More of Bali

Wednesday, June 20, 2007--Legian, Bali

Last night I had a whole snapper at the same restaurant where I ate lunch. It was cooked over charcoal and served with salad and French fries. It was delicious. The meal was a bit spoiled, however, by the guys at the next table. They were drunk and making crude remarks to passing girls and couples while thinking they were being so cute. For instance, they said, "Come here and be with us. He's too ugly for you."

Today there were light showers off and on. I spent most of the morning in my room reading, doing laundry, having hot tea, etc. They bring a thermos of hot water early every morning along with a jar of sugar and a jar with tea bags and place it on the table outside. It's nice to sit there and read and drink tea.

I bought my bus ticket to go to Ubud tomorrow. Then I went to the beach for 1 1/2 hours. I eventually was at the far end of the beach where there are many local people. I was watching a group of young people when one of them approached me and started talking. After half an hour, I had a huge group of them talking to me and taking photos. They were high school students from Bandung in Java who had come here for a week of school holiday vacation--5 bus loads of them. They were nice kids and it was fun to visit with them.

In the evening, I ate muslim food at a local restaurant far from the tourist areas. I had seen it earlier. The woman was very nice and served me bits and pieces of several kinds of things. I had chicken in a dark, spicy sauce; chicken in a creamy sauce; rice; green beans, etc. It was a good meal and cheap.

On my way back to my room I stopped at the monument to the Bali bombings in 2002. Many people from 22 different countries were killed in the blast at a night club. The site is now a monument listing the names of the dead by country.

Thursday, June 21, 2007--Legian to Ubud

I met Fahmy at the bus station this morning. We were both going to Ubud and began visiting. He's a muslim of Indian descent who was born in Singapore and is the chief of a fire station on Bintang Island, a privately developed resort island near Singapore but in Indonesia. He had come here alone also. By the time we got to Ubud we were friends and decided to find a place to stay together and to spend our time together.

We are staying at a nice place out in the rice paddies. It's a picture-postcard kind of place with native decor and big picture windows looking out over the rice terraces. It's bright, clean, and has hot water. Furthermore, it includes breakfast. The owner is so friendly, and she is preparing us special native food for breakfast each morning at our request.

Tonight, we went to a dance performance at a temple. Our landlord was performing as one of the male singers. He took us in his car. We saw Kecak, a performance with many male singers and several costumed persons. Then we saw a dance of two virgin girls in a trance. And finally, we saw the Fire Dance where a man in a trance dances over glowing hot coals. It was a good performance and interesting to see. Afterwards, we went to a restaurant and ate some more native food. I wasn't too hungry, so I had four different small desserts made with ground coconut with various fillings and wrapped in banana leaves. I drank tea to go with them. Fahmy must have a furnace inside his body, because he ate a lot of food even though we had eaten a big lunch earlier!

Spending Update: I spent $1060.63 over 12 days in Alaska for an average of $88.36 per day. I spent $503.08 over 21 days in Taiwan for an average of $23.96 per day. Since leaving Texas, I have spent $1563.71 over 34 days (1 day was in flight and not in either Alaska or Taiwan) for an average of $45.99 per day.