Bali - The bad luck continues.

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8th December 2010

We awoke at about 9am which wasn’t too bad considering the late night that we had. We were both a little dry of mouth from the drinks the night before but it was a beautiful Bali morning and we had things to do.

We headed out into the heat and blazing sun, without a thought for anything but breakfast, which we located a little way up the main street to the North. A “farmer’s breakfast” for each of us (the re-fried boiled potatoes with bacon and eggs mixed in brekkie I had had in Langkawi). That done, we both felt a little more human and were really glad to note we had arrived in yet another place where there was a ceremony taking place that meant half the place was shut. We have such quality timing it is unbelievable!

Lou was still feeling bad from yesterday’s events and things weren’t improving as she kept stumbling on the uneven roads and pavements. This resulted in her bashing her toe a few more times, re-opening the cut from the night before. This necessitated another stop in a mini-mart to buy some fresh water and a plaster or two to prevent any of the Bali detritus getting into it.

This mission accomplished we continued on our walk North in the direction of the various Yoga studios we had located online. We knew that they were in Seminyak, a place north of Kuta, but on the same road. We had assumed that it wouldn’t be a major problem to find them, but as we didn’t have internet in the hotel, it had been a while since we had checked the locations and we were going by memory.

The sun was getting hotter and we didn’t have any sunscreen on, so we had been doing our best to stay in the shade on the one side of the road, but it isn’t easy when the mopeds use the pavement as an alternative road when the traffic is busy.

We did eventually find a place but it was the most expensive of the places we had identified so, although we logged the knowledge in the data banks and took some more info on their schedule etc, neither of us was really believing this would be the place.

So we continued onward. We had been walking now in the heat, with a very mild hangover for about 3 hours, and so eventually we conceded defeat, and got in a taxi back to Kuta. The taxi’s aircon was a blissful relief from the heat, although on entering the taxi Lou banged her head, her day wasn’t getting any better. Although the taxi didn’t take the same route back as we had walked due to the one-way system, I did check the distance, and when we were dropped off he had driven us just over 5km, no wonder we were feeling a bit tired.

We headed back to the hotel for a dip in the pool and to cool down. The hotel was far busier than when we were last here, despite it now being the rainy season. As such the slick of oily sunscreen on the surface of the pool made it far less of an appealing place to wile away a few hours. So we headed back out fairly quickly feeling refreshed for the cool dip nonetheless.

We needed some more food, as by now it was nearly 4pm, and the excursions of the day had eaten through breakfast. We found a local warung (café) with some cheap food, where there were some expat aussies chewing the fat in the very loud way that aussies do.

From here, we decided to find somewhere to hire a car as we wanted to move on tomorrow, and we certainly needed transport ot help us find more Yoga studios. So we headed in the direction of a place I remembered from our last visit. When we got there we asked for a cheap hire car and as the cars were located at a parking lot up the road Lou headed back to the room whilst I got a lift there on the back of a bike from one of the guys who worked at the place.

We arrived and I checked over the first car and had to refuse it because the passenger door lock was so poor that any key would open it. So after I explained this I was given a larger vehicle. This was all well and good but we didn’t need it and it would no doubt drink more fuel. Speaking of which, as with all rental agreements, I had to return the car with as much fuel as was in it at the time of hire. I had a joke with the guy that as it was registering empty as long as I got it back there it would be OK.

With that, I headed into the one way system armed with a rental agreement and the car. The last thing I had been told was, if I had any problems with the car to call the number at the top of the rental agreement. All well and good but we aren’t travelling with a phone.

Anyway I wasn’t planning on needing the number, so it wouldn’t matter. About half way down Jalan Legian, the main street that runs through Kuta, the jeep started to have an attack of kangaroo juice, jumping about. I dropped the clutch and it seemed OK again so I moved forward a bit and then the same thing happened. This time the engine conked out, luckily I had dropped the clutch once more and had just enough momentum to pull in a little. Even luckier was that I was at a point where there was a gap in the endless number of parked bikes.

It was a short jog back to the office from where I was so I headed back to complain, an empty fuel tank is one thing, but so little petrol that you can’t get to the nearest petrol station is another.

Anyway after a laugh the guy phoned his mate who returned on his moped and gave me a lift part way back whilst he headed off to get some petrol. I made it back to the car and he arrived shortly after with two 1.5litre plastic water bottles full of fuel. From previous experience this is pretty normal practice over here but if you haven’t been before it is a bit of a shock.

With the fuel in the tank and the guy rocking the jeep in an attempt to get it into the system, I turned the engine over a few times. It started once and stalled, then started again, and this time kept ticking over. I thanked him and headed off, in search of the petrol station. I knew where it was from our previous trip but as I came around the corner I could only see a building site and had a slight panic that it had been demolished since we were last here. Luckily I was wrong and the next site over was the petrol station.

With a bit more of a significant amount of fuel in the tank I headed back to the hotel. On arrival Lou was starting to wonder where I had gotten to, as I had been significantly longer than either of us expected.

With that done and a car in the driveway we decided to head to the beach as Lou hadn’t seen the sea yet and I had only glimpsed it in passing on the drive in only a few minutes earlier.

