Bali, Bugs and Bike’s

Not a great start to the day as we found a huge bug just outside our door but Claire is getting used to those now after watching “I’m a celebrity get me out of here”. We tried the hotel breakfast which was a little pricey but lovely, juice, fresh fruit, coffee, tea and bakery for the continental or add a fry up for the full. We settled for the continental and I had a lovely plate full of fruit while Claire swallowed her head ache pills. The funny speckled fruit is called a dragon jack fruit which I have never seen before but I know that Jack fruit is the biggest in the world.
We had a quick walk around the hotel galleria before heading into town to pick a bike up. We had originally decided to wait a couple of days before getting a bike but the hawkers are so bad and it’s easy to keep out of their way on a bike. I managed to find one for 50,000 Rupias (about £3.35) a day for 4 days. That’s not bad and was the cheapest I could find. While I was getting it we had a funeral procession come past the shop. Back to the hotel to drop off our bike and helmets before taking a walk North along the beach before it got too hot. The sand was very sharp as it had lots of corral in it which had broken down to sharp sand so we decided to walk along the promenade.

The trees are just like parasols with their branches spreading out and a thick layer of leaves covering the top. I suppose that the leaves maximise the sunshine whilst giving some protection from the heat to its branches and shades the roots so it doesn’t loose so much of its precious water. I have never known the sun so high and when I looked down at my shadow, I couldn’t see it; I had to have a look at Claire’s to see that her shadow was between her legs. We walked all the way to the end of the prom where some locals were having fun in the water before the long walk back in the mid day sun (mad dogs). There are quite a lot of hawkers along this route too and we had to promises to go back for several massages, boat trips and to look at peoples shop another day. I hope they are not too disappointed. We saw some fishermen up to their waist in water and all along the waves seem to be breaking further out which could be a reef maybe?

We set off on the bike but Claire was very frightened with the heavy traffic and we soon abandoned our venture for this day. Tomorrow Claire can sunbathe while I head out to find my way around first before collecting Claire. There seem to be very few signs and lots of junctions and road decisions; nothing like the map I have in the small tourist book. It looks like there is a coastal road all around the island which I thought would be easy to negotiate wrongly. We managed to find our way back and stopped for lunch at the extreme south end of the town where we tried two local dishes. That’s how lost we got; we headed off to the north of town and found our way back from the south. Claire had a chicken dish that was cooked in a sweet soy sauce with vegetables and white rice while I tried the Balinese favourite Nasi Goreng which is fried rice with meat vegetables and prawns all served up with a fried egg and a big fishy crisp on top. It looked alright, but wished I had the chicken. Balinese food seems to be a mixture of South Indian, Malaysian and Chinese which comes together with sweetness to it and I’m not sure yet if it works.

In the evening we started the night out across the road at JJ’s and thought we would have a walk along the prom and have a drink with a sea view. Having walked to the south and back to the north there was very little that took our fancy so we came back to the main road and had our last drink in Kafe Aladin where we spoke to big John, the owner from Perth at the bar.