Friday – I must say I was getting used to having the smorgasbord breakfast every day, it sure is the life wandering over pool side to select what we wanted each day. I became very fond of banana pancakes and maple syrup, yummy. The pancake girl could flip ‘em like a champ! 🙂

After our usual big breakfast we meet Miss Bianca and Miss Novia and about 8 other guests in the foyer. We were participating in an Indonesian cooking class today all free of charge from the hotel and the first business of the day was to go to the local markets to buy the ingredients for Indonesian fried rice. We were each given a recipe and were all charged with getting one item for the dish and would be enough to feed us all for lunch.. I was told I had to get shallots and Robbie had to get garlic. What they didn’t tell us was that we would be going to a market where they spoke no English and we would have to buy and barter for the ingredients in Indonesian. Oh dear, I was then wishing I had have paid more attention the day before in our language class or bought my cheat sheet with me.

Everyone was laughing this was going to be hilarious. Robbie paparazzi wanted to take pictures of the whole experience so he suggested that I buy both the garlic and the shallots. I thought that sounded like a good idea as he got some great shots of the markets in Thailand so I knew he was itching to do the same again in Bali.

So we all piled in the bus, again supplied by the hotel for free and off we went. Robbie and I sat down the back with Bianca and Novia and he had the girls in stitches of laughter he was talking to them in Indonesian and asking them how to say things.

We arrived at the fresh food market a short time later and we all got out of the van. Bianca and Novia gave us all some money for the ingredients and were laughing there heads off already they knew this was going to be funny. They had their little camara at the ready too . I was given 30,000 Rp
(about $3) for the shallots and garlic . OMG this was gonna be funny . 🙂

So Bianca and Novia lead us into the markets which were colourful and smelly and buzzing with excitement. The mission was on. I watched one of the others trying to buy cabbage it was hilarious. The next person had to buy salad oil, which turned out to be vegetable oil but they sell it too you in plastic bags so he had to work out how many teaspoons to get to feed us all. Then Novia said come on Miss Linda you buy the garlic and the shallots. She is a bossy little thing. As I have said earlier I am hopeless at bartering but doing in it Indonesian added another dimension of difficulty. Robbie had the camera ready to prove that I actually had a crack at it. I thought Novia would help but she didn’t she just giggled.

The store owner was pinching my hand as I was trying to ask how much for the ingredients I had to buy and the store owner was just laughing at me and saying something back in Indonesian. I just guessed that every time he pinched me he wanted more, it was a friendly pinch not a nasty one he had a big big smile. It was so funny. Everyone was having trouble but the store people were so good humoured and Bianca and Novia were laughing with them,or maybe they were all laughing at us !  I was picking out my shallots and a lady was next to me telling me what all the vegies were called in Indonesian. We couldn’t understand each other but it’s amazing what you can do with just a laugh and a smile. I don’t know how but I managed to get my part of the dish. Then we all were herded down to the back to get the chicken.

Oh My God , the chicken was just out on a bench no ice, no refrigeration and getting plucked on the spot and fresh and covered in flies. It was like salmonella just waiting to happen. Anyway the lady that had to barter for the chicken was nearly throwing up.She had a hanky over her nose. You don’t order it by the kilo you tell the chicken lady what you want and she gets a big cleaver out and chops it off for you before your eyes. Ewwww it was not appetising I can tell you !

We needed shrimp paste too but there was no way I was venturing into the fish section I was getting a small wiff of it as it was and it was not good. Robbie went in he said it was rank. Last thing we had to get was the eggs. These eggs were so fresh they were practically still warm. Everyone at the market were very happy and loved having their photos taken. So all ingredients were bought and it was time to head back to the hotel for the cooking demonstration.

So one of the chefs & her assistant from the hotel came out by the pool where a mini kitchen had been set up and got to work preparing all our ingredients for the fried rice. They made the chopping look like it was easy. They washed the chicken but I wasn’t convinced this was going to help anything. They got one of the guys to chop some cabbage up but he was hopeless. In no time flat probably about 5 minutes there was a wok full of friend rice with chicken for us all to eat . We were all worried about the chicken but thought what the hell we would have been eating chicken bought from the market already in other dishes so decided just to put the picture of the flies out of mind and the food was delicious we all went back for a second bowl.

I was talking to one of the other guests who was a seasoned visitor to Bali, she has been going there for 20 years and said she had never had Bali belly. She always brings a bottle of red cordial with her and has a glass each days as there is something in it, that kills the germs. So she suggested we try and get some if we were worried about the chicken and if we couldn’t get any red fanta does the trick as well. Good tip.

So we all sat and laughed and ate our rice took pictures and then head off in separate directions for the rest of the day in search of other adventures after thanking Bianca and Novia. We also thought we would look for some red cordial but that turned out something that was not possible,all the labels are in Indonesian, and what looked like cordial could have been tomato sauce so we gave up pretty easily. 🙂

We decided to go for a wander down the beach and the hustle and bustle of the streets and take some photos we were tourists after all.

