Tuesday – started the day with our smorgasbord breaky yummo this  was included in our accommodation price everyday,  all you can eat  fresh omelettes pancakes and eggs cooked to your specifications, fruit salads, pastries bacon sausage all sorts of Indonesian, Western  and Asian food you name it , it’s there and magic coffee/tea cups that never get empty ! I was destined to live this life! 🙂

This was our first full day of exploring and we decided that it was a good idea to not rush off sight seeing into the country but to get a feel for Kuta as this was going to be our home for the next 2 weeks.

The grounds of our hotel were very lush and tropical and being inside the resort it feels like you could be in a secluded resort anywhere in the world you would never guess busy Kuta was just out side the door.  The gardens are immaculate and we even saw a guy down cutting the grass with scissors. Same dude also replanted a whole area on lawn one blade of grass at a time  in a morning, unbelievable and true I promise!  Everything in that Bali garden grows well in our back yard back home but you would need a little man that’s whole purpose in life is to keep it manicured to perfection to have ours look like that.  It’s definitely a full time job so we will just have to be contented with our natural jungle theme we have happening.

Our hotel was located across the road from Kuta beach so the logical place to start exploring just had to be the beach.  We made our way through all the guys offering ‘transport’ cars for the day or motor bikes. They just all hang around the beach road waiting for the tourists and there is definitely no shortage of transportation in Kuta, and it is all so cheap. Even the drivers barter with you for their services.

Today we didn’t need any transport as we had the old foot falcons out!  So we headed for the beach, Robbie had to hold my hand to cross the road, you have to be brave and just walk out into the traffic no pedestrian crossings around and no-one takes notice of them if there are but the cars and bikes just go around you or stop and wait as they are travelling really slow and they are all patient . The deal is everyone shares the road.  Still it was hard for me to just walk out into it, where as Robbie has no fear.

As soon as we got onto the beach we walked straight into a movie scene being shot. We couldn’t understand what was being said but the actors were obviously a husband and wife coming to the beach and the wife had the shits big time. She plonked into a sun lounge and put a bottle of water on her head to cool down. Obviously not happy Jan !  Typical husband wife type scenario! Anyway they had to do a couple of takes of that scene so we hung around. Wish I knew what it was as I reckon we were in shot! Movie stars now too!  Linda and Robbie do Bali! Hehehe.

The people of Bali are very religious and they make their offerings to the Hindu gods everywhere, they make little trays from palm fronds and offer up food, drink, flowers cigarettes all sorts of things but they are everywhere on the beach, in the middle of the road, in taxi’s, outside shops you name it they are  just everywhere. They all have incense with them too so the whole of Bali is fragrant which is good as the pollution from all the motor bikes and cars is pretty full on but you just get used to it.

There are sun lounges and drinks available for purchase everywhere along the beach there is no shortage of people wishing to welcome you to their area of the beach and look after you.

We saw one lady down on the beach screaming for help as she was totally surrounded by women trying to sell her stuff, massage her or paint her nails. It was pretty funny. She was screaming for help but laughing they were all laughing and her companion just continued lying in the sun so she wasn’t really in trouble just over whelmed I think.

I thought it was very funny and then I became the target, not so funny then,(but really it was ) had my first crack at bartering for a dress that I had no desire to buy. I was cajoled  into buying it to make the woman lucky as it was her first sale of the day.  This lady was a very skilled sales woman, but they need to be to survive as the government doesn’t offer any support to families like they do here. You are on your own there and if you don’t get off your arse and work in Bali you go hungry.   It is very humbling though and I must say I feel like I have been very privileged to have grown up in Australia, we should be appreciative of all that we have. So even though I didn’t want it I ended up making the sales lady lucky and  thought that once I bought it that would be the end of that but it doesn’t work that way, then everyone was chasing me to buy from them & make them lucky. Hehehehe,  I ended up buying the dress for about $5 but still I didn’t want it.

After about an hour of being offered everything under the sun to buy we headed back up on the road to get a bit of rest from the hawkers. They weren’t really horrible it was all in good humour but just needed a break for awhile. It was fun though, we laughed a lot.

