over a spring, with lots of nagas (dragons).
Mosques (just the ones around my cousin's), the temple, and village.
Spoiler
Anyways, then Sam and I went back to Bali. Sam and Jade's mother, Lesley, turned up the same day we got here. Today the three of us drove up the mountain, to see the volcano that erupted in the 60s. Pretty spectacular stuff. Looked at yet another volcano, got some fruit, and did a lot more driving around.
Tomorrow, I have another date :3 Aang and I will go to Jimbaran, where they have lots of good, cheap seafood, and then to karaoke, and then the next day... let's see now... Bato Bolong Beach, then to a traditional market for fruit, then a massage. Sounds pretty awesome to me, but he keeps asking if it's okay...
The plans to go to Java have fallen through. That's okay, I'll just relax in Bali for the last few days. I'll have to come back and see Borobudur another time.
Interlude: Beaches
SpoilerThe beaches I've been to in Bali - just Echo Beach and around Legian - are pretty different to Australian ones.
The first thing I noticed at Echo Beach was the sand. It's pitch black. It's volcanic sand there, and kinda beautiful. Other than that, it was about what I'd expect from a beach.
Then there's Legian. I'll start with the bad: it's absolutely filthy. There's this layer of rubbish on the beach, and when you get in the water you have to wade through more of it. It's disgusting. Sam told me about one time when he was at the beach, and he picked up all his rubbish before he left. One of the locals asked why he did that, and he said, you know, stuff about not wanting to dirty up the beach. The man said "Not your problem! Government problem!" ...and that seems representative of the prevailing attitude here.
Relating to this, the beaches here feel... kinda dead. Even the much nicer, cleaner ones in Lombok. There doesn't seem to be nearly as many crabs, seashells, snails, sea anemones, kunjibois and all those other living things I expect to see on a beach. At least Lombok had millions of worms living in the rocks on the coast...
The good thing: the beaches are covered with lounges, chairs and umbrellas, and the top of the beach is lined by vendors, food stalls, and the beach boys. The latter are in charge of looking after the chairs, moving them around, cleaning them up and all that, and they sell drinks to the people using their chairs - water, soft drinks, Smirnoffs and, of course, Bintang.
I've learned a few things about this business from Aang. For one thing, they totally get ripped off. Aang and his partner, Sony, have to give 60% of their profits to the owner of their particular patch of sand, and split the remaining 40% between them - so in the end, they each see all of 20% of the profits each. In the rainy season - which it is now - they'll call 60,000rp (~$6aus) total a good day. In the dry season, they can get a couple hundred thousand.
The other thing is an observation about customers. He tells me that the Australians always sit right up the top of the beach, close to the vendors. Down the beach, close to the water, is where all the Europeans go. Also (shockingly) Aussies drink a lot more Bintang (well, the guys do - apparently all the Aussie girls go for Smirnoff), and so are much better customers. So, basically, Aussies are more friendly and social, and better for the economy than Europeans
As well as the stationary vendors, there's wandering ones walking all up and down the beach. They sell sarongs, jewellery, henna tattoos, massages, manicures... Even little (and sometimes not-so-little) wooden statues. They're everywhere, and selling everything.
In the end, I think Echo Beach is much nicer, and better for swimming, but Legian is a lot more fun.
Entry 6: Bye-Bye Bali
SpoilerAs I said, Aang took me out again. It went pretty much as I described. Jimbaran was amazing. You go past all these super-fancy seafood restaurants, where a plate will cost you a good $100, and go right down to the fish market. It's muddy and stinky and soooooo cool. There were little sardiney fish and huge tunery fish and lots of squid of all sizes and parrot fish and coral trout and and and... I loved it!We bought about two kilos of seafood, consisting of some sort of medium-sized fish, a bunch of smaller sardiney fish, prawns and some squid, and took it to a shop nearby where Aang knew the owners, who cooked up all our seafood. Including three bottles of water and a Bintang, all up our amazing fresh seafood dinner cost us about $12. He wouldn't believe me when I say I'd much prefer what we had to the fancy, boring restaurants.
Then we went to karaoke. Now, in Australia, the only experience I have with karaoke is Guitar Hero/Rock Band, a karaoke machine my aunt has, and the occasional presence of a machine in a pub. But this karaoke was a custom-built karaoke club thing, with a whole lot of little rooms - you pay for the room, in hour blocks. It was soooo cool - and Aang, btw, has a pretty amazing voice. Incidentally, this Indonesian song, "Disco Lazy Time" by Nidji is ridonkulously catchy (I'd post a link, but this internet insists on sending me to ****ing Yahoo every time I want to do ****ing anything).
The next day we went to Canggu Beach, where he surfed and I did a terrible job of photographing him surfing (sadly, it was a bit too rough for me to swim...). Then we dropped by a masakan padang, where his "second parents" work, and I met his "sister by another mother". Apparently I have pretty much the same skin colour as this woman, which was interesting... Then onto a brilliant massage (I fell asleep...), and ear candling (it fills up with a whole lot of gunk and wax and dirt, it's so cool). Then I gave him all my Avatar: The Last Airbender cartoon, and we said goodbye...
I saw him again the next day, when I hung out with Sinta, her son and her friend. We all ended up going to karaoke again, and even Sam came to join us!
Then there were lots of goodbyes, and I had to get ready to leave Bali behind...
My flight out of Bali left at 6am. That meant leaving the house at 3.30am. I just didn't bother going to sleep, and spent the night packing. I eventually got on the flight, and now I'm hanging out in Kuala Lumpur for 8 hours...
The rest of the Bali photos (featuring SNAKES!).
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2011-12-29, 06:53 AM (ISO 8601)Colossus in the Playground
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