Movies and rain

Well last few days have been very quiet for us both…. Mr porcelain and I become close friends and Diatabs my constant companion… We watched a Steven Segal marathon yesterday…..every one of his action movies one after the other…..and we both enjoyed it..Finally on Monday it seemed it had finally ran it full course and I began to feel better….I managed three small meals today… And one of them was at a local warung in the back streets near our hotel..but very clean and well maintained .. Freshly steamed rice, omelet with vegetables and an ice tea for me… Rice, Egg with chilli sauce …,corn fritters, fried chicken, veggies in some type of oyster sauce and a Sprite for Brad….total price $3.60 Aussie….and it was delicious. The rain had been heavy off and on all day…just as we head off we get 15 meters and end up sitting in someone’s under croft in their big flower pot full of sand no plants watching the rain and we have needed a canoe at times to go out…but it’s been fun.. Went to a local supermarket…WOW… There was everything under one roof…from fresh food right through to office supplies….there was even two KIDZONES a shop but enclosed with kids play equipment in there… One was a game centre like time zone area with arcade games, pinball machines, kids rides, wack a mole type games ( except you whacked mice and avoided the cats) and other ” win tickets for Prizes” games…..the other was an area you paid a set price per child and there was ball pits, jungle gym, trampolines, swings and other play equipment for their amusement.. I had a ball..lol…
On our way back from lunch I saw a poor rat on the side of the road…drowned….so to recover my brain I said to Brad ….I am going to look at the pretty dresses at this tailors… Well that tailor should thank that poor drowned rat….not only did I look … I brought 4 … All are very bright and pretty floaty maxi dress type ones…. It began to bucket with rain….so we sat at his shop and waited.. The road was very flooded…even the taxis and bikes had troubles getting through it…..but it was fun.. Quite abit of construction going on in the area….and traffic is insane..the hotel staff say it will take until the 5th of January to get back to normal…due to the coinciding Bali National Holidays and Christmas/new year periods….. Not only are there high tourist numbers but high numbers of locals on holiday too. For dinner we went to the restaurant on the corner …Warung Segarr where we both had soup… Brads was seafood noodle and I got a Chinese style one…. It was nice…it had salted sliced beef in it and heaps of Chinese vegetables… A bit to salty for my taste.

Today (Tuesday ) we went to Kerobokan to a shop called Geneva, they stock local items Bintang clothing tissue box covers oil burners etc to old antiques from around Indonesia. Brad went wandering around as there is 4 floors and left me out the back with the staff in a door way with a awesome breeze coming in as air conditioning was not good. He then returned with 2 wicker baskets that he found on top of a shelf still in plastic but looking like they been there for years and brought them both . We showed to hotel staff and they said very old and pretty how much 139000 Rp about $14 au they say good price . Then as we got to our room we got a call …skirts are ready can you come now … so away we go again …we pick them up very happy well made double stitched and made to length so I am happy. So now we have just had tea and shower and sitting watching tv and updating you all on what is happening.
Hugs to all happy new year and a happy birthday to miss lawson hugs it is not a easy one for you so sorry about the passing of Mo she will be missed meowwwww from Koko
Hugs Brad and Kayleen

Merry Christmas and More

Have been unwell last few days…and iPad has been playing up…. So only just got around to posting this