We went to check out Hard Rock café and took the obligatory pictures of the big guitar but  had to wait our turn as everyone was snapping away.

Even on the road everywhere you look there is stuff being sold or delivered. Delivery methods range from trucks full to the brim with Bintang (beer), to ladies with baskets of fruit, sarongs, eggs you name it on their heads. These people have amazing balance. One day I even saw a couple of women carrying besser bricks on their heads into a building site. Unreal ! Carts drawn by men is also another method of transport of goods, saw many people pulling carts of everything from plants to large wooden doors. This is a very poor country so many people don’t even own a motor bike and a car is only owned by people in business or the wealthy. Anyone driving a car or taxi is usually working for someone else just as the driver and they give most of their wage to their boss.

After wandering the streets for awhile we got thirsty so headed back down to the beach for a refreshing Bintang from one of the many esky’s that line the beach. The people that look after the drinks are there to offer you a nice seat in the shade while you have your drink. They never hurry you along and always wait till you ask for that next drink but they are always cold. This is the life I tell ya!

Then we went to the art and craft markets on the beach and checked out some sort of temple thing it didn’t look very old but still very impressive and good photo opportunities to be had.

Next it was into an alley full of market stalls OMG how the hell will I ever decide what I am going to buy? Everyone was calling me into their little shop ‘free to look’ they all said but it is always hard to get out without buying anything. Once you ask the price of something they have you and it is very hard not to buy then. The trick is not engaging in the bartering unless you want it. I was absolutely hopeless at getting away from people they were experts and keeping me engaged and somehow I always ended up getting myself drawn in, then you feel like you have to buy. Thank god for Robbie he was able to make jokes and save me from buying stuff from every lady in Bali.

We then went up through Kuta Square and ended up at Jl Legion. More shops motor bikes, traffic, traffic, traffic and more traffic everything is like a heaving mass of metal it just does not stop.

Time for some lunch and a cool drink. I drank so much water over there I was always thirsty. (bottled of course). We found a nice little place to eat so we could sit and just watch  madness. After lunch Robbie went over the road and took some photos of the Bali bombing memorial I didn’t want to read it as I thought I would get too sad or paranoid so just waited for Robbie to get back and watched on from the opposite side of the road. When you see the crazy busy street that this happened on its no wonder so many people got hurt or died in the bombing. So tragic.  Security is an issue all cars get checked entering hotels and people are also checked entering many places frequented by westerners or large crowds of tourists.

We headed back up Poppies Lane and so many stalls, stuff everywhere, everyone wanting us to buy, buy, buy. In the middle of Poppies there was an offering area sorta small temple arrangement on the corner where all the local stall owners had made their offerings for a successful day at work. Very pretty and fragrant, lots of beautiful woven baskets in there containing the offering as well as many of the smaller ones made out of palm fronds.

We headed back to the beach, very thirsty again it is a very thirsty sort of place, LOL and on the hunt for another Bintang. We found a comfy chair and sat down hadn’t even finished my first sip and I had a new friend Lisa wanting to sell me some bracelets, again I didn’t want any but ended up buying ten which was crazy as I didn’t even want one and I ended up with ten for luck of course ! LOL We also had many others trying to sell us stuff, knives, bow and arrow, blow guns, fruit, clothes jewellery, ice cream (helicopter- that was joke but was offered). Had many women also offering to massage, manicure and braid hair. Thank heavens I had my hair cut before I left as I know I would have ended up braided for sure. They still had a crack at it but I  managed to escape that, it would have even looked more ridiculous on my newly short hair but they were happy to braid it never the less. Lots of middle aged women like me had there hair braided and it just looked tragic. We also got away without buying a single item of clothing with Bingtang written on it. So no braids and no Bingtang which means we aren’t bogans as apparently the way to spot a bogan in Bali is braided hair on the chicks and Bintang on the blokes. Hehehe glad I am not a bogan !

Ended the days adventure with a visit from a friendly squirrel in the big fig tree in the hotel grounds. So cute and a lot smaller than I expected they would be. Pretty big day day out which was finished off with some lovely Indonesian food in a local restaurant in Legion.