The usual thing happened soon as we got on the beach we were immediately swooped on by all the beach vendors, massage, manicure, dress, hats you name it we got offered it. Well we decided to buy a couple hats ‘cos we had gotten a little bit sunburned the day before so we bought them and just wandered around takings pictures for a couple of hours. We looked like idiots in the hats what were we thinking? We also went into the Hard Rock Café and took some pictures inside there. Very impressive decor.

All this walking was making me thirsty so we decided to head back down onto the beach take one of the Bintang boys up on there offer for a nice cool beer in the shade on the beach. Once we sat down we gathered an entourage of new friends wanting to sell to us, massage us , braid the hair, paint the nails and no matter how many times I said no they just persisted. Anyway Robbie ended up getting his legs rubbed by a lady who looked 100 and he reckons it was the worst massage he had ever had. He just sat there taking pics, drinking beer and watching me and all my new friends.

I got chatting to Mary and Annie who were giving it their best shot to get me to buy some clothes from them and they told me all about their life, how poor they were etc. They both spoke great English and they had taught themselves just from working the beach. Annie said she had worked on the beach all her life and had been in the same spot on the beach for 30 years. She was selling sarongs and dresses as was Mary. Another girl sat quietly in the back ground with a bag of bracelets. They both worked 7 days a week on the beach, they both had kids and husbands but they told me how hard life was in Bali and that the government doesn’t help with schooling or anything so they have to work seven days to ensure their kids have a better life than them. We chatted and chatted and they asked about Australia and us and all the while continued to try and sell us stuff & just laughed at me saying no . I told them they should go find someone else to sell to as I wasn’t buying but they said it was a very slow day so they just sat and chatted and laughed with us. I think we ended up having about 6 beers and sat there for about 3 hours and they did not budge.

While we were sitting there a whole lot of teenager school kids came up to Robbie and asked if he would talk with them. They were students from Java and their teachers bring them down to the beach to practice English conversation as it is very important for them to be able to speak English. The biggest industry in Bali is tourism, therefore English is a good skill to have. The girls were so polite, they giggled and were nervous but just asked Robbie questions about Australia his life etc. He told them he was Mick Dundee and he was a crocodile wrestler in Australia they thought that was pretty good. They all wanted their photo taken with him too. After that another lot of kids came, same deal so this time he was Kevin Rudd ex Prime Minister of Australia and then another lot of kids came and he was Jimmy Barnes a famous Rock star in Australia. It was all fun and Annie and Mary and the quiet girl sat there through it all laughing along.

Then after 6 Bintangs it was time for me to go to the toilet so I said to Robbie we needed to go back to the hotel as I wasn’t going to use the ones on the beach. So after all that I bought two dresses off Mary and two sarongs of Annie how could I not, they had hung in there. It’s a lot of work to make about $12 each. I actually enjoyed their company and they had sat with us all that time laughing and joking. The quiet girl then said I haven’t annoyed you at all will you buy from me too so I got a couple of necklaces and some bracelets off her too. Then we all had a hug and took some photos with them and then I had to do the mad dash back to the hotel before I wet my pants. You’ll be happy to know I made it!

So we put all our purchases away and headed off for some more adventures. We were little bit merry from the Bintang! So we headed back down the beach to watch the sunset. Also saw a dog with a monkey on it’s back how bizarre! We ended up drinking with some young guys from Sumatra who had a guitar and they were singing songs to us while we drank more Bintang. Once the sun goes down all the vendors on the beach pack up and go home. There are no lights on the beach which is probably good or they would stay there all night I am sure.

So we decided then that we probably should eat so we went up Poppies lane looking for a feed. We ended up going up some stairs to an Italian restaurant as we heard some pretty alright music coming out of the place, When we got up there we had a drink and Robbie decided to get up and have dance on the dance floor … yeap on his own he had his dancing shoes on. He was pretty happy.

The band was good but there was no one in there so we didn’t stay. So off we went for a look for some food else where. When we got down the stairs Robbie got the offer for a massage from some girls that looked about 12, got offered Viagra and drugs from some shady looking boys , it’s all very out in the open, it’s very scary to think there would be horrible men out here that would take these poor girls up on the offer. I think even Robbie was horrified and he is a man of the world ! I got offered some more clothes and a manicure. I didn’t really think having ones nails done sitting in the gutter was very hygienic so I said a big no thank you to that!

We did run into a spot of bother though as the money was in Robbie’s pouch and his pouch had a combination lock on it but he had locked his glasses in the pouch and we are both so optically challenged that neither of us could see the numbers on the lock. Anyway Robbie bolted into a club as nature was calling him and there was a band playing and they were congratulating an Aussie couple of getting married, so I just started chatting to them and they were really nice and when Robbie came back we gave them the combo to the pouch and they got it open for us so we could get our money out and eat. It was hilarious. We ran into them a couple of times on the street after that and did the yahhhhh hello thing like they were our best friends.

So we had had a very eventful day and finally we had enough sense to head back to the hotel and go to sleep. We were even too tired to look at our days photos. Definitely had no trouble falling asleep that night.