CHRISTMAS DAY
We woke up fairly early to a full on thunderstorm…it was awesome just laying there watching the rain through the open door..it was nice and cool too…hotel laneway flooded within minutes…you could hear the motorbikes splashing through the water and hear the kids next door playing. Later we got up for breakfast and Brad got his plate of crispy bacon to go with his eggs…as I was still recovering from the tooth I only had fruit and croissants. I was supposed to get a massage at the hotel…but the rain made traffic so bad the girls didn’t get to work until 11am and we had to leave then for the Dynasty Hotel. The Dynasty is very nice…quite big and has everything at your doorstep..mini mart…hairdressers…spa…circus club for the kids…golf…and more…LUXURIOUS….. It was nice… But I don’t think we would really enjoy it for a full holiday…too boring…
There was a small mixup with the lunch venue…she told us we where booked for H2O ( the poolside restaurant) and gave us the tickets for SENSES ( one of the indoor restaurant) so we where a little confused…we had our welcome drink ( champagne and OJ) and then we showed the staff the tickets…they checked their seating plans and said no…you must go to other one… I wish we had known about H2O being the poolside bar/restaurant as it was open air…not aircon…and hot… The buffet was not quite as we expected… The food was mostly ok…but the prawns where already peeled and not cold…OK they where festively arranged around a pineapple Christmas Palm tree…but the where soggy and soft…and in hindsight I think the smoked salmon was not quite right either..none of the cold things where really cold as they where sitting in the humid warm open air… The hot foods where piping hot…the Turkey was nice… Brad found the Ham to be very bland…I tried the poached barramundi…it was delicious…just simply done in a butter and lemon sauce. Free flow soft drinks was good..they where attentive in their service of that…and I got a nice strawberry daiquiri. The desserts where a little bit of a disappointment… We thought there might be cakes similar to the ones we saw at the in house bakery ( pic below) But there wasn’t..it was mini soggy pavlovas…with fruit that I am sure you could make moonshine from it was so fermented…some sad looking fruit cake…cookies that tasted nice according to Brad but where too hard for me to eat…and some tropical fruit platters that looked like they had been made a week ago. The highlight of the day was Santa and his elves arrival… a skinny Indonesian Santa and two rather obscure dwarves as elves…but the kids where happy…they all got a toy each…and the adults got a present too…a bag of cookies… I felt too hot and too sick to really appreciate it. We came back to the hotel…and walked down the laneway…I stopped to look at some small sausage shaped packages on strings I had seen everywhere…I asked the lady what they where…she cut it open and said … DUDOL…you eat very sweet… I had seen these in KL..sweet bean paste or similar… Stupidly I tasted it..it was indeed very sweet and syrupy… Of course because she cut it open and I tasted it I had to buy it…only 2000RP ( 20cents) for one ….the string of them ( about 100) was 50,000 ($5) As lunch had been such a nonevent we decided to book the Christmas Dinner set menu at a Bar we had read about Lilzbah…and we invited our friends Kylee, Jason, Ana and Ali… By the time we got to Lilzbah I felt so unwell, assuming it was still the effects of the dental work I opted for two plain boiled eggs instead of the Christmas Dinner…which according to everyone was probably for the best as it wasn’t that great… salty ham… garlicky entrees, hard veggies…desert was chocolate mousse…which was obviously a packet instant mix type as it was grainy and dry ( I had that as it was soft) So Christmas Day was a it hit and miss…we got to see our friends and had a reasonably good time..just not as good as we expected.

CHRISTMAS NIGHT AND THE NEXT FEW DAYS
Well I think that the salmon might of been turning, or something ( again in hindsight I think it was the local DUDOL sweet) As I was violently ill all night…poor Brad got a wake up call at 4.30am… I took two Diatabs and seemed to settle…but all the next day ( Friday) I was ill…Brad was a very good nurse…he kept me company… fussed over me and kept the supply of water and Diatabs up… We watched a couple of really old obscure movies on MGM… one was called Martins Day… Prison escapee kidnaps a boy ( who turns out to be a very unhappy boy with no dad and a bad mum) and over the span of the movie they become friends…and hold up a train, a toy shop, and several other people ….and because he loves the boy he gives himself up at the end . For dinner Brad went to local satay lady…and got himself some satay sticks… Oh this meant going out in the pouring rain…lol… But he succeeded…he took cover in the family compound next door meeting the family… their 3 cats (Kuching) …and the kittens…