Kuta beach is not the Bali of postcards; the sand isn’t white, and it isn’t really idyllic. It is full of people, and a fair bit of rubbish. The water isn’t green it’s a brown colour and at this particular time the sky wasn’t blue, more a murky grey as the clouds in the sky were threatening rain.

Dinner was in a bar on the main strip in Kuta, and was not very inspiring. We headed back fairly early as we were both tired from the poor sleep the night before and the significant walk.

It hadn’t been the most successful of days, and Lou was feeling pretty bad still but these things happen -tomorrow would be another day, and hopefully Bali would start to come good.

9th December 2010

I awoke at a ridiculous hour, 5:50am and after going to the toilet, couldn’t get back to sleep. So I decided to make the most of the morning light and try to find the place we were planning on going to to do a yoga class this morning at 8:30am. Traffic in Kuta is appalling, mainly due to the bad roads and poor one way system so, heading out at this early hour was also much more pleasant as the traffic was non-existent.

The day before, I had located an address for this place and also done my best to memorise the map on the website. After a few wrong turns, I did eventually find the place, and was glad that I had come out early as they no longer held classes. Another place off the list - this isn’t going well.

I headed back to the hotel and the alarm was just going off to wake Lou.

We changed our plan and so were going to head to another studio, and just hoped that we could find it in time for the class and that it was still going strong. Anyway, whilst Lou hopped in the shower, I jotted down the map from the website that we had deliberately left open on the computer as we didn’t have any internet connection.

We set off and, amazingly, the badly drawn map worked and we arrived in time to take a class. The first thing that had really gone right in a few days.

We both came away having enjoyed it but accepting that it was a very different class to some of the previous ones we had had. We also had both sweated - taking a strenuous class in an outdoor environment in high humidity and heat will do that. (At least that is what I’m sticking to, it clearly has nothing to do with my fitness levels.)

We returned to the hotel to pack up and check out, and then head inland to Ubud. Having got everything in the car, we headed out on our journey.

It soon became apparent that, one simple rule to driving in Bali we had forgotten since we were last here. Whatever you do, don’t go to Denpasar! It has a one way system with no signs that take you around in circles and leave you totally confused.

About an hour later, we found ourselves finally outside the big city and on the right road. We were heading in the right direction when a smiley chap on a moped started to talk to us at the lights. As he didn’t appear to be selling anything, we actually spoke to him. He asked us where we were going and we told him, and he gave us a bit of advice about the direction. Anyway we carried on and turned off the road a little further along, in what we thought was the right direction, suddenly the guy from the lights was there waving at us telling us we had gone in the wrong direction. We hadn’t even realised that he was still there, but he was very friendly and so when he told us to follow him and he would show us the way, we decided we could see how it goes.

We followed him and weren’t surprised when he pulled into a place where his family, all of whom were painters, had a studio space, just outside Ubud. We parked the car, and wandered around the place looking at the plethora of paintings, some of which were actually OK, before leaving and continuing on the remains of the journey.

We arrived in Ubud, the cultural capital of Bali, where there was at least two or three Yoga places, so thought we would drive about for a while getting our bearings, and find these places.

So we drove, and drove, and drove. An hour later we hadn’t seen a single place to do yoga, and we weren’t exactly inundated with places to stay either. We had driven around the place twice and were struggling to find anywhere to base ourselves. We pulled in and started to explore on foot, something we weren’t to keen on given that all the stuff we had in the car was clearly on show, but we didn’t have any choice, especially as many places are down little alleys that are only accessible on foot.

We checked out a few places and things were either very expensive or not really what we were after (dirty or smelly or lacking aircon etc) So we decided to pause for lunch, which was some of the first food of the day. After a couple of mouthfuls I realised quite how hungry I was and the food disappeared in a pretty short time.

We got back in the car and did another circuit taking a few different side roads. Whilst I went into a posh looking hotel, Lou managed to use their internet sat in the car to pull up a map of one of the Yoga places we had been looking for.

We moved on and found this place, before heading to another café for a drink and more web surfing. Time was getting on and we hadn’t found a bed for the night, so we finally made the decision to head back to Kuta, to something we knew.

We headed to a hotel that I had stayed in for quite a while with the boys last time we were here. It wasn’t in as good shape as I remembered and the prices for rooms with aircon were quite steep (I remembered aircon being standard)

We had a swift dinner and headed to bed tired from a long day of driving around. Lou had fallen asleep and I was nearly there, when the aircon unit decided that it would start dripping water on the floor. The drips turned into a flood and I had no choice but to turn the thing off. Knowing that I would be woken in the night as the room heated up, and also the price that we were paying purely for the benefit of having aircon, I pulled on a pair of shorts and headed to reception to ask for a fan.

The security guard didn’t really speak English, but another guy there did, and he explained that they didn’t have a fan. I told them that we didn’t want to move room at that time of night, in the dark, and with Lou asleep in bed, so I explained that I wasn’t prepared to pay the price for the room and he agreed.

I headed back to bed, and ten minutes later there is a knock on the door. Slightly angrily I got up and opened the door to find one of the staff there with a fan. He explained that the rotation didn’t work, I didn’t really care and just wanted him to go so said OK and got rid of him. I plugged in the fan and not only did the rotation not work, but it only had two working speeds, off and full blast. I opted for full blast, tried not to aim too much at Lou who gets much colder than I do and finally settled in to sleep.

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