Realisation of camera technology

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20th December 2010

Lou’s camera has, since she dropped it in Singapore, been slowly degrading. With the knowledge that parental Christmas presents would be money in the bank this year as we are away, we have been discussing purchasing a new camera to replace it.

With this in mind, coupled with the fact that we had failed dismally to get up this morning, mainly due to the huge thunder claps throughout the night that had kept us awake, we decided to head out for a spot of shopping/research.

From our last visit to Bali I had remembered that there was a relatively upmarket mall just South of Kuta in Tuban. So that was our destination, once we had suited ourselves up for the journey. The weather has taken a turn for the worse and it seems that the rain is set in here, as a result the rain jackets and even waterproof trousers came out for our trip.

6 miles is one of those distances that can be either really short or really long depending on how you are feeling and what circumstances it is under - I remember last year 6miles seemed nothing to run when I was fearing running 13.1 during the half marathon. Today the same distance seemed like an eternity on the moped in the rain. The busy traffic coupled with the spray, and the fact that, with a pillion passenger, you know you don’t stop as fast or pull away as quickly, means that you drive very differently. We got there eventually, despite taking a couple of wrong turns in the abysmal one way system, resorting eventually to driving like a local (read the wrong way up a one way street very slowly behind somebody else who was blazing a trail for us and sheltering us from the oncoming traffic), Pulling into the covered garage parking lot was a relief even though we had in the final stages started to dry out a little as the rain ceased.

We wandered through a few shops of various different products, with Lou stopping inevitably at the handbags (it is certainly a weakness of hers even whilst on travels). The more we browsed, the more we were starting to think that it would be just our Balinese luck that there would be every kind of shop here bar an electronics one so that we could look at cameras-the whole function of the trip.

Lou was just commenting to that effect, when I spotted on the top floor a place called electronic city, Bingo! However we had barely eaten and decided that the food court and lunch would be first on the list.

We browsed the various food vendors and eventually sat down to order, with Lou opting for Chicken Cordon Bleu (spelt correctly for once) and I went for a Chicken based oriental dish that I can’t remember the name of. Like most places here, the concept of serving people at the same table at the same time is completely foreign, and as such I had finished before Lou’s dish had arrived - she commented that at least it would be cooked though. A fact that I wasn’t going to rely on as the last two times I have ordered this dish in two separate places I have had to send it back because of raw chicken. It finally arrived and it was cooked,, to our relief, although I have to admit to being slightly annoyed that the dish gets cooked fine for her but not me.

Anyway after lunch we headed to the electronics shop. We started looking at the cameras, and as they actually had some out that you could handle and look through etc. Lou finally got a much better idea of what a DSLR is really all about - previously she hadn’t wanted one as she didn’t think she could cope with one. Now viewing one side by side with a “bridge camera” of almost the same price, size and weight but with no possibility of upgrading and also the knowledge that they do actually function in a fully automatic mode, her thinking finally changed to the idea that she may be able to handle one of these things after all (something I have been saying to her for a while).

With this new revelation (coupled with the fact that here in Bali some of the decent compact cameras are as much as a basic DSLR) she decided, quite rightly, that more research was now needed.

We checked out a couple of other shops before heading home, in the slightly drier conditions.

The rest of the day was spent on the internet researching cameras and the functionalities that she may want etc. Dull to write about but not so dull if you are seriously considering a purchase. On a trip like this you not only have to research what to buy but also where to buy it, so comparisons of Indonesian, Singaporean, Australian prices also figure into the mix, a slow process I can tell you.

21 December 2010

We awoke and went to our second “higher level” yoga class this morning. The style is different and I actually think it is easier for me than the other classes that we have been doing. There is more strength work involved, and I am really enjoying it. The teacher, Tara, is however going on her xmas holidays after this class, and so there will be another teacher taking over, I am hoping his style is similar as this class is the closest thing to what we experienced in Chiang Mai. I am starting to realise that we were either very spoiled or incredibly lucky in Chiang Mai to have found classes which so suited us - maybe that is why we got the bug for this thing perhaps, had we not struck gold there, we may not be doing this now?

Anyway, with class done we headed into the restaurant for a few cups of the free ginger tea. In there we got chatting to another couple who had done the class also, and had in fact done the really early morning meditation class prior to that. Anyway, the guy has a place here and during the course of our conversation he told us that there is actually a cinema here in Bali, and its not that far from us. This was news to us as we had thought that the plethora of illegally copied pirate DVDs for sale everywhere would mean that there couldn’t possibly be a market for a cinema, as it couldn’t survive the competition.

We headed home, feeling pleased with ourselves for managing the class so well, and also for the fact that it being an early 8:30am class meant that we had most of the day left to do stuff. the cinema was located at another even more upmarket mall that we thought may allow us even more opportunity to view cameras and also we could check out what was showing at the cinema. Just prior to setting out, I decided that the nylon chin strap on Lou's helment that was fraying at the ends needed to have the end melted to reseal it. In doing this a small piece of molten nylon dripped onto my finger, burning me. Throughout the day this would blister nicely.

We got to the mall, and I was soaked to the skin, but the advantage of boardshorts is they are designed to get wet, so soon dried out. Again we perused the shops on offer and again we were surprised by the lack of electronics shops available, only a couple in a very big place. We found the cinema, and it was showing a film I have been keen to see, TRON Legacy, so that was a no brainer. Tickets at a pound also mean it is a cheap passtime here, as in the rest of Asia .

After the film was finished, we decided it was about time to grab some food and had a pizza, in the Pizza Hut in the mall, before heading back out into the damp, and back on the bike. We headed back to the mall from the previous day, as the cameras we had seen we couldn’t remember the price and we wanted to check that crucial bit of info out. The staff were really helpful and we even got to take a few pictures with the camera with our own memory card in it. Not that they are of anything worth sharing mind you.

Anyway we headed home in the fading light to get back home for yet more research. Two days that were very out of character for this place but fun nevertheless.

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Photos

Santa's Grotto
Balinese style