Today ( Saturday)
Woken up again by rain…I had a full night sleep with only one visit to the loo.. But I woke up feeling better in some ways..but very sore mouth…sore muscles and overall very washed out…so we watched an early morning movie…then went back to sleep…breakfast was buffet style today as it is the second most important Holiday Kuningan ( when the departed family members accent back to heaven ) Brad got his bacon cooked to order again…and I stuck to black tea and fruit. We went out to try to find my skirts at some of the places listed on a website of ” plus size clothing store.” after finding two of them no longer in business we decided to ” bite the bullet” and go to Bali Black Orchid to get them made to measure… Not as expensive as we first thought…$30each…they will be ready in a few days. We went to a Cafe for Lunch…BRAD had a nice mixed meat platter and I had a fresh crusty roll with grilled chicken and salad in it…no issues at first…but by the time we had walked along the road a good distance…caught a taxi and walked around Discovery Mall a little and got three photos enlarged and printed on canvas we both felt unwell…so we jumped into a taxi..who took advantage of the fact that we both looked unwell and charged us an grossly inflated price…

We have just had local satay from the lady with steamed rice from the hotel restaurant…they have a new acoustic entertainer playing tonight…he is playing to a empty room…he sounds bad…

‘Twas the Night Before Christmas

Well today is Christmas eve…and it has been a very quiet day for us. Yesterday I had my tooth looked at by the dentist. We had contacted her on Monday night via her Facebook page…..and she rang and spoke to me at great length….she was very concerned advising me I needed to see her immediately…She booked me in for 11am Tuesday and said her driver would pick us up. The clinic was in Kerobokan…it looked like she worked from home…very clean….very professional looking..and awesome modem top of the range equipment oh and everything was a lovely shade of purple…even the uniforms. She appeared to be American born as she had a American accent, and her partner ( and fellow dentist) was Baliense. She quickly assessed my teeth…and I was given my choices…Root canal or extraction…as most of the tooth was gone I felt it was easier to go with extraction..She did a scale and clean…which was painless as she used water jet and pressurised air to do it… Then her partner began the extraction..assuring me it would take no more than 5 minutes… Well you know me..don’t do things by halves.. I think it took a total of 45 mins possibly 1 hour…won’t bore you with all the details…but it was an ordeal…plenty of pain relief… But it took all his knowledge to extract it… They where very supportive and took it slowly to ensure he got it all out. The extraction,X-rays, scale and clean and all the medications..including a tablet at the end that was pain relief and mild anti anxiety combo one…..cost $60 AUS… I get free follow up too if needed during the rest of the trip. The driver even stopped in on the way back for Brad to get food as he was starving. We got back to hotel for about 2.30… So the rest of the day for me was spent either sleeping or sitting on the steps in the shallow part of the pool.. Our freinds Kylee and Jason and the two girls came and spent time with me while Brad went out to meet our other freinds Sue and Aaron for dinner.
Today we just went by taxi to local Shopping Commplex called SuperNova… Brad shopped while I sat talking to a lovely father and his children shopping for toys. Brad got a Nasi Goreng Ayam from the food court there local 12000 Rp $1.20 aust..it was freshly made, basic but tasty… We wandered along the road looking at the local shops… And then got a taxi back to hotel…. By now the events of yesterday caught up with me…and I had a nap for 2 hours while Brad went to try to get his phone recharged. I woke up feeling very unwell…I think all the blood and tooth debis and the Anaesthetics had made me unwell…so we stayed in the room and Brad ordered room service. I will stick to coconut juice and plain food for tonight…..hopefully I will be OK for tomorrow’s Christmmas Lunch..

SO TO EVERYONE WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS…MUCH LOVE TO YOU ALL

Latest from us

Firstly my IPad has gone haywire…typing the letter M like a deranged possessed madman…So I will give you all a rather brief summary of the activities of the last few days

* Today we meet with one set of friends Aaron and Sue at a lovely Cafe called Biku for breakfast…all sorts of delicious delights…and a tea lovers heaven… The menu for the teas was three times as long as the food menu… I finally chose Rosebud Assam… Which came in a very English rose patterned China teapot with a proper cup and saucer, silver spoon,milk jug,sugar bowl and silver strainer. Because they where staying in Jimbarain bay with some very posh friends and felt very out of place they wanted us to show them some of the local supermarkets,markets and help them to buy some stuff like sunnies and clothing. We brought them back to our hotel for lunch…they loved it…they think they will stay here in future.

