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Published: July 28th 2008
Let's Just Be Blunt
... moto driver on Kuta Beach ... or at least that's what we told people.
It started out as an experient with Kai and Danielle (our Dutch/German friends from Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam) telling us that it's bad mojo to tell locals you're from North America or Europe (because then poof! prices triple just like magic!), so they started telling people they were from the first, most random country they could think of. We tried it a few times ... "We're Mexican", "We live in Bora Bora", "My mom is from Sudan, but my dad is from Antarctica, I was born in Guyana, but am living in Chad" ... and really did start to notice a difference! Not only do the dollar signs disappear from their eyes ("Chad? Huh? You rich in Chad?"), but then we'd almost always be spared the "Oooh, yes! Good country! My cousin's brother's uncle's friend's dad lives there! Now, you buy from me????". Then they asked if we're on our honeymoon, and well ... we discovered some perks that went along with that (discounts!) and it just kinda grew from there. So there you have it. We're officially dishonest people (from Zimbabwe). :P
Anyways ... Bali!!! What an awesome island!
Surfing 101
... "you want me to do what?!?" We spent just under three weeks there ... doing absolutelly nothing! Cheap and dodgy accomodation is abundant in Bali, but we had met up with Kai and Danielle again and they were living in hotel paradise (it had a pristine pool as opposed to a glorified bath tub), was close to the beach, had DVD players (pirated movies are everywhere, for a dollar!) and included free breakfast, so we moved right in!
Wish we had something amazing to say, like that we climbed volcanoes or wrestled sharks with our bare hands or attended the "once every 5 years mass cremation" in Ubud (actually we did want to do that one, but the authorities close the roads in and out of the city and accomodation was impossible to find) ... but uh, we spent the 3 weeks doing nothing! Big Fat Glorious Nothing! We slept alot, swam alot, layed on the beach alot, learned to surf (much harder than it looks!), took up body boarding (the little man's version of surfing), drank some, ate alot (mmmm, chicken satay!!!), caught up on every major movie we missed this year (apparentlly we missed alot!) and hung out with our buddies! Bali is
like the Australian's Mexico (you know how EVERYONE in North American goes to Mexico???). It was great! The island has a very laid back and free lovin' atmosphere ... very much what we were needing after Pekanbaru!
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