* Yesterday Brad went on a baby cobra release…he had fun and enjoyed himself immensely. I spent the day with our friends Kylee,Jason, their stepdaughter Ana and her friend Ali going all over Kuta getting all the stuff they wanted like cheap tops,Nike Airs, canvas prints etc… I did all the bartering for them..and I am proud to say I got then some really good bargains. I invited them back to use our pool as their hotel is not what it seemed on the outside ( no spa, pool is unsafe, dirty room, leaking aircon and more issues) The manager here at Manggar tried to find a room for them here, but they only had the more expensive ones left so Kylee and Jason couldn’t change….they too said they will book here in future.

* Have mostly had good taxi drivers except for 3… One didn’t turn up as arranged for a days driving… One seemed to be training as a kamikaze pilot as he drove his taxi like he stole it ( went down the narrow laneway scraping his side mirror down the wall taking out a motorbike and bouncing off several walls)The third bad taxi driver locked brad in. The taxi last night that brad was coming back from Cobras in refused to let him out saying ” I have no change” Hen brad suggested he drive him to the police station to sort it out the taxi driver found his change bag
* Had awesome chilli crab and snapper at Batan Waru. It was their opening night so it was really special being there.

* Waded up and down our little laneway a few times in the rain…it rains most afternoons.

* Looked EVERWHERE for skirts for me… At the moment the ” In thing” is wide leg harem pants or strapless maxi dresses. If I can find skirts they aren’t big enough in the waist.

* RELAXED ALOT AND JUST CHILLED OUT…we even had a few afternoon naps, and watched some movies on TV.

Photos are…
walking in the Rain
Rain pouring down
Octo and Pete at Biku
The boys in a Taxi
Albino Python(Brads new Women )
Luwak that was fed only fruit and is now blind as it wasn’t the correct diet…so it is living a Life of Safety and comfort with the reptile park
Various photos from brads trip around Tabanan and the North if Bali

Will try to do a blog every so often..

RAIN, CEREMONIES AND 60 SHADES OF GREY

It has been a quiet few days as Bali is currently celebrating it most important 3 days plus of ceremonies and holidays Raya Galungan… All the families get together at the ” home village”.., and await the return of the ” deceased relatives” who must be suitably welcomed with gifts, offerings, and other ceremonies. Wednesday was the ” important day” and Bali was extremely quiet…hardly anyone on the streets…If Nepyi Day is their ” 3 day of silence” then Galungan is their 3 days of…going mental… The shops where full to the brim with families and as the Children are the most revered there was TOYS AND MORE TOYS.It is also the time that families seem to make significant purchases as there was specials on ” big ticket” items like Washing machines,televisions, white goods and more. Because it is the day you have all the family members getting together there is specials on food items too…like 50 kg bags of rice, garlic, washing powder, spices and pet food too. We brought a water cooler for the bench…it does both chilled and hot water. Unfortunately because most of the Balinese are not working due to family commitments, and because it is seen as a holiday…the taxis that are working seemed to think they could get away with dodgy things like… Driving in circles…and when you point this out..oh sorry I thought you meant XYZ shop…or meter shows 30,000 but they say…oh no 50,000 minimum as holiday. We have had several thunderstorms with heavy downpours…. so if we want to go out we just wait until the rain passes and then take off our shoes and wade through the water to the end of the laneway and get a taxi. Wednesday night we went to a restaurant we had seen excellent reviews for…De Bali… Not sure if it was a bad night for the cook or because of it being holiday season but the experience was not a good one…service was excellent…but the food left much to be desired… The mixed sates where stone cold.. And brads ” prawn curry ” was 4 small unpeeled prawns swimming in a sea of mediocre curry sauce with a few veggies. My Ikan pepes ( fish steamed in banana leaf) was woeful… It was supposed to be whole fish in banana leaf… I got tiny cubes of fish swimming in chilli tomato mixture… The rice that came with both the meals ( sate and fish) was a very small dried out mound… We did leave them a neutral feedback…as the food wasn’t horrible…just not what it was expected to be…and certainly not worth the prices.Thursday was their ” Boxing Day”…. It was chaos… People everywhere…crowds and confusion…very hectic. We tried to see a movie TWICE… The webpage showed it being on at one cinema…sorry season finished…went to another cinema… Sorry not on… So we did a little bit of shopping… And Brad lined up for 1 hour to go through checkout. Overall it has been a very fun and enjoyable experience… It is so nice seeing everyone in their ” holiday best” clothes, the streets are decorated with bright flowers and ribbons and so many bamboo poles with intricate woven decorations on them. We went to CIMB and found Octo had a long lost brother…Pilot Pete.We went to Bali beach shack for tea last night and picked up the now empty suitcase..we brought over supplies for the bar and restaurants…. And brad found a clothing shop that was fixed price, and could ” make to order”… He got 3 nice polo shirts for about $7AUS each and I looked at the skirts as they where only 50,000 RP… He only had black in my size…and didn’t have time to be able to make anything else up…so I didn’t get any.. Today we where supposed to meet with a taxi driver we had spoken to on Monday and arranged to pick us up at hotel for 10am…by 10.45 he hadn’t shown so we found another one… And we then went to Love to Kiss for skirts and dresses… They said they had too many orders to make me dresses to measure…so I just got a few skirts and a large floaty top/kaftan coverup dress. Currently ( 1.30pm) taxi driver and I are sitting in the carpark under some trees while Brad does the shopping in Lotte Mart. ( wholesale lots) it has been a pleasant day…the taxi driver speaks good English, and is very friendly. Later tonight we have a booking for dinner at Bartan Waru a restaurant near Lippo Mall….it is rumoured to have the best Chilli Crab/Fish/Squid at good prices…so Brad is looking forward to that.The stores-people here in Tuban are not as pushy as the ones in Kuta…they ask once politely..do you want ?…if you say no politely they don’t hassle you out. Our hotel has been really good…a few minor issues as is to be expected with Bali…mainly to do with our shower drain being around the corner from the shower recess… So the water technically floods the floor in front of the toilet…but we fixed that… MR SQUEEGEE…. oh and the toilet seat keeps coming loose…but no big issue.
60 SHADES OF GREY- no this is not the racy sequel to the infamous 50 Shades books… But our TV.. we had 60 channels of fuzzy buzzy reception…except for a cartoon channel and the local one… Until MR BRAD TO THE RESCUE… brought a new TV aerial cable…. All good now..
Photos are
Hotel pool..we are 2 steps away
Santas village at Lippo Mall
Pilot Pete Christmas shopping at Bali Mall Galleria
Fresh fish at one of the resturant near us…so fresh they still swimming
Penjor Decoration…there is a long bamboo pole above this with a palm leaf decoration hanging down.. Very pretty e picture doesn’t do it full justice.

DEPARTURES, ARRIVALS AND MORE

SUNDAY
We boarded with no issues, but the takeoff was a really bad one…either the crosswinds where bad or the pilot was doing more than steering the plane as we weaved around a lot, shuddered and rocked and rolled our way up into the sky. The plane was really only half full…and the trip was pretty uneventful except for a crazy, cooped up in the one place hyperactive husband…who threw Pringles or red frogs at his wife for entertainment… That was when he wasn’t drawing happy faces on the back of the cardboard seat advertising flyers and sticking them back in…poor cleaners and hostesses…I wonder what they will think.

The landing at Nygah Rah airport was just as interesting as the takeoff… I think the pilot is going to need more practice on takeoffs and landings…and we disembarked relatively easily… We had to use metal staircase…but staff assisted…and we where transferred onto a bus to go the short distance across the Tarmac to the airport buildings… .but that was okay too. The new airport is huge, and very well presented…and air conditioned. Plenty of staff to assist you and point you in the right direction. So glad we paid our Visa before leaving Australia as it saved a huge amount of time. Unfortunately due to either our plane being 10 minutes ahead of scheduled arrival time, or the handlers being somewhat haphazard the luggage collection was a chaotic mess… First the display board showed our flight number and some of the Air Asia baggage came along…then a whole lot of baggage from Jetstar came…the display changed to the Jetstar flight number and then suddenly…more Air Asia baggage… We got two of our cases after about 40 mins… Then stood there watching bags go round and round…until there was only a few on the carousel and no more coming down the chute… Just when we thought we had lost our ” most important one with the medications in it” the bag appeared…. It was now well after 6pm so we found our driver and made our way to the Hotel.

The Manggar is very nice…. Surprisingly ( for Bali) it looks exactly like the pictures on the website. Our room is about 2 small steps away from the pool. The restaurant is small but immaculate, and the staff are very nice, helpful and friendly. We headed straight out to get the essentials like water, toiletries and dinner ( As it was now 7pm) We walked the short distance to the new Lippo Mall…awesome… It is all decorated for Christmas and looks very nice…there is quite a number of stores there, and many more to come. We did our shopping and loaded up the trolley, having spoken to the mall security about us taking the trolley back to our hotel and then returning it. The poor trolley boy at the exit almost had a panic attack when we walked out of the exit and into the footpath…I think he thought we where stealing it… When we explained what we where doing he only got more frantic… I think he was thinking …oh man it’s his job to look after the trolleys so what do I do..follow them… Well follow us he did…most of way back he shadowed us closely… We stopped at the junction in the road where the small ” gang” that our Hotel is at the end of and Brad got our shipping out and gave him some money, thanking him for helping us. We went to the warung that is right on the corner…Warung Segarr… It has fantastic food… Brad got his spicy seafood/vegetable omelette thing…and I got Salted Fish Rice…very fresh and very tasty…. The omelette was light and fluffy and
” stuffed” with fresh seafood…brad enjoyed it immensely. We got back to the room and changed for a quick dip in the pool…then fell exhausted into bed.

MONDAY
Brad got up slightly early and went on a quick recon mission around the local area… I had breakfast…there is a really good choice… American, Continental , Indonesian or Breakfast sandwich of your choice. I chose the American, and got a small fruit platter 2 boiled eggs OJ, Tea and 2 slices of ” warm bread” ( it wasn’t toast). Went to Bali Galleria and Hypermart and had a look at the various shops got a few items, including SIM cards for phone/IPads and a new purse for me… The crowds are no where as near as big as before. The weather was extremely humid and very dark skies…and we had just got back to hotel when there was a very sudden thunderstorm with heavy downpour of rain… This cooled things off abit … The road was flooded within minutes. Later on we went by taxi to drop off the stuff ( marshmallows, cheese twisties, Cadbury chocolates for our friends… They are helping their friend to improve her bar…. It’s called ” Swish Bar” and is a few doors up from theirs ( Bali Beach Shack )…. So we had a nice meal there and listened to the band… We didn’t stay for the Drag show as both of us where quite tired…. We walked back along the road abit to get a taxi.. The vendors in Kuta are still annoying, something that we noticed is not present in the Tuban area… Brad did get himself a nice pair of thongs… Because the taxis have trouble getting into our little gang we walked the short distance in..dodging puddles as we went. I had a very bad night… Something had decided to have a fight with my insides and a small amount of dehydration probably contributed to it…

TUESDAY
As I was unwell Brad got up early to go out alone to find a laundromat…and discovered Octo the octopus had stowed away on this trip…. So he got some photos of Octo enjoying the pool. I stayed in the room to recover. Because today is the first day of three days that form the most “important” holiday there was hardly any traffic, taxis or restirants and stores open. Only the really big ones like Discovery Mall , KFC, Maccas etc where open as usual. The holiday is Hair Raya Galungan. Info from a website says this – This is the most important holiday symbolizing the victory of Virtue (Dharma) upon Evil (Adharma). The holiday is specialized by the fitting of ‘penjor’, a tall bamboo pole splendidly decorated with woven young coconut leaves, fruit, cakes and flowers, on the right side of every house entrance. People are attired in their finest clothes and jewels, and many go to their home village for ceremonies and celebrations. So it will be a quiet 3 days for us.

Its almost time to go again

For anyone following our blog that wants to get updates this time… It’s almost time again for us to head off on our annual sojourn to ” The Island of the Gods” BALI…. Sunday 14th December is our departure date.

I will try to post each day…and promise there will be plenty of